India, Aug. 29 -- Is there a child today who has not been told the story of Newton sitting under an apple tree and the discovery of gravity? The story is entrenched in the folklore of science. In The Man Who Made Plants Write, Sumana Roy introduces the reader to another such story that deserves to be told just as much to every science student.

Roy tells us another story from science folklore: Jagadish Chandra Bose once stepped on a 'touch-me-not' (Mimosa pudica) plant. He immediately noticed the folding of its leaves and wondered how and why that response happened. The touch-me-not was his apple -- the impetus that led him to study plant responses and ways of communication!

Roy's masterful translation of Jagadish Chandra Bose's Abyakta,...