Talk:Suzanne Simard

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 11 January 2021 and 7 April 2021. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): SophieN20.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 03:58, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Peer-reviewed evidence?

This all looks suspiciously like New Age bollocks. I don't see any references to peer-reviewed literature. Is there any, and are Simard's views generally accepted in relevant scientific communities?109.149.91.165 (talk) 11:08, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

There is an abundance of peer-reviewed work. The key starting point is the Nature article (and cover story, The wood-wide web) from 1997, which is referenced in the article. The essence of what she has shown through her rigorous studies is that the concept that life is a zero-sum game in which each individual is in competition with all others, and that this is the dominant mode of interaction, which was the default hypothesis in biology for a long time, is false, at least in all the cases she and her colleagues have examined. In sum, it ain't bollocks. Rather than belabor the point, I suggest you consult her 2021 book, Finding The Mother Tree, which tells the story of her evolving theories in clear terms and provides about 20 pages of small-type references for those interested. As far as general acceptance goes, I believe that revolutions in fundamental paradigms often take a generation to be fully accepted, but I would not bet against this one succeeding. AJim (talk) 04:09, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

A recent review has disputed some of Suzanne's claims and could be worth mentioning in this article.

News articles (e.g. this CBC article) have also summarized some of Suzanne's responses to this criticism. Uninspired Username (talk) 17:02, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

Popular culture references

Would she have also been referenced in James Camerons Avatar when Grace Augustine and Norm spellman are measuring signal transduction between plants and collecting samples at the beginning of the film? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.38.187.2 (talk) 03:02, 29 August 2020 (UTC)

Is it appropriate to update the article content assessment ratings?

I think the article at this point is more than a stub. I also think that Simard has proven more relevant to Ecology that "low" importance. Her current influence also seems to me to merit a higher rating than "low" as a scientist. Are there others who agree? If so, how do we go about changing the ratings? Are there any who strongly oppose a change? If so, why? AJim (talk) 18:01, 21 June 2025 (UTC)

I agree, and will review same. I'm familiar with both her work and the importance ratings. Pete Tillman (talk) 17:07, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

Paywalled external links?

I went to view the SciAm article linked & found it was paywalled. Which seems to defeat the purpose of a public link. What's the policy on this? Does anyone here have free access to SciAm through the Wiki Library? Thanks in advance, Pete Tillman (talk) 17:10, 15 March 2026 (UTC)