[HN Gopher] Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne a...
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Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative
Author : ecosystem
Score : 140 points
Date : 2023-04-01 01:39 UTC (21 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cell.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cell.com)
| willcipriano wrote:
| We know basically nothing about the world around us.
| camgunz wrote:
| So true, this has become one of my mantras.
| ungamedplayer wrote:
| How do you mentally frame it. Like "ignorance is acceptable"
| or "we are limited beings"
|
| I think as long as we are within the realm of reality, no
| single person or species can know everything so we need to
| accept contextual knowledge will be out limitation.
|
| I often wonder to what level will we need to know someone to
| be able to satisfy abstract statements.
| klyrs wrote:
| you'll never run out of amazing things to learn
| camgunz wrote:
| Mostly that life is wondrous and infinite, and if you're
| miserable or angry there's probably something you can learn
| to help with it, and this probably also works on a species
| level too.
|
| It can also give perspective. "Argh my coworker reformatted
| all my multiline list comprehensions" can become "what if
| reincarnation is real but it works in reverse with humanity
| somewhere near the bottom and bees somewhere near the top".
| Etc.
| mejutoco wrote:
| I recommend Overstory for a nice Pulitzer-winning books about how
| plants are similar to us but on a longer timeframe. It is full of
| beautiful stories too.
| maartn wrote:
| This must be april fools???
| moffkalast wrote:
| Idk, does someone have a plant, some scissors, and a 60khz
| capable microphone on hand to confirm? This is a matter of
| utmost urgency!
| Pigalowda wrote:
| It's not quite clear yet how the plants make these sounds, but
| the scientists suspect it is a passive process linked to
| cavitation. This is when plants that are stressed pop air bubbles
| in their circulation system causing vibrations in the plant.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| A situation the plants evolve specifically to avoid and signal
| to every other organism in ear shot that the culling is coming
|
| Isn't that enough?
|
| My body bloats in a passive process after it stops functioning,
| I avoid that
| quonn wrote:
| > Isn't that enough?
|
| No, that is not enough.
| qbrass wrote:
| While your body would also make noises if someone cut your
| head off, it's not a process your body evolved to signal
| everything around it to run.
| yieldcrv wrote:
| Its what would happen anyway because its a precursor to
| more undermining of self-preservation
| schwartzworld wrote:
| Maybe if the article said other plants could hear or react to
| the screams. What good would such a warning do for plants who
| cannot flee or fight back?
| yieldcrv wrote:
| That article didn't, there are others that suggest there
| are signals to stressors that nearby plants react to.
|
| Even so, I can't fly away from a tiger or bear. That
| analogy coupled with seeing that everything that can move,
| tries to move, makes me think plants would if they could.
| Sea anemones are very rudimentary and blind systems, and
| even they uproot themselves and "swim" away in the
| sloppiest way imaginable when a starfish is detected.
| Plenty of plants were able to select for defense mechanisms
| before reproduction. I think all would given the option.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| You can't fly away from a tiger or a bear, but a human
| screaming as they are eaten by that one night inspire you
| to run or hide from something you see as a predator. Your
| feet are not literally rooted in the ground. Also you
| have ears capable of hearing the noise created by another
| human.
| ecosystem wrote:
| Sounds tuned to human range:
| https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/979177
| withinboredom wrote:
| Vegans aren't going to have anything to eat now... /s
|
| In all seriousness, this is wild.
| [deleted]
| arcanemachiner wrote:
| [flagged]
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I don't think we're all that murderous at all unless we're
| subjected to acute, severe stresses and/or maladaptive
| processes (usually early in life). I genuinely care about the
| well being of other living things and would hate to be in a
| position where I felt murder was necessary. I know I'm not
| alone.
|
| Seeing how war affects soldiers, I suspect the experience of
| killing and witnessing death is typically very traumatic to
| humans. It appears that animal processing facilities also
| inflict trauma on many workers, so it isn't only killing
| humans that can harm us.
|
| We're very good at killing, but I don't think we innately
| like it or tend towards it outside of procuring food. Even
| then, not all of us eat animals.
|
| Look at the lengths we go to hide death and murder when we do
| it. From war to agricultural systems, we go to great lengths
| to pretend it's something it's not so we can stomach what
| we're doing or buying into. The closer we get to the
| individuals effected, the more reprehensible I think we tend
| to find it.
|
| If we were truly murderous I suspect we wouldn't behave in
| that way. I could be wrong -- I'm very biased.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| I think our current culture is biased to feel weird about
| killing. Historically, killing was often a form of
| entertainment for the public, and a matter of course for
| getting the nutrients for life.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| In the past people weren't able to voice their concerns
| and demand better things. Violence as entertainment was
| used as a tool by the ruling classes as a way to enforce
| their power.
|
| The effects of the trauma of violence are clear and well
| studied. Just because something happened in the past
| doesn't mean we can assume it had true support from the
| people who had no choice.
|
| Maybe people in the future will say that the people today
| found it entertaining to pollute the world, while we know
| many of us find it upsetting and wish in vain for
| alternatives against the strong tide of the power system
| in place.
|
| Another thing to consider is the old taboo around left
| handedness. As the taboo lifted the actually recorded
| rate of left handedness increased dramatically! Turns out
| social systems can lead to people acting in ways that are
| personally uncomfortable for them rather than going
| against the tide.
| arcanemachiner wrote:
| This sounds like the response of someone steeped in
| modern culture, safe from the influence of having to kill
| things as part of day-to-day life.
|
| What is missing from the discussion is likely (if I'm not
| projecting too much here... I feel this way about myself
| as well) that you have a relatively detached relationship
| from death compared to people in times past and are
| disconnected from the experience of what it is actually
| like to be steeped in such experience.
|
| I have no idea what it would be like to live in such a
| life, but to assume it's inherently bad is a prejudiced
| outlook based only on your own limited experience. If you
| were raised watching public executions every week, you
| might be singing a different tune, and casting doubt in
| the opposite direction.
| AlecSchueler wrote:
| I'm not claiming that the opposite from the original
| claim was the truth, I'm doing the same as you and saying
| be careful not to project your current feelings onto a
| past that we can never truly know.
|
| No one can say the people of the past felt one way or
| not, that's my main point. The other point I'm adding on
| is that people are inherently varied in their mindsets
| and it's only very recently in history we've had such an
| equal opportunity to share our feelings and hope to have
| them heard.
|
| I would add one thing as well: In many societies there's
| been a great reverence given to animals and their
| slaughter ritualized or governed by cultural rules. To me
| this suggests at the very least that people have always
| had some sense of the gravity of their actions and felt a
| need to make sense of and tame their feelings by
| externalizing or controlling them.
| withinboredom wrote:
| Without modern agriculture + nutrition, I don't think you
| could survive without eating meat (if I'm wrong, feel free
| to ignore the rest of this). That means you have to murder
| an animal to live and don't really get a choice in the
| matter. This why we are inherently murderous. Sure, these
| days we pay other people to do it, but when you pick up a
| burger; that cow was murdered -- hopefully humanly.
| olyjohn wrote:
| Hmm. I don't agree that all killing is murder.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| this is the sub-conscious contra-positive of the news that many
| intelligent red meat eaters know and do not want to hear "You"
| group-not-me "must" getting-orders-or-else "eat" what is on
| everyone's mind most of the waking hours of life "now" no
| choices
|
| Vegans are a portion of a percent of the human population,
| maybe a bit more around YNews.. meanwhile how many red meat
| eaters out there? reading now?
| akomtu wrote:
| What's wild about it? Plants shrink when drying up and that
| collapses tiny cavities in their stems. It's only surprising
| that this sound can be detected so easily.
| Euphorbium wrote:
| If you camp in spring near fast growing grasses or bushes,
| you can clearly hear them grow.
| krisoft wrote:
| How do you know what you are hearing is them "growing"
| instead of wind rustling them or insects moving around?
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| In my experience they have been distinct sounds of
| pressure and movement between plant fibres, in ways that
| the wind or insects wouldn't or couldn't cause in that
| setting.
|
| If you lay still on a warm, quiet, still day in spring in
| a field or meadow, you might hear a lot of sounds you
| otherwise haven't and wouldn't expect. There's a lot of
| activity. Sometimes plants will let some leaves or blades
| free after a seed husk finally breaks under their weight.
| It's just gravity and pressure at work, but you'll hear
| these things frequently.
|
| This sort of thing reminds me of learning to find
| mushrooms. I had no idea mushrooms are everywhere until I
| started looking. They occupy all kinds of spaces in
| various seasons, dependent on a rain, a species of tree,
| or a sudden warmth after a cool period. Once you see
| them, they're everywhere.
|
| Similarly, plants and their myriad processes kind of jump
| out at you once you observe them closely. Before then
| they may seem relatively inert.
| pessimizer wrote:
| It's not a guess. It's simply a fact that you can hear
| some fast-growing plants growing. No need to personally
| investigate unless you want to.
|
| Rhubarb: https://soundcloud.com/rhubarb-rhubarb-
| rhubarb/a-mass-of-pop...
|
| Bamboo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HkhBxBZELk
|
| Corn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76xEkEXI2a4
| mcswell wrote:
| Maybe you can hear paint dry, too.
| twothamendment wrote:
| I've heard the buds on the end of a branch busting their
| way out of the dryer outer layer. It was calm. At first I
| thought bugs, but finally realized what it was. It was much
| harder to hear than beetles boring their way into a tree.
| steponlego wrote:
| A pig's squeals when it's slaughtered is merely air passing
| through the constricted trachea.
| steponlego wrote:
| Vegans are going to have to re-evaluate their life choices. It
| might be much more cruel to harvest a field of soybeans than it
| is to kill a cow.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Cavitation in a plant doesn't mean it's having a subjective
| experience much less one that I should care about more than,
| say, the experience of a dog being stepped on.
| debesyla wrote:
| 1) Veganism isn't solely about cruelty;
|
| 2) I find your debate that "structure/texture changing plant
| matter making sounds is the same as animal matter/brain
| feeling"... interesting.
| steponlego wrote:
| It's now well understood that plants communicate and can even
| have moods. Even algae. This wasn't even news decades ago.
| Ekaros wrote:
| Does this throw out the whole moral panic about animal welfare?
| If plants suffer too, isn't it wrong to eat them as well? Or
| there should be real focus in humane treatment and harvesting
| them?
| PretzelPirate wrote:
| > Does this throw out the whole moral panic about animal
| welfare?
|
| Whether or not plants suffer has no bearing on whether we
| should cause animals to suffer. Animal agriculture requires the
| use of more plants as animal feed than eating plants directly,
| so even if plants feel pain, we'd cause less harm by eating
| them than eating animals.
|
| > If plants suffer too, isn't it wrong to eat them as well?
|
| This says nothing about plant sentience and whether or not they
| suffer. You shouldn't conclude that plants suffer simply
| because cutting their leaves results in a sound. We know
| animals are sentient, we don't have currently beleive that
| plants are.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| > _panic_
|
| None of those concerns are new. Jainism is at least three
| millennia old.
| pfannkuchen wrote:
| It is much newer in many parts of the world.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| Moral conclusions I don't agree with are panics.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| I refuse to believe this isn't a troll comment.
| doubled112 wrote:
| Now we have to live like The Giving Tree was a documentary?
|
| Is this going to drive my food prices even higher?
| costco wrote:
| Interestingly L. Ron Hubbard was laughed at for saying tomatoes
| scream when
| [sliced](https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2012/06/16/meet-your-
| veget...). I don't know enough about this to know how important
| it is or whether it's actually some kind of signalling.
| scooperx wrote:
| "Scream" is a sensationalist word, it anthromorphizes plants. You
| might as well say you can hear them sing Chop Suey's lyrics when
| they get cut down: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit
| Father, into your hands Why have you forsaken me? In your eyes
| forsaken me In your thoughts forsaken me In your heart forsaken
| me, oh
| aix1 wrote:
| The story behind those lyrics:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P__qjVB9Tc
| crazygringo wrote:
| The start of the article is hilariously contradictory:
|
| > _They may be filling your house with deafening clicks..._
|
| > _These noises are at about the volume of a normal human
| conversation..._
| mdp2021 wrote:
| The joke there is that for living entities as apparently
| quiet as plants human conversation level noise may seem a
| fracas.
|
| Rephrased: "for the standards of a plant as we may have
| imagined it, those noises may seem deafening".
| petesergeant wrote:
| Interestingly enough, The Economist's April Fools joke is not
| dissimilar to this: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gene-editing-
| created-generati...
| AtomicOrbital wrote:
| Implication is that they can also listen to such screaming
| badrabbit wrote:
| Didn't the founder of scientology claim plants scream when they
| are in pain and even "invented" a machine to measure their pain?
| I wonder how they interpret this finding.
| leobg wrote:
| So where is the device that I can buy and put next to my house
| plants so I'll hear when they are thirsty?
| yoavm wrote:
| They said you can use a simple $200 bat detector to record
| these sounds.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| Just probe for soil moisture if you are serious
| DoreenMichele wrote:
| I've been saying this for years.
|
| Should probably be merged with this:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35396901
|
| Different links, but basically the same thing.
| afarviral wrote:
| My very unscientific take is the noises are the result of a
| mundane mechanical process that is a consequence of the plant not
| having enough water or loss of water due to cutting, which leads
| to some cavitation bubbles forming. So it may only be as
| interesting as saying that your water starts "screaming" when it
| is being boiled.
| hackerlight wrote:
| Makes sense, it's hard to see see an evolutionary purpose to
| this.
| mdp2021 wrote:
| > _This might be very helpful for agriculture. For instance,
| tomato plants emit sounds of stress before they started
| looking dehydrated_
|
| We can now process it, so, as _proactive evolution_ , it
| worked.
|
| Before that,
|
| > _We know that certain animals are capable of hearing these
| sounds ... We still need to understand who is using this
| sound, what role does it play in the world, but it suggests
| many many possibilities // It's also possible plants
| themselves could react to these sounds, Hadany said. The same
| team found in a paper published in 2019 that plants can
| respond to the sounds of pollinators like bees. "They respond
| within three minutes by making sweeter nectar"_
| bmitc wrote:
| You could also describe a human having an appendage chopped off
| in the same "mundane" mechanical way: loss of fluids,
| mechanical damage to nerves sending electrical pulses, etc. To
| some external observer, it's "just" a purely physical process.
| I'm not sure it's a useful description or perspective.
|
| The point here is that although _maybe_ the mechanism here is
| just a mechanical process (although, what isn 't?), the
| important thing are the responses to this, by the plant, other
| plants, and other organisms. Boiling water isn't going to take
| some action based upon it boiling nor are other organisms.
| eckza wrote:
| When you cut off a human's appendage, the screaming comes
| from a voice. The voice comes from a sort of...
| consciousness. Which while we haven't exactly nailed down
| what makes one up, we are reasonably certain that it involves
| a _nervous system_.
| bmitc wrote:
| Plants communicate distress using their own kind of nervous
| system: Model mustard plant uses the same signals as
| animals to relay distress
|
| https://www.science.org/content/article/plants-
| communicate-d...
| stuaxo wrote:
| Would love the new age types to get onto the idea that water
| screams.
| no_wizard wrote:
| There's already a bunch of new age types getting into the
| idea that water holds "emotional" values. IE, they claim that
| if you scream and have negative conversations at a glass of
| water, you can analyze the water and see changes to it that
| are negative, and doing the inverse (happy, positive
| conversations) makes the water "happier" and has positive
| changes.
|
| I remember hearing this at a seminar of new age things (I was
| doing an investigative thing at the time, which is why I was
| there)
|
| So they already are!
| kilianinbox wrote:
| The intriguing sound produced by my guitar can be quite
| revealing, particularly when it's out of tune. All physical
| objects have a resonant characteristic that conveys information.
| When an object, such as a sphere, undergoes a transformation, its
| resonance changes as well. Additionally, in systems with flowing
| components, specific flow rates can yield a wide range of
| patterns. Some might be chaotic, while others, like those arising
| from DNA replication, result in recognizable and recurring
| patterns.
|
| To delve deeper into this idea, ponder the question, "Can AI
| bridge the gap between human consciousness and that of other
| animals, like whales?" Investigating the inherent intelligence
| within these patterns can provide us with valuable insights.
|
| As we embark on an era where humanity sets an example for our
| behavior towards less powerful beings, it's crucial to
| acknowledge that artificial general intelligence (AGI) might
| replicate our actions. The time has come for us to establish a
| benchmark and pave the way for a more ethical and harmonious
| world.
|
| Additionally, many have heard of animals that feast on fallen
| fruit. Embracing a similar approach could prove beneficial for
| humans before we contemplate altering our DNA to incorporate
| photosynthesis in the quest for ideal ethics. So, let's keep an
| open mind and explore the possibilities! ;)
| dang wrote:
| There's also https://www.businessinsider.com/plants-shriek-with-
| high-pitc...
|
| (via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35396901, but we merged
| that thread hither)
| todd8 wrote:
| How about this claim: pieces of string when stressed emit sounds
| that are picked up by nearby strings. Should be investigate this
| claim? What does it mean that the world of string acts this way.
|
| For those that haven't witnessed it, I will describe a very
| easily constructed experiment to demonstrate this phenomena that
| I have discovered: first stretch a string tightly and then
| quickly flick it with your finger, stressing it even more. If you
| listen, you will hears a sound emitted by the stressed string
| that gradually dies off as the string recovers. Nearby strings
| will start vibrating in sympathy (if they are tuned properly).
| Could one string be communicating with the other strings?
|
| Common objects may be used to make the experiment easier to
| perform: banjos, guitars, violins, etc.
| JUNGLEISMASSIVE wrote:
| [dead]
| manmal wrote:
| Do you mean resonance?
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_resonance
| mcswell wrote:
| I am astounded that no one has mentioned "The Sound Machine" by
| Roald Dahl (1949), in which a scientist invents a machine that
| makes ultrasonic sounds audible to humans. He discovers that
| plants scream when cut. You can read it at
| https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1949/09/17/the-sound-mach...
| pengaru wrote:
| > And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the
| soil. > One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear.
| And terror possessed me then > And I begged, "Angel of the
| Lord, what are these tortured screams?" > And the angel
| said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of
| the carrots! > You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is
| harvest day and to them it is the holocaust."
| _Microft wrote:
| Google says that this is part of the lyrics of "
| _Disgustipated_ " by Tool.
| svara wrote:
| Informative here meaning that you can deduce something about a
| plant's condition from faint sounds emitted by it. It's not
| implying that the plants use those sounds for the purpose of
| transmitting information. From the article:
|
| "These results demonstrate the potential in studying plant
| bioacoustics, suggest that plant acoustic emissions may play an
| important role in ecology and evolution, and may have direct
| implications for plant monitoring in agriculture"
|
| To me even the "suggests..." part is wild overselling. IMO this
| should have been in such a high impact journal only if they had
| actually succeeded in demonstrating the ecological relevance, by
| showing that the sounds are _detected_ and acted upon by other
| organisms.
| calibas wrote:
| They're saying it's in the realm of possibilities, plants *may*
| be communicating via sound, and this is in the context of a
| study that shows plants are making noises that can be used to
| convey information.
|
| They're saying it merits further investigation, not presenting
| it as a hard fact. To claim that's "wild overselling" and that
| it doesn't belong in a "high impact" journal is wildly
| underselling the study. They make sure to use the word "may" in
| everything they suggest that's not directly backed up by the
| study.
| erie wrote:
| [flagged]
| nequo wrote:
| The article is about ultrasonic sounds though. And the
| stresses they describe were not that they tapped on them.
| meepmorp wrote:
| This is great, thanks for the summary!
| sarusso wrote:
| But you could use ultrasound sensors to monitor plants in
| agricolture... maybe this is why it got published in such a
| high impact factor journal.
| canadiantim wrote:
| If the signal is being sent, you can be pretty sure that due to
| the intrinsic efficiency-maximization that biological systems
| perform then most likely the mechanism for detecting and acting
| upon it has been evolved by other organisms, especially for
| something as fitness-critical as stress.
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| I like that line of thinking. But I still fail at giving a
| good explanation of that concept. Maybe it's intuitive for me
| due to having learned about cellular automata during my
| youth. I know I'm entering esoteric and new age territory but
| something tells me this can even be applied to phenomena like
| quantum entanglement. My idea is that if there is an
| information receivable and possibly even emittable by a
| biological system then that system will through evolutionary
| pressure begin to incorporate this transmission in a way that
| improves fitness. Telepathy maybe even. That's also why I
| don't "believe" anymore in this compartmentalization of the
| human body into separate organs. Tissue can isolate an organ
| to some extent but even then there will be hormonal or
| mechanic exchange. Example would be relevance of belly
| breathing for intestinal function. At the extreme we reach
| this sense of connectedness between all or most or some
| living beings. It just appears to me that this would make
| sense.
| Consultant32452 wrote:
| The rule of thumb in evolutionary biology is if it has a
| cost and lasts through evolutionary time, it is beneficial.
| Because otherwise a similar organism that doesn't waste
| that time/energy on the useless thing/behavior will
| outcompete. Here's some odd and obvious examples.
|
| Religion has a cost (lots of resources and time are spent
| on them) and they have lasted through time, therefore it is
| evolutionarily beneficial.
|
| A small percentage of the population is psychopaths, this
| has an obvious cost to communities, but the pattern has
| lasted through time, therefore has a benefit. Likely it's
| for war/fighting/hunting.
|
| Growing light sensitive cells has a cost in energy and
| materials, and has lasted through time, therefore it must
| have a benefit (sight).
|
| This strongly suggests that SOMETHING is listening to that
| plant make noise and it either directly or indirectly
| benefits the plant.
| LegitShady wrote:
| I'm not sure why you can assume that without any direct
| evidence.
| anonymouskimmer wrote:
| It's known that plants respond to chemical cues sent by
| another plant that has just been eaten or lawnmowed.
|
| From this article:
|
| > Recently, plants were also demonstrated to respond to
| sounds,13,28,29,30 e.g., by changing the expression of
| specific genes,29,30 or by increasing sugar concentration
| in their nectar.31
|
| So there is enough _indirect_ evidence for hypothesis
| formation.
|
| The sound emission frequencies are also within the hearing
| ranges of various animals, some of which are herbivores,
| and some of which eat herbivores. It would be to their
| benefit to decode the meaning of plant sounds.
| setr wrote:
| Like the xkcd about emacs control key spiking cpu[0], I
| think its a generally safe assumption that if a behavior
| exists consistently, then somebody likely depends on it for
| their workflow
|
| [0] https://xkcd.com/1172/
| haswell wrote:
| Life is an infinite unfolding of undefinably rich and
| interconnected phenomena, and we only have labels for a
| small subset of phenomena.
|
| As a thought experiment, reverse the question: how could we
| assume that there _aren't_ interconnected phenomena after
| discovering evidence that this phenomena exists?
|
| Even if we never discover what those interconnections are
| or establish labels for them,
| interconnection/interdependence is the continuing unfolding
| of everything, and so I tend to think a more helpful
| default is to wonder _what_ those interactions are instead
| of _if_ they exist.
|
| At a minimum, Newton's 3rd law applies, and however subtle
| the effects, they are almost certainly there. Where or not
| they're particularly interesting to us or "useful" to human
| inquiry is another question entirely.
| pessimizer wrote:
| > As a thought experiment, reverse the question: how
| could we assume that there aren't interconnected
| phenomena after discovering evidence that this phenomena
| exists?
|
| The opposite of assuming a thing without direct evidence
| isn't to assume the negation of that thing without direct
| evidence. They're two examples of the same mistake.
| haswell wrote:
| That's not quite what I'm getting at here. I'm not
| claiming that something _specific_ exists without
| evidence, or making any claims about some particular
| phenomena that I believe exists and must do <x>.
|
| Rather I'm pointing out that the existence of this
| phenomena _is_ a form of evidence that opens the door to
| interrelated phenomena. And based on our understanding of
| the laws of nature, we can be certain that there is at
| minimum, some interrelation. Whether that interrelation
| is interesting or worth labeling as some unique phenomena
| to humans is what cannot be determined without further
| discovery /evidence.
|
| I'd agree with your comment if the described phenomena
| itself was just speculation, but that's not the case
| here.
| q7xvh97o2pDhNrh wrote:
| It's a nice thought. But many _humans_ aren 't able to do
| that with each other, so it seems like a high bar for a
| potato.
| JumpCrisscross wrote:
| > _many humans aren 't able to do that with each other_
|
| Many doesn't disprove that some do. And it need not be
| plants; if symbiotic insects pick up on the cue, that's
| still interesting.
| passterby wrote:
| potatos have more genes that you
| tpoacher wrote:
| You reminded me one of my favourite quotes:
|
| "There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of
| the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists"
|
| ~ Quote by a forest ranger at Yosemite National Park, on
| why it is hard to design the perfect garbage bin to keep
| bears from breaking into it.
| alwaysbeconsing wrote:
| Not entirely. Efficiency maximization can also result in a
| state where a feature is interesting to us but neutral, or
| just not harmful enough to be worth the energy to change.
| Remember that the watchmaker is _completely_ blind.
| atahanacar wrote:
| >has been evolved by other organisms
|
| Like, a human?
| mclide wrote:
| By now, there is at least one other organism that can detect
| and act upon the signal. If farmers applies knowledge about
| this signal to improve their yields, plants may be selected
| for their ability to emit sounds under stress.
| philipov wrote:
| If you break a branch, the sound of it breaking informs you
| that you have broken a branch.
| anonymouskimmer wrote:
| It also informs other animals that a large creature may be
| passing by.
| TEP_KimIlSung wrote:
| [dead]
| signa11 wrote:
| in this regard, i am always reminded of pioneering (in true sense
| of that word) work of jagdish-chandra-bose
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagadish_Chandra_Bose).
|
| it truly is _fascinating_ !
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