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Do Plants Practice Grid Computing?

Posted by Hemos on from the learning-it-from-our-friends dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "According to Nature, plants appear to 'think' and seem to optimize their 'breathing' by conducting simple calculations through a distributed computing scheme. "David Peak and co-workers at Utah State University in Logan say that plants may regulate their uptake and loss of gases by 'distributed computation' -- a kind of information processing that involves communication between many interacting units." Nature adds this is similar to signals exchanged by ants to find the best source of food for an ant community. In their paper, the researchers added that their results were "consistent with the proposition that a plant solves its optimal gas exchange problem through an emergent, distributed computation performed by its leaves." This overview contains more details and references. It also includes a picture of the tiny pores on the surface of a cactus leaf, called stomata, which permit the plant to breathe when they're opened."

8 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Distributed computing plants? by geoffspear · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of trees...

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    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
    1. Re:Distributed computing plants? by shigelojoe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Carrots may in fact be more intelligent than deer. Who knows for sure?

      Well, I know that a carrot has never wandered out into the middle of the road and into the path of my car. That's got to count in the carrot's favor.

  2. I'm SURE Plants Practice Grid Computing by deft · · Score: 4, Funny

    But they probably call it something else.

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    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
  3. Do they call the computing nodes.... by teneighty · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...leaf nodes?

    Or are they root nodes?

  4. Yardwork by Embedded+Geek · · Score: 5, Funny

    No wonder the damn weeds keep coming back so fast - they must be overclocked.

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    "Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."

  5. Typical by dodgyville · · Score: 5, Funny

    I saw the headline to this article "Do plants practice grid computing?" and I thought "AHA! I'll just jump in here, throw in a hillarious line about plants and computers and bingo, easy points."

    Imagine my dismay when I saw that every single message on the thread is a hillarious comment about plants and their computing abilities! Ho ho ho

    You people certainly make it difficult for a person to be an edgy counter-culture warrior, disarming the system with humour.

    Just go back to bashing Microsoft and leave the comedy to me.

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    apt-get install deathstar && deathstar alderaan && echo "You're far too trusting"
  6. Breaking news: SCO sues God by Lurker+McLurker · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently, there's Unix code in these plants information processing systems.

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    Mod parent up!
  7. Technologies and how we look at plants by lost+in+place · · Score: 5, Funny

    If this story were published in ___ it would be titled ___

    1790: Plants and their Hidden Telegraphs!
    1870: Do Plants Talk to Each Other on Leafy Telephones?
    1962: Plants and their Invisible DEW Lines
    1990: Plants have their Own Secret Internet!
    2004: Do Plants Practice Grid Computing?
    2010: Do Plants Engage in CyberBiphrenistic Nano-Spatulation?