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Do Plants Practice Grid Computing?
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."
Most systems, human or evolutionary, start out simple and end up very complex, sometimes not even resembling what they started out as.
Like flying. One theory is that bugs first grew wings as solar heaters, as this allowed them to survive colder areas. Mutant larger wings let them glide, gliding led to flight.
As for polination, I would assume plants started out by using the wind to move the pollen, and then through mutation some attracted bugs which for any number of reasons proved benefitial and made them more fit. Bugs that were benefited by the plants also became more fit as they had a new and stable food source.
The pollination example you gave is similar to the tired creationist argument of the eye, which asserts that the eye is too complex to have evolved piece by piece. This is, of course, incorrect. Scientists have determined how the eye could have evolved, and have found examples of each stage.
Pollinators could have evolved like this (though IANA botanist):
There's no stretch of imagination here. It's a clear progression of small changes, each reinforcing the earlier change.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]
But don't think of it as "thinking" the individual cells act on instinct and survival
Cells act on their genetic coding. Always. To modify that, you have to override the code either by adding new DNA, taking out DNA, or inserting chemicals that will act on DNA. You can program cells to force them to do things that are counter to their "natural" duties, or to damage themselves. Cells will commit suicide (apoptosis) if they're ordered to die by other cells, or if it's programmed into them from the very beginning.
This sort of communication isn't new. For example, blastula/gastrula (embryonic) cells constantly communicate with each other in order to differentiate into many types of cells. There are all sorts of signaling patterns.
Also, just because there's no central system, doesn't mean there can't be a relatively concentrated area of control. Certain parts of plants (and animals) produce the chemical signals to be distributed, or are sending the signals themselves. Often there is a general organization center, even if there's not a visible "node" from where everything is being controlled.
The floggings will stop when morale improves.
Howard Bloom's latest, "Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century" seems relevant here. I've only just begun reading it, but this article appears to fit right in with Bloom's theories on group evolution, networks within complex adaptive systems in nature, and the possibility of a global massive data-sharing mind. Worth a look--> howardbloom.net
The telegraph was invented by Claude Chappe (1763 - 1805). The Chappe brothers carried out on March 3, 1791 a first public experiment of air telegraph of Brulon with Parce on a distance of 14 km. The air telegraphs were adopted on July 26, 1793 by national Convention. July 16, 1794 the first official line Paris-Lille was brought into service.
The majority of cactus have a metabolic system called CAM (Crasulacea Acid Metabolism). In such plants, the stomata open at night, thus needing only to respond to light and dark, not to each other. There is no phasing of groups of stomata in the plants epidermises. CO2 enters the stomata at night whereupon mailc acid is synthesized. During the day, stomata are closed and photosyntheses is driven by the energy of the malic acid to produce the various sugars and goodies needed to run the plant.
Only a few very primitive cacti have leaves. The rest grow stems which may be cylindrical or spherical, usually with ribs which facilitate expansion when rains fall.
Check the current Scientific American for information about how bacteria sense the presence of many of their species in order time release of toxins and other activities. The genes and proteins which control these coordinated activities have been identified.
> So how does the plant realize that these other lifeforms are useful for pollen-spreading?
Go look up evolution in a dictonary, there is no realization or thought involved, just that since something as simple as bees could spread the seed while obtaining food can make it more widespread & therefore wore likely to live on in future generations.
> why did some plants form defensive mechanisms such as poisons
Easy: they have different ways of reproducing. Poison ivy doesn't have the luxury of being sweet easily spreadable by bees, so it would have had to work on protection instead of enticement. If animals get sick when eating a plant, they won't eat it any more. Therefore, since the threat of eating is lessened, the plant lives longer and has a better chance to spread.