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Plants 'Recognize' Their Siblings

An anonymous reader writes to tell us that according to a recent study, Biologists have found that plants are able to recognize their own relatives. "Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...] Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives, says Dudley. Like humans, the most interesting behaviours occur beneath the surface."

331 comments

  1. Or... by ArcherB · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings.

    Just a thought.

    --
    There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    1. Re:Or... by illegalcortex · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Not sure this is any different than any other form of sibling recognition...

    2. Re:Or... by mulvane · · Score: 1

      I was of the same mind on this as you. I would liken it more to a disease immunity where your body creates anti-bodies to fight off things that don't belong.

    3. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, by recognizing not-self, it effectively recognizes siblings.

      try not to think of the plants as individuals. if they're that genetically similar, they aren't.

    4. Re:Or... by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. Why are we so quick to jump to conclusions about plants and animals being the same as humans now a days anyways? So a plant doesn't respond as vigorously when another plant with a similar genome is in the pot with it...how exactly is that altruism? Last I checked altruism was sacrificing something for the benefit of another. These plants aren't giving anything up in this case...it's more like plants are extremely protective/territorial to plants different from themselves and less so with plants like them. The absence of selfishness != altruism...

      I mean, first posted comment is a perfectly plausible alternate theory, why isn't that even considered in the article? Could it be, gasp, that saying that plants recognize and display altruism towards siblings gets more reads than that plants have displayed abnormal behavior towards those with similar genomes? This seems an awful lot like hyperbole to get more reads, or, to not attribute to malice what could be simple ignorance, perhaps it's simply that they thought people wouldn't understand it without something in normal life to compare it too...

      --
      There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
    5. Re:Or... by Ucklak · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't even mention that plants can feel pain. What are the vegans going to eat?

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    6. Re:Or... by TheJasper · · Score: 1

      Maybe that *is* recognition.

      Altruism goes a little far for me, as I would define it as conscious behavior, but one could see it as a genetic basis for altruism. Still far fetched, but if we are genetically inclined to altruism, then we are more likely to consciously choose it.

    7. Re:Or... by plunge · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I dunno, the usage seems mostly legitimate to me. The plants ARE toning down their normal aggressive behaviors, the ones that allow them to compete for scarce resources with other plants. No one is saying that the plants have feelings for their kin, but it makes perfect sense that they'd show some form of kin selection. It makes no real sense to just call it a "mistake" or a "confusion" because plants don't have intentions.

      Most human altruism appears to be from the same source: it began as something we extended to kin groups, and extended to others only as civilization developed further. I don't see what the value of calling it "abnormal" or a "mistake." It's a behavior that seems to help the species and does what it does regardless of how it came about.

    8. Re:Or... by Otter · · Score: 1
      These plants aren't giving anything up in this case...

      Of course they are! As the article explains, and anyone who has ever grown a garden knows, they're conceding water, nutrients and sunlight to the plant they're sharing with.

      Could it be, gasp, that saying that plants recognize and display altruism towards siblings gets more reads than that plants have displayed abnormal behavior towards those with similar genomes?

      If that "abnormal behavior" involves sacrificing one's own god for the good of others, those two statements are pretty much the same. I'm not sure why you think they're so opposed. Anyway, the OP was making a completely different point than yours.

    9. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hopefully nothing....More for me.

    10. Re:Or... by veganboyjosh · · Score: 5, Funny

      nothing that casts a shadow...

    11. Re:Or... by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      So, by extending that logic, it means that in a few hundred generations, plants will have a functioning society.....

      Swamp Thing lives!

      Oblig: I for one welcome our altruistic towards family, malevolent towards others veggie overlords!

      Layne

    12. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 1

      I can understand a plant root not being able to tell the difference between another root of the same organism, and another root of a sibling plant, but are you really saying that, for example, dogs think that a sibling is actually themselves? Or that they can't distinguish between themself and a sibling? That anything that smells identical or close enough to self *is* self? Or that I confuse myself with my sister?

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    13. Re:Or... by beckerist · · Score: 1

      It's a seed plant, so it reproduces sexually. Unless the species itself has inbred to the point of no variation in their DNA (like what the leopard is approaching), one disease or parasite or [insert bane here] would have wiped them out years ago. Even, let's go far as to say their DNA was SO PERFECT that it had already taken into account any potential threat, past, present AND future...then every single plant would be the same...why would it fight any individual from the same species?

      My point being, it's not DNA that drives this. Of course, everything ultimately is (and that's also not to imply that plants have a conscious,) but I wouldn't be surprised if they are programmed to compete, while favoring (and by not hurting, helping) a similar genetic structure (survival of the fittest and all!)

    14. Re:Or... by BewireNomali · · Score: 1

      man, i read that as "planets recognize their own siblings". smh. that would have been awesome.

      --
      un burrito me trampeó.
    15. Re:Or... by SandwhichMaster · · Score: 1

      - Not sure this is any different than any other form of sibling recognition... I'm assuming you're referring to the parent comment... -"Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings." So you recognize people genetically closer to you? I'm pretty sure if I'd been adopted I wouldn't be able to point out my sibblings in a crowd. I'd be a lot less likely to give some guy that looks like me $20, then I would to someone I grew up with. Extreme cases aside, sibbling recognition is socially learned (at least in humans).

    16. Re:Or... by TheJasper · · Score: 1

      Survival of the fittest means that whatever survives is fittest. To put that another way, the only way to determine what is fittest is to see what survives. So favoring a similar genetic structure isn't necessarily for survival of the fittest, but those species which practiced it did better. There are species which are active canibals, and they do quite well. Some types of squid for example.

    17. Re:Or... by Bob-taro · · Score: 1

      Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings.
      What's the distinction here? I assume that when we talk about a plant "recognizing" something, we mean in some automatic, chemical way and not in the sense of "cognition".
      --
      Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
    18. Re:Or... by shelterpaw · · Score: 1
      That's not funny.

      You see they'll come to the realization that everything on earth is natural and good but people and resort to cannibalism.

      Night of the living Vegan.
    19. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers
      lol aggro-hippies...

    20. Re:Or... by dontthink · · Score: 1

      Great point - I think the cool part about these findings is that the vast majority of the neighboring plants' genetics were identical, being the same species and all. From the actual paper, they were able to differentiate their siblings through root interaction... Could you shake the hand of someone you've never met and tell if they were your brother or sister? The lone fact that the plants are able to detect these tiny genetic differences, let alone act on them, is pretty cool, IMO.

    21. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't even mention that plants can feel pain. What are the vegans going to eat?

      "Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here"

    22. Re:Or... by someone1234 · · Score: 1

      Actually, humans are the same as plants and animals. They defend their own family, group, nation, and so on.

      --
      Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
    23. Re:Or... by LucidityZero · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Why are we so quick to jump to conclusions about plants and animals being the same as humans now a days anyways?

      Well, since humans ARE animals...

      It seems to me that the poster remarking that they might not be able to tell the difference between their own roots and the roots of a close relative is a plausible theory, but I have no problem with using terms like "altruistic" to explain this. All we as human animals ever do is just react to stimuli as well, just in a much more complicated fashion.

      --
      Sig.i>
    24. Re:Or... by Rei · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, cue the vegetarian/vegan bashing with "argumentum ad absurdum".

      I could much more easily go in the other direction.

      Would you eat pigs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dogs/cats, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dolphins, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat lemurs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat organutangs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat chimpanzees, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat genetically 50/50 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat 90/10 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat 100% humans, slaughtered industrially for meat?

      Where's your ethical cutoff point? Why? I'd wager that it's a lot more arbitrary than my "the less functional neurons, the better" cutoff. Of course plants interact with their surroundings. Even unicellular organisms are remarkably complex systems with all kinds of feedback. But they're relatively easy to model. How many neurons do you think it would take, in an artificial neural net, to modify an arbitrary plant or single-celled organism behavior -- say, which direction to grow roots? Three, four perhaps? Now how many do you think it would take to model a mouse's decision on where and how to build its den based on its' life experiences (flooding, predators, warmth, etc)? Hundreds of thousands, millions perhaps? There's really no comparison.

      To put some cutoff in the nervous systems of higher animals, however, you have to come up with some new "depth of thought and/or emotion" cutoff. Do so, and defend it with references to the scientific literature. I challenge you to do so. Even a lab mouse has metacognition and problem solving abilities. They don't have *your level* of problem solving abilities, and they don't have our language hardware (and it is due to built-in wiring; read up about the "Critical Period" where, if you don't learn language before then, you lose the ability to do so). But it's still pretty much the same thing.

      --
      Everybody point at the libertarian and laugh.
    25. Re:Or... by Bob-taro · · Score: 1

      All we as human animals ever do is just react to stimuli as well, just in a much more complicated fashion.
      That sounded insightful, until I realized that you were just reacting to stimuli. Hey, stop drinking my water!
      --
      Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
    26. Re:Or... by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 1

      I fail to see this cutoff point you are alluding to. (Though I must admit your menu does look tasty)

      --
      - These characters were randomly selected.
    27. Re:Or... by Rei · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I figured that there would be some people who wouldn't be bothered by not only the concept of cannibalism, but the concept of industrial slaughter of humans to support that cannibalism.

      Please stay far, far away from me. ;)

      --
      Everybody point at the libertarian and laugh.
    28. Re:Or... by Sinkael · · Score: 0

      To be perfectly honest, I would eat all of the above depending on the situation, survival of the fittest, and if it meant that I would die to fulfill some ethical code, well, ethics be damned I will eat.

    29. Re:Or... by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Plants are highly immobile, and food for both both dogs and humans. Don't anthropomorphise species which are not human, especially not within a scientific context like this. It's actually quite likely that plants treat 'sibling' plants as an extension of themselves; it's a highly logical adaptation. Instead of being two separate plants, they are two growths of the same plant, and thus do not compete, as fighting with that which is yourself (read: more or less the same DNA) is futile and does not further propagation of the genetic code. The reason animals fight is due to the vast genetic variation between siblings; also for purposes of entertainment and education. Even twins will fight in species with developed brains, for then memetic influence becomes key on top of genetic influence.

      Disclaimer, I have been reading far too much Dawkins, I am not a biologist

    30. Re:Or... by uncoveror · · Score: 1

      No. They do recognize their siblings, and they feel pain! Read all about it. Ripping a carrot out of the ground and taking a bite may cause as much pain as shooting a deer.

      --
      The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
    31. Re:Or... by metlin · · Score: 1

      You mean we're going to send them all to the dark side of the moon? Oh good riddance.

    32. Re:Or... by grumpyman · · Score: 1
      Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings.


      This is sort of saying, they can recognize non-siblings/own roots because the genetics are so different.

    33. Re:Or... by doti · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, I can picture the scene: Your dad catch you fucking your sister in the bathroom, and you say "I thought I was just masturbating!"

      --
      factor 966971: 966971
    34. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kin selection at work.

    35. Re:Or... by chaoticzen · · Score: 1

      Don't even mention that plants can feel pain. What are the vegans going to eat?

      That's why every time I eat a steak I'm not killing a cow, I'm saving a carrot!
      --
      Reality is for people that can't handle drugs. So do your part, just say no to reality!
    36. Re:Or... by chiku · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of a science experiment:

      A scientist (??) got hold of a cockroach and decided to perform a scientific experiment.
      He ordered the roach to walk and released it. The roach started running on all six legs.
      He noted in his journal. Roaches respond to human commands.

      He then cut off 2 middle legs and ordered it to run again. The roach started crawling.
      He noted, when ordered sternly and when they are hurt, roaches feel bad and do the ordered tasks grudgingly.

      He then cut of another 2 legs and ordered it to walk again. The roach started wiggling.
      He noted in his journal. When 4 legs are cut off, roaches become defiant.

      He then cut off all six legs. He screamed at the the roach to walk.
      He then concluded the experiment with following observation.
      When all six legs are cut off .. roaches become deaf.

    37. Re:Or... by blake3737 · · Score: 1

      so they can eat steak in a dark room?

    38. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those who might consider the industrial slaughter of human beings for food are far from what I'd call without moral values. I once overheard some Nazis arguing with the chef, pointing out that if ashes are going up the chimney, there's no way you can call that medium rare.

    39. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean, first posted comment is a perfectly plausible alternate theory, why isn't that even considered in the article? Could it be, gasp, that saying that plants recognize and display altruism towards siblings gets more reads than that plants have displayed abnormal behavior towards those with similar genomes? Have you ever thought that maybe that idea could be applied to humans in the same way? That the only reason that we have that "unconditional family love" is that we subconsciously recognize their similar genome, and thus have a connection to them? It mroe or less is the same thing.
    40. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Interesting points. Several questions:

      Don't anthropomorphise species which are not human, especially not within a scientific context like this. Is it a valid move to anthropomorphise humans, which are animals? If humans share a characteristic with another animal species, is describing that characteristic anthropomorphizing? Or, to put it another way, if an animal species and Homo sapiens share a characteristic, is it an anthropomorphism to describe that characteristic? What are the criteria for determining which descriptions are anthropomorphic?
      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    41. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one is saying that the plants have feelings for their kin, but it makes perfect sense that they'd show some form of kin selection.

      Yes, but the whole point is that it is an assumption that a plant can distinguish "kin" from itself. It does not make perfect sense that they'd show kin selection, given the currently understood nature of plant intelligence... it does make perfect sense that a plant would more likely not be able to identify a kin as something other than itself... in which case, "altruism" is really just self preservation.

      the analogy to human altruism is quite off because humans can easily recognize others vs. kin vs. self. A more accurate analogy would be human organ transplants - often the body will reject a transplant because it recognizes the organ as other and not self. This is why organ transplants from kin are more desirable - it's not that the body recognizes that Uncle Joe's kidney is kin, but rather that the genetics are similar enough that the body accepts the tissue as it's own.

    42. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings.

      Try harder, you're still implying that the plant has the ability to sense and act on its senses.

    43. Re:Or... by ozbird · · Score: 4, Funny

      Other vegans, then.

    44. Re:Or... by fitten · · Score: 1
      I rarely eat mammalian carnivores, but that's because their meat isn't usually as good as herbivores. Omnivores are usually OK (pigs) for the most part. I don't think I'd eat anything up the Hominidae family line unless I had to. I probably wouldn't want to eat anything of the order Primate.

      I probably wouldn't eat anything down the family line of Delphinidae, either.

      But... that all depends on normal circumstances. In some situations, say apocalyptic, all bets would be off, I believe.

      I'd wager that it's a lot more arbitrary than my "the less functional neurons, the better" cutoff.


      So... would you eat cow meat if it were a 'vegetable'... basically a breed of cows that were bred to have practically no real brain function and incapable of living on its own?
    45. Re:Or... by turgid · · Score: 1

      What are the vegans going to eat?

      Earthlings?

    46. Re:Or... by fitten · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Where's your ethical cutoff point? Why? I'd wager that it's a lot more arbitrary than my "the less functional neurons, the better" cutoff.


      I don't feel the need to justify ethically, to myself or anyone else, my choices of food. I simply eat what I feel like eating and don't eat what I don't want to eat. I see no reason to get 'ethics' involved in the decision really... unless you count things like: I'll try not to steal food from someone else, unless my own survival depends upon it.

      That being said, I support you completely in your choice to be a vegetarian (whatever flavor) or even vegan. I have no problem with your self limitations of food choice as it doesn't affect me in the least (other than potentially lessen competition for certain items I consider food, which is a good thing :)). Just return the favor and allow me my choice.
    47. Re:Or... by somersault · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Err.. by definition, anthropomorphicising something is making it 'human'. So you don't need to anthropomorphicise humans since they are human. Just because you consider us to be animals doesn't make any difference.. it's like saying "should we felinicise [just made that word up, obviously] cats?". "Anthropomorphic: Having human form or attributes" (one of the definitions when I entered define:anthropomorphic into google)

      --
      which is totally what she said
    48. Re:Or... by Rei · · Score: 1

      Yes.

      --
      Everybody point at the libertarian and laugh.
    49. Re:Or... by shaitand · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Of course. You don't think your 'self' is actually one thing do you? Even the neurons that together culminate in your conscious mind are actually a bunch of completely independent pieces.

      The closer an organism is to your genetics the closer the instinctual bond. Parents, Children, brothers, and sisters. Then extended family and finally other humans. Then other lifeforms that are most similar to humans, mammals before reptiles and fish, animals before plants, and even plants are closer and therefore more sacred than micro-organisms. Do you actually think one form of life is innately superior to another? Of course not, we just view those that are closer to ourselves as superior.

    50. Re:Or... by illegalcortex · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it will become much clearer to you if you think in terms of genes, not organisms. It's not the "plant" that "recognizes" siblings, it's individual cells of the plants that behave according to an underlying set of genes. You are stuck on the "higher level" stuff like "thinking" and "smelling" without asking why those complex behaviors might have arisen and what is actually in the driver's seat.

      You may think that's there's a big difference between the plant not trying to out-compete its sibling and a human being helping their sibling. But that's just because you're being confused by the window dressing.

    51. Re:Or... by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      I was a vegan for 8 years and a vegetarian for 12 only for one reason: I think it is healthier this way for me.

      I don't care if plants feel pain.

    52. Re:Or... by illegalcortex · · Score: 1

      As I mentioned in my other reply, you're thinking at too "high" a level. Genes can recognize siblings. They've developed all sorts of interesting ways to do it. Of course, the more complicated the way, the less foolproof it is. Yes, adoption can often fool the system. But that failure in a smaller percentage of cases doesn't invalidate a system that works very well in most others. Also, many studies have shown that there's a lot more than goes on at a conscious level. Google oxytocin for some interesting information.

    53. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, there is a subtle question lurking in here. If the definition of anthropomorphic means having human form or attributes, how do we know that any particularly attribute is solely human?

      In other words, if I say the cat is 'afraid', in a scientific context, and you say to me, "Don't anthropomorphise that cat", how do we know that particular attribute ( the feeling of fear ) belongs solely to humans? Is it not possible that the cat has the same electro-chemical process happening in their brains that humans do when humans experience fear? Could a careless critic mistake a shared attributes between two animals species, such as both cats and human feeling fear, as a case of anthropomorphism? How are we to tell the difference between anthropomorphic reasoning and the correct identification of a characteristic between humans and another animal.

      How did humans first 'own' the attribute of fearfulness that it might be considered and anthropomorphism to say that an animal is afraid? Doesn't such understanding of 'what it means to be human' actually come from our pre-scientific understanding of the world both culturally, ( as in what people believed about humans and animals in the middle ages ) and personally ( what an individual believed about humans and animals before they were exposed to scientific knowledge )?

      In other words, have we scientifically validated every supposedly human attribute, so we know when we are anthropomorphising or not? I argue the answer is no. It's just an ad-hoc system that you can throw around at any time, almost entirely without guidelines, rules, or criteria. At various times we have said that animals do have emotions like humans, don't have emotions like humans, etc. None of it is really scientifically valid, because we don't have brain scans of wild animals running for their life through the jungle. Nor do we really have an electro-chemical definition of emotion, for that matter -- we know *where* in the brain it takes place, but we don't have an exact definition for the physical process of 'fear' or 'anger'. So we're not really sure if even *humans* have emotions like humans!

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    54. Re:Or... by Reality+Master+101 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Where's your ethical cutoff point? Why?

      I eat what's appealing, same as every other animal. Do I need another reason?

      Frankly, I'm very comfortable with my place in the food chain. Nature is... natural.

      --
      Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
    55. Re:Or... by Centurix · · Score: 1

      Vegetable rights and peace!

      --
      Task Mangler
    56. Re:Or... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      'Where's your ethical cutoff point? Why? I'd wager that it's a lot more arbitrary than my "the less functional neurons, the better" cutoff.'

      Well now that is a silly statement. There aren't degrees, either something is arbitrary or not.

      Personal I avoid eating humans because of the legal issues. Other things I don't eat because I don't like them. That and a general root for the home team philosophy. After all, living and promoting our own set of genetics is our 'purpose' by default. So, that is the one I go with. At no point is there any arbitrary cutoff dictated by some sort of imaginary code of ethics or morals.

      Actually I appreciate vegetarians more than most. Vegetarians took the thought process halfway when they realized that animal life was as valuable as human life. Most of the rest eat what they want because they never thought, not because they reached the conclusions one discovers if they follow the logic to the cold reality of its conclusion.

      'Even a lab mouse has meta cognition and problem solving abilities.'

      We are discovering that we have underestimated the intelligence of creatures every day. For instance, I have seen a cockroach operating a vehicle and using that vehicle to run and hide in the shadows just as it would do on foot. Our intelligence is the chance interaction of individual components, we have already replicated those kind of processes in software. Why do would we assume that the chemical interactions in our brains and other mammals are the only medium in which intelligence has evolved naturally?

    57. Re:Or... by Twisted64 · · Score: 1

      So, roots.

      --
      Consciousness is a myth. Trust me.
    58. Re:Or... by DeadChobi · · Score: 1

      The real problem is that we can't possibly know how it feels to feel in another species. That alone makes it anthropomorphism since they could be displaying what appears to us to be a fear reaction but could be any one of a number of other emotions.

      --
      SRSLY.
    59. Re:Or... by the_bard17 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nah... more like your dad catching you fucking your sister in the bathroom, and he says "I thought I was just masturbating!"

    60. Re:Or... by Jeremi · · Score: 2, Funny
      I eat what's appealing, same as every other animal. Do I need another reason?


      Hannibal? Is that you?

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    61. Re:Or... by Petrushka · · Score: 1

      The scientific article does not refer to this behaviour as "altruism"; the discussion there is framed entirely in terms of "competition". It appears to be the Press Esc author, Vidura Panditaratne, who is responsible for the application of the term "altruism". He attributes the term to Susan Dudley, one of the scientists who wrote the article in Biology Letters, but based on the language used in the scientific article I suspect this is a misattribution or misunderstanding.

    62. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The real problem is that we can't possibly know how it feels to feel in another species. Here's another question. Can we possibly know how it 'feels' to 'feel' in another human being? If you are going to argue it's because we are both human beings, and therefore we have the same physiology, then I would respond that technically, we don't. We are not clones or carbon copies of one another. If you then say we aren't identical, but we are close enough that the assumption is okay, then I would tell you that we share a lot of physiological structure, including the structure of the brain, with chimpanzees, even dogs -- plants and jellyfish, not so much.

      This is one of the oldest questions in philosophy. How do I know that my experience of 'red' is the same as yours? There are various answers on both sides of the argument. But, if we assume or justify by reason that I know what your experience is because we are both 'human', then why can't we do the same for animals? After all, Chimpanzees have somewhere between 95%-99% simliar DNA to us; they have more or less the same brain with the same structures, minus maybe the language areas. We know that chimps don't have the language facility that humans do, but is it an anthropomorphism to say that they experience fear or anger?

      For example, the limbic system in our brain somehow generates emotional experience. We don't know how it happens, nor do we have a electro-chemical definition of emotion, but we know that it's happening in the limbic system. The limbic system is structurally pretty similar in all of the great apes. So if you can say to me that you and I have the same 'kinds' of emotional experiences because we have the same limbic system, then I would tell you that you and I share our limbic structure with a chimpanzee. So then, couldn't we conclude that the chimpanzee has the same 'kinds' of emotional experiences that you and I do?

      If you're claiming that 'we can't possibly know how it feels to feel in another species', I'm curious to know how you arrived at this conclusion. And how do you then know that you know how it 'feels' to 'feel' like another human being?

      I'm not saying I have the answers, one way or the other. I'm saying that we need to make a more objective scientific criteria for claims of attributes of *any* animal, human or otherwise, and a methodology for comparing the attributes of different animals. One way to go about this is with objective measurements, like brain scans and comparative morphology of nervous systems. Comparative behavior is another method.
      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    63. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 1

      You don't think your 'self' is actually one thing do you? I know objectively that I am made of parts, but my experiential feeling is that I am a singular entity. What I mean is that it feels to me that there is an indivisible Lawpoop that has no parts. Sure, I have fingers, and a hand, but that's just my body. If I lose my finger, I'm missing a part of my body, but "who I really am" is something other than my body. I also understand that I am part of a larger whole -- my family and community.

      So I experience all three levels -- the Lawpoop that is made up of parts, the Lawpoop that is a part of a larger system, but also, the basis of my experience is the Lawpoop that is indivisible and irreduceable. Call it a spirit, a soul, the ghost in the machine, the 'mind', the ego, the "I", an illusion, the mind program that the brain hardware runs -- whatever you call it, that's the basis of my reality.
      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    64. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 1

      I think it will become much clearer to you if you think in terms of genes, not organisms. Yes, but the genes don't percieve other genes in the environment, not even in a metaphorical sense. It's the cellular machinery that the genes create that actually does the sensing of other genes, related or not.

      It's not the "plant" that "recognizes" siblings, it's individual cells of the plants that behave according to an underlying set of genes. You are stuck on the "higher level" stuff like "thinking" and "smelling" without asking why those complex behaviors might have arisen and what is actually in the driver's seat. Yes, but it's the 'window dressing', or cellular structure that does high level stuff such as smelling and think which provides the mechanism for the 'genes' to detect other 'genes', and also provides the mechanism to decide how related the other genes are, and how much to cooperate with them.

      I don't think there's a driver's seat here. It's more like the left and right leg. Both move in their proper time to move the being forward. It's not that the genes are in charge; there's an interaction between the genes and the environment. The genes create part of the environment -- namely, the cellular structure and organism that surrounds the gene -- but the environment also exerts selective pressure on the genes themselves. So at different times it looks like the genes are in charge, at other times.
      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    65. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmmmmmmmmmm.... Lemur...

      But only with a side of fries and a nice slathering of BBQ sauce.

    66. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      LOL who fuckin shares?

    67. Re:Or... by jc42 · · Score: 1

      Genes can recognize siblings. They've developed all sorts of interesting ways to do it.

      Probably not actual siblings, of course; they're more likely just measuring the similarity of surface antigens. I'd predict that, if you were to find two plants (of the same species) from well-separated locations that happen to have the same antigens, they'd also tolerate each other.

      Actually, in a number of animal species, the opposite has been documented. There are a number of animals that preferentially choose mates with different surface (or scent) antigens than their own. This has been interpreted as a means of avoiding inbreeding and maximizing genetic mixing. It would be interesting to find plants that have evolved a mechanism to do this.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    68. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 1

      Another issue, if we're interested in scientific discussion. Why is anthroporophism specifically disallowed? Why can't we anthropomorphise, if the comparison is valid?

      When we talk about flight, or vision, between species, nobody complains. If we talk about insect flight compared to bird flight, nobody complains that we are insectopomorphising birds, or avopomorphising insects, even when the comparison is made using our built-in non-scientific comparison ability. What I mean is that we didn't do any scientific studies to show that bird 'flight' is the same 'process' as insect 'flight' -- we just began there because we naturally saw the similarities. Almost anybody in the world can tell you that both insects and birds both fly, albeit with different mechanisms, without scientific knowledge or research. Starting from that point, we can show similarities and differences between insect and bird flight -- in other words, we didn't lose any over our objective perception by starting out talking about bird and insect flight using the same term to describe different processes in different species. So even though flight arose independently in different species and lineages, and have different mechanisms, it somehow is not an issue to talk about comparative behavior and in birds and insects. We even have a name when different structures arise that perform the same process in different species -- it's called convergent evolution of homologous or analogous structure. The same goes for eyes and vision.

      Yet when we talk about social behavior of mammals, why are we not allowed to talk about convergent evolution or homologous structures? When a researcher talks about chimps sharing, or dogs having social interaction, is that anthroporphism? What about when people, chimps, and dogs have homologous structures in the 'social' parts of thier respective brains?

      People just pipe up with "don't anthropormorphise", yet I haven't yet seen the criteria or definition for what is anthroporophisms vs. an accurate identification of homologous structures or behavior. I'm not saying don't worry about anthropomorphism at all, but we can't worry about it scientifically until we define it and list the criteria. Otherwise it's just another way of saying that human beings are special, that either they are not animals, or are a special kind of animals, therefore, any comparison of humans to animals are invalid.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    69. Re:Or... by h2g2bob · · Score: 1

      Exactly - blood groupings would be a crude example of this sort of principle.

    70. Re:Or... by toadlife · · Score: 1

      basically a breed of cows that were bred to have practically no real brain function and incapable of living on its own? You've pretty much described the cows we eat now.
      --
      I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
    71. Re:Or... by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Think of it more on the level of tissue, not the level of your consciousness.

      The human equivalent of this situation would be if you receive an organ transplant. If it is close enough to you genetically, your body will accept it as part of itself, if it is not a tissue match, you body will identify it as foreign and you immune cells will attack and destroy it.

      It doesn't matter if you think the organ is part of you or not, it's whether or not your imune cells recognise the familiar genes they are looking for. you may not confuse yourself with your sister, but if you had a kidney transplant from her, you would be hoping your white blood cells confuse her cells for your own.

    72. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I used to have science teachers who told me that dogs and cats and all other animals have no emotions -- they are simply automotons.
      Of course, this was always said while jamming a needle into the skull of a live frog in order to scramble it's brains.
      Of course plants aren't human, but some scientists aren't either.

    73. Re:Or... by Slashboo · · Score: 1

      Psh, the vegetarians/vegans have it all wrong.

      Down with vegetable cruelty! Support carnetarianism!

      --
      Reality is the original Rorschach.
    74. Re:Or... by TheDugong · · Score: 1

      Snore. That argument...

      As a vegetarian of various degrees over 18 years, I would as well. If I survived a plane crash into the Andes, frozen dead people would probably look very tasty to me too - after a while anyway. However, I have yet to have been in a situation resembling that and therefore have no need, or desire, to eat dead things that moved themselves around.

      My survival always comes first, except maybe over close family and less likely close friends. However, my comfort does not. Realistically, in the western world, unless someone has a medical condition the downside of not eating meat is comfort alone, in one way or another.

      Not being smug at all (and I am not, most people are genuinely surprised when they discover I am vegetarian), but...

      A vegetarian requires only 1/20th of the land space of a meat eater to feed themselves.

      5Kg of beef requires the same amount of water to raise as the average family uses in a year.

      Food, pun intentional, for thought?

    75. Re:Or... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      'What I mean is that it feels to me that there is an indivisible Lawpoop that has no parts.'

      Just like it may feel to the plant that there an indivisible lawpoop that has no parts despite the fact that we see several sibling plants. Neither your lawpoop, nor even one of those sibling plants is one thing. Both are composed of billions of simplistic parts that perform simple functions. Your 'lawpoop' is actually more like the collective result of an ant colony functioning or birds flocking.

    76. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hope for your sake that anybody who finds your loved ones "appealing" has a less stupid criterion for deciding what to eat than you do.

    77. Re:Or... by lawpoop · · Score: 1
      OK, I grant that I am made up of parts, and also that I am a part of a larger system. But isn't it also true that I can be considered a singular 'part' myself?

      If you say that no, you are not a part yourself, but you are made up of smaller parts, I then ask, "Okay, by what reasoning can we call those smaller parts parts? Aren't they made of parts also?" So then, if we can consider my smaller parts to be singular parts, why can't we call myself a singular part, at a certain level. After all, I am a part of the larger community or system, right?

      Neither your lawpoop, nor even one of those sibling plants is one thing. Both are composed of billions of simplistic parts that perform simple functions. Your 'lawpoop' is actually more like the collective result of an ant colony functioning or birds flocking. Okay, but aren't those smaller parts that make me up *themselves* collective results of simpler parts? And then aren't those parts made of simpler parts? If you say I'm more like a swarming ant colony, where the ant is the simple, basic part that makes up the larger function of the swarm, then isn't the ant itself a system of parts, namely cells? And then isn't each ant cell a system of parts, namely organelles and other molecules? And then aren't those molecules made up of atoms? And atoms made up of protons, nuetrons, and electrons? And those made up of quarks?

      I'm not even talking about an experiential level, where I 'feel' like there is an indivisible "I", but just on a systems level -- if we're talking about society or the nation, we might define people to be the smallest 'parts' of that national system. But then when we're talking about medicine, we might consider organs, tissues, cells, or molecule channels on cell walls to be the smallest parts of that medical system. Then, when we are talking about physics, we might define quarks to be the smallest parts of that system. And then if we are talking about quantum physics, we might talk about quarks made up of forces or strings. It all depends on what level you are doing the analysis.

      So that's what I mean when I say at one conceptual level, I am made of parts, but at another conceptual level, I am a basic part of another larger system that contains me. I'm arguing that a 'part' is a concept, not a physical reality. It's part of a conceptual framework that we use to perceive various phenomenon at various scales. And the level or scale which we choose to perceive also defines what we consider to be the part, or basic building block of that system, which we don't take apart any further *in that system*. So if we are doing a population study of ant colonies, we might talk about ants or genes as the basic part, but we don't need to talk about quarks -- there is just no need to break it down that far. We can understand all we need to by using the ant or the gene as the basic part of that conceptual framework. So if we can choose to define either an ant, a gene, an atom, or a quark as the basic part of our conceptual framework, then I see no reason why I can't talk about myself as a part, when I'm dealing with a framework that's on the scale of, say, the nation or society.

      I don't think you can say with certainty what the most basic, indivisible parts are, in the multi-level sense. Before the 20th century, scientists thought that atoms where the smallest, partless, indivisible bits of matter. This idea came from the Greek philosophers, who said that the world was made up of these tiny, indivisible "atoms" -- literally 'a-tom' or in-divisible or un-cutable. Then in the 20th century we found out that atoms did indeed have parts, they were divisible; they were made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Then in the 21st century, we found out that those parts had parts! And we got quantum physics. Then, instead of parts, we get waves. And maybe strings. Vibrations of pure force, no longer hard little chunks of matter.
      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    78. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends... what do they taste like?

    79. Re:Or... by dabraun · · Score: 1

      Would you eat pigs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dogs/cats, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dolphins, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat lemurs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat organutangs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat chimpanzees, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Yes to all of the above if they are healthy, tasty, and safe.

      Would you eat genetically 50/50 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat 90/10 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      These don't even exist, so I'm not going to bother responding.

      Would you eat 100% humans, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      No one slaughters humans industrially for food and no one will since there are known bioligical problems with consuming your own species (in most cases, some animals may benefit from this, but we don't). The "ethical" history against canabalism is probably no different from Jews not wanting to consume pork - it is (or was for pork) a bad idea for reasons too complex to explain to everyone so people are simply taught from birth that it is taboo.

      Some people are vegetarians just to be "healthy" - though these people are usually smart enough to consume a few normal animal protien sources, eggs for example. The fact is that fat, sugar, and protien laden foods are so abundent now in the first world that it is simply not necessary to consume meat as often as we can financially afford to. Over the top vegan types basically are out of touch with nature - their sense of self-importance is so great they fail to understand how biologically similar we are to every other living thing and that there is nothing wrong with eating normally.
    80. Re:Or... by thePig · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why should that point be considered stupid?
      For every being, the concept of it finding an item 'appealing' has been honed by natural selection.
      Cannibalism doesn't go well in a society like ours, and along with the possibility of prion diseases it has become an unappealing custom.
      Since most of the time, living beings don't even think about what to eat, I guess for humans too, eating what it finds appealing should be quite proper.

      --
      rajmohan_h@yahoo.com
    81. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm Cajun, which means I'll pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat me first.

    82. Re:Or... by maop · · Score: 1

      The cutoff is which species I can have complex social bonds with.

    83. Re:Or... by shaitand · · Score: 1

      'Okay, but aren't those smaller parts that make me up *themselves* collective results of simpler parts? And then aren't those parts made of simpler parts? If you say I'm more like a swarming ant colony, where the ant is the simple, basic part that makes up the larger function of the swarm, then isn't the ant itself a system of parts, namely cells? And then isn't each ant cell a system of parts, namely organelles and other molecules? And then aren't those molecules made up of atoms? And atoms made up of protons, nuetrons, and electrons? And those made up of quarks?'

      Without question. I wouldn't argue with what you have said in this reply only add to it and bring this increasingly philosophical discussion back to the topic at hand. Of all of these parts you mention, the only 'parts' that really exist the most basic (which I won't try to define for reason you already mentioned), the rest are all abstract concepts we have invented to label patterns we perceive in those most basic parts or their interactions.

      That might seem like a mere technical point but it is actually the core point in this discussion. Neither our perception of the two genetically related plants as seperate siblings nor the plants potential perception of both as being part of its collective whole is correct or incorrect. You mention the parts at various levels of the scales but you have remember these scales are not definition of reality, they are inventions we have made to aid our understanding of it.

      The plant recognizing its component parts on the same scale we invented is unlikely, only being similar to ourselves with intelligences that work in the same fashion are likely to see similar patterns in the actual chaos that is the fabric of the universe. I find it amusing because it seems that most who are skeptical seem to be implying that understanding siblings in the fashion we do would somehow be superior to understanding similar genetics in a different fashion.

    84. Re:Or... by MojoStan · · Score: 1

      A vegetarian requires only 1/20th of the land space of a meat eater to feed themselves.

      5Kg of beef requires the same amount of water to raise as the average family uses in a year.

      I'm not claiming bullshit, but that sounds suspiciously like PETA propaganda. Here's some counter-propaganda from a non-biased source: Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association! (Yes, I'm joking about "non-biased.")
      • "85 percent of the nation's grazing lands are not suitable for farming... Cattle eat forages that humans cannot consume and convert them into a nutrient-dense food."
      • "At 435 gallons per pound of beef, 10 pounds of beef equals 4,350 gallons of water, or an annual average of 362.5 gallons per month. For a family of four, this adds up to 3 gallons per person per day. Assuming the statement refers only to the amount of grain that could be produced with the same amount of water, at 151 gallons per pound of wheat produced, this would yield .32 ounces of unprocessed wheat per person per day. In terms of their water budget, this family certainly couldnt afford daily activities liking washing the dishes (20 gallons), reading the paper (300 gallons for a single days supply of newsprint) or taking a shower (15-20 gallons for the average 15 minute shower) according to the American Water Works Association."
      --
      TO START
      PRESS ANY KEY

      Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...

    85. Re:Or... by fferreres · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      So it would be ok for you to eat humans, if they tasted great and it was legal? You'd buy slaves if you were in the 18th century? You'd think women are inferior because they were made from a mans chest bones? You have no problem at all, because it suits you.

      It sounds great: you simply do what you feel like doing, and don't do what you don't want to do. You see no reason to get 'ethics' involved in any decision really.

      Sounds great! But the truth is you don't care about any living thing maybe except for humans, because that's what you've been touch. All in all, you are accepting whatever programming got into your brain by who knows who, without thinking for yourself. That's why you see no reason for "ethics" in the first place.

      --
      unfinished: (adj.)
    86. Re:Or... by mpe · · Score: 1

      Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings.

      Maybe they need to test what happens with genetically identical plants. Many plants propergate asexually and many more can be persuaded to do so by human intervention.

    87. Re:Or... by mpe · · Score: 1

      A vegetarian requires only 1/20th of the land space of a meat eater to feed themselves.

      But that is likely to be intensivly farmed land, as opposed to land with only needs to grow grass.

      5Kg of beef requires the same amount of water to raise as the average family uses in a year.

      Are you sure this isn't dairy cattle...

    88. Re:Or... by DerangedAlchemist · · Score: 1

      So, by extending that logic, it means that in a few hundred generations, plants will have a functioning society.....

      Once bugs, bacteria and animals are included too, I believe this is called an ecosystem.

    89. Re:Or... by somersault · · Score: 1

      Bit of a random aside, but I used to make bots for Counter-Strike (as in AI opponents, rather than hacks!), and it was funny to see people attribute behaviour to teh bots that I hadn't actually coded in there... of course it was called 'TEAMbot', and the intention was to get the bots to act as a team, but I remember at an early stage some people thought the bots were backing each other up even when I hadn't coded in any 'teamwork' stuff yet! People will anthropomorphicise anything! With regards to what you're saying above, I totally agree. I suppose you're being rhetorical, but I think we can quite clearly see 'fear' and 'anger' in other species, and even things like 'love'. I also have wondered about whether we see the same colours as other humans do, though I'm pretty sure that we would because of the way the spectrum mixes together smoothly, and we all have the same rod and cone arrangement in our eyes, as well as viewing the same spectrum (maybe some have slightly different weightings of RGB of course, and colourblind people have one of the colours missing, can't remember which). It is still feasible that we all see a different set of colours entirely though, it's just very difficult to imagine without being able to experience.. in the same way that our brain doesn't have the equipment to navigate using ultrasonic sensors (now that would be an interesting biology experiment! ;))

      --
      which is totally what she said
    90. Re:Or... by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 2, Funny

      Frankly, I'm very comfortable with my place in the food chain.

      Great Cthulhu approves of your enthusiasm.

    91. Re:Or... by hkmwbz · · Score: 1
      Ethical cutoff point? None.

      I eat what I like to eat, and what's legal. Eating humans isn't legal and I don't think it sounds appealing, so I won't do it. Nothing to do with ethics. If someone wants to eat someone, and some other person donates his body to be eaten, he can feel free to dig right in for all I care. That said, there are some disease related problems with eating one's own species, so it might be wise to avoid it.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
    92. Re:Or... by rearden · · Score: 1

      I find my cut off point to be far easier than any of this... I eat what taste good!

      --
      Huh?
    93. Re:Or... by volpe · · Score: 1
      The absence of selfishness != altruism...

      From thesaurus.reference.com:

      Main Entry: altruistic
      Part of Speech: adjective
      Definition: unselfish
    94. Re:Or... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1

      These plants aren't giving anything up in this case...
      THey are giving up water, light, room for growth.
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    95. Re:Or... by fitten · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You're right. I do have my own set of ethics governing what I eat, but as I said, I feel no reason to justify them to you or anyone else. As long as I'm not doing anything illegal, and more importantly, affecting *you*... why do you care?

      Other than that, your 'conclusions' about me are... well... let's just say uninformed.

    96. Re:Or... by Johnny5000 · · Score: 1

      "85 percent of the nation's grazing lands are not suitable for farming... Cattle eat forages that humans cannot consume and convert them into a nutrient-dense food."

      I'm no expert on any of this, but aren't most cattle these days fed mostly corn and the like?
      They might eat some grass, but my understanding is that it doesn't make up the bulk of their diet.

      --
      The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
    97. Re:Or... by Chrisje · · Score: 1

      There is no ethical cut-off point. Firstly, ethics are arbitrary notions of what the general consensus would call "acceptable behavior", so ultimately they are moot.

      With regards to the question you pose, there is only one answer: I would eat all of the animals mentioned above. Funnily enough you stick to mammals, but I would also include snails, frogs, seafood of all kinds and fish to the list. Insects I'm not too fond of, they don't look yummy. However, if my survival was at stake both you, your kids and any insect I can get my hands on are dead meat. And that goes for any edible plants I find along the way too.

      Frankly, the notion that humans are intrinsically more valuable than other life-forms is folly. There's 7 billion of us, and we're quite the epidemic. Eating some of those specimens would be a minor collateral, 's all. Fortunately, we humans currently swing the biggest evolutionary sticks, so we are at the top of the food chain.

      As it was once said: It's great to be the king.

    98. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans don't have instincts...only brains, apparently.

    99. Re:Or... by Johnny5000 · · Score: 1

      Main Entry: altruistic
      Part of Speech: adjective
      Definition: unselfish


      unselfishness is certainly a component of altruism, but the actual definition of altruism
      should be more precise than the one word.

      Basically, that's an acceptable entry for a thesaurus, but I'd want my dictionary definition
      to go into a little more detail.
      --
      The libertarian solution to the failures of capitalism is to apply more capitalism til the failures are fixed.
    100. Re:Or... by jotok · · Score: 1

      Any Dawkins is "too much Dawkins." If you want poorly reasoned arguments, sarcasm, and ridiculous extension of metaphors beyond their usefulness to explain things, then you just go to Fark.

    101. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Would you eat [range of animal from cute to humans] slaughtered industrially for meat?"

      - sure, as long as it's meets : http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v30y2005i3p270 -283.html I don't really see a problem... oh wait that wasn't the point, was it?

    102. Re:Or... by hoshino · · Score: 1

      Would you eat pigs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dogs/cats, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat dolphins, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat lemurs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat organutangs, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat chimpanzees, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat genetically 50/50 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat 90/10 human/chimpanzee crosses, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Would you eat 100% humans, slaughtered industrially for meat?
      Yes.
    103. Re:Or... by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

      How would one anthropomorphise a human? But yes, plants hate to be anthropomorphised.

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    104. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      let's hear your brilliant refutation of the Oxford professor's arguments otherwise shut the fuck up.

    105. Re:Or... by sakasune · · Score: 1

      Reminds of me a quote from the Clerks cartoons (I just watched them all again recently)

      Randal: [about monkey] Look how scared he is. He's shaking.
      Dante: No, he's masturbating.
      Randal: Yeah, but it's out of fear.

      --
      "You're arguing for a universe with fewer waffles in it," I said. "I'm prepared to call that cowardice."
    106. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "They might eat some grass, but my understanding is that it doesn't make up the bulk of their diet"

      Your understanding is wrong.

    107. Re:Or... by illegalcortex · · Score: 1

      I'm not really sure why you seem to be arguing with me. You asked if I thought an organism couldn't distinguish between its siblings and its own self. I'm pointing out that this is a moot point and that the real key in kinship bonding is rooted in the genes. In humans and other animals it may be performed different and more complex ways that can be fooled, but all of this is rooted in the genes. Of course the genes don't do it directly. The reason I said you are stuck on the high level stuff is because you seem to not understand why I'm saying that plant root recognition and animal kin recognition have a similar genetic reasoning. It's easy to get distracted in the mechanism they use at the higher level and miss this. I believe that's what the original poster was doing, thinking that "recognizing kin" was different from "can't distinguish between kin and self." I wanted to point out that those two things are actually pretty much the same, at the genetic level.

      The genes are in the driver's seat, even though they are still constrained by staying on the road the environment provides. They are in the driver's seat because they are actively trying to reproduce their genetic code. Nothing inorganic in the environment is trying to do this.

    108. Re:Or... by illegalcortex · · Score: 1

      When I say "sibling" I really just mean "kin." Not literal brother and sister. Inbreeding in the wild is the rule, not the exception. It's fairly widespread, even if it is sometimes counterproductive. And there is a lot more than just antigens going on in the smell arena. In addition to smell, it's likely that vision and sound play into it in organisms that have developed those senses.

    109. Re:Or... by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      One of the mods on this post is "Redundant". I'm curious, how does the first post get modded "Redundant"?

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    110. Re:Or... by LittleBigLui · · Score: 1

      Don't anthropomorphise species which are not human,


      Exactly. They hate that.
      --
      Free as in mason.
    111. Re:Or... by Raven_Stark · · Score: 1

      "Maybe they can't recognize siblings at all. Maybe the genetics are close enough so that the plant can not distinguish its own root from that of its siblings."

      So if it is just chemistry, it isn't thought? If so, then we humans don't think either.

      I am not saying that plants feel the warm and fuzzies for their family members or that they are conscious. I do think the type of chemical interaction you suggest could be considered thought (recognition), albeit at a very simple level.

      Sorry if I am putting words in your mouth; I am also responding to various comments after yours and insomnia has fried my brain.

      --
      http://www.marxist.com/
    112. Re:Or... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you could realize that emotions are not merely the chemical components that cause them. Pain without suffering is meaningless, merely a diagnostic function alerting the organism that it is damaged. Merely having the ability to experience chemical reactions does not mean that they experience them as humans do.

      An easy example? Poke a monkey with a needle, it doesn't like it. Poke a Masochist, he asks for more. Limbic channels aside, emotions aren't merely chemical A + chemical B. They are interpreted through the lens of consciousness, something plants and animals lack.

      Also before somebody starts debating consciousness, I mean a highly developed social awareness of ones self in interaction with the world around you. Not monkey A can use a stick, check it out its a tool.

    113. Re:Or... by zarkill · · Score: 1

      Even if we lived in a universe where cannibalism was generally accepted, I don't think industrialized cannibalism would be very practical. Humans wouldn't just stand idly by and allow themselves to be raised for food, so the human-farmers would have to constantly deal with insurrection and rebellion among the livestock.

      Maybe we could go the "soylent green" route, and recycle people who are already dead or dying, but even in that case the people being led to slaughter would probably put up a fight. When there are plenty more docile animals to be eaten, breeding humans for food on an industrial scale just doesn't make economic sense.

    114. Re:Or... by fferreres · · Score: 1

      I was playing devil's advocate. You DO have you own set of ethics, it's important to recognize that. I will only add that maybe I do believe animals deserve a better life, and we are treating most of with so much disrespect it's really sad.

      --
      unfinished: (adj.)
    115. Re:Or... by Ghardak · · Score: 1

      Don't anthropomorphise species which are not human ..
      they don't like it!
    116. Re:Or... by scwizard · · Score: 1

      Damn, I had mod points yesterday and I didn't use them...

      --
      ~= scwizard =~
  2. Sharing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I too become fiercely competitive when forced to share my pot with strangers

    1. Re:Sharing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm amazed it took until the second post to get that comment.

    2. Re:Sharing by Non-CleverNickName · · Score: 0

      Damnit, i just used my last mod point...

      I usually don't mod ACs up, but this would have been worth it.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    3. Re:Sharing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An you get the munchies, too. LOLZ +5 funny!

    4. Re:Sharing by ralph1 · · Score: 0

      worse is having to get your pot from strangers

  3. Just like the students by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species

    I hear that the students at Mac exhibit similar behaviour...

  4. When will you learn?! by snowgirl · · Score: 4, Funny

    See? I was right! Plants have feelings, too! Eating plants is MURDER!

    I'm a nilegan for life! I won't harm another thing in this world, just to advance myself!

    --
    WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    1. Re:When will you learn?! by ale_ryu · · Score: 2, Funny

      I guess cheese is the only edible thing without feelings then...

    2. Re:When will you learn?! by mulvane · · Score: 1

      That's gonna make for a short lived stance.

    3. Re:When will you learn?! by stupidsocialscientis · · Score: 1

      I agree whole-heartedly, after hearing water gurgling and babbling in a brook three days ago, I haven't been able to bring myself to drink it, as I believe it may be sentient. I am getting very thirsty though, so I don't know how long I will be able to refrain from the carnage and water-shed. (pun intended)

      --
      Well, as far as Sig's go, Freud was a doozy.
    4. Re:When will you learn?! by mulvane · · Score: 1, Funny

      Cheese is made from milk.. Think of all the starving calves out there!!!!

    5. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Don't worry. I love veal...

    6. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really, the cows produce excess in this case

      But what about the bacteria/fungi that had to die to make that cheese edible?

      What about the plants that had to die so that the cow could eat and make the milk?

    7. Re:When will you learn?! by jshriverWVU · · Score: 1
      I'm a nilegan for life! I won't harm another thing in this world, just to advance myself!

      Don't breath then might hurt microorganisms in the air. ;)

    8. Re:When will you learn?! by Jaqenn · · Score: 2

      I guess cheese is the only edible thing without feelings then... From wikipedia:

      Cheese is made by curdling milk using a combination of rennet (or rennet substitutes) and acidification. Bacteria culture acidify the milk and play a role in defining the texture and flavor of most cheeses. Some cheeses also feature molds, either on the outer rind or throughout. If you're going to call for plant rights, you shouldn't leave out the molds and bacteria. I guess they might not actually be alive when you eat the cheese, but they were certainly exploited.
      --
      You are awash in a sea of fiercely stated opinions. Obvious exits are: 'File->Quit', 'Reply', and 'Page Down'.
    9. Re:When will you learn?! by snowgirl · · Score: 1

      OMG YOU'RE RIGHT! HUUUUUUUUP-

      *sits there patiently, then turns blue, then faints and collapses to the ground*

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    10. Re:When will you learn?! by asninn · · Score: 2, Informative

      The correct term is breatharian, actually (or oxygenarian if you're into KoL).

      --
      butter the donkey
    11. Re:When will you learn?! by P3NIS_CLEAVER · · Score: 1

      'rennet' is actually the lining of a calves stomach. I doubt calves are happy about cheese making.

      --
      Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!

      http://financialpetition.org/
    12. Re:When will you learn?! by truthsearch · · Score: 1

      I'm a level 5 vegan - I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.

    13. Re:When will you learn?! by GmAz · · Score: 1

      So, you don't wear clothes? I mean, cotton is made from plants. Do you drink tea of any kind? If so, where do you think tea leaves come from. Do you drive or take any kind of public transportation, or do you walk everywhere? The exhaust from cars and trucks harm our environment. The best way you can help our environment is to go kill yourself in the middle of the forest and let the plants use your decomposing body to grow off of.

      Guess what, God created the plants and animals of this world for us to use as we need to live.

      --
      Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
    14. Re:When will you learn?! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I know you're being funny, but you first have to learn to crawl before running. Similarly, you don't advance from Kindergarten to post PhD knowledge in one day.

      Anyways, the steps for advancing your spirituality is:

      1) carnivorism
      a) cutting out fat / fatty foods
      b) cutting out sugar and other refined foods
      2) vegetarian
      3) vegan
      4) fruitarian / nutarian
      5) waterian
      6) lightarian

      There have been a few people throughout history who didn't eat anything, but you'll have to do your own research since you have to find your own truth.

      One step at a time. You have as many lifetimes as you need.

      Cheers

    15. Re:When will you learn?! by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      Just because they are used in the process, doesn't mean they are consumed by the process.....

      For example, fermentation of alcohol -- that's just a by-product of the little buggers eating the sugars not of them dying.

      Layne

    16. Re:When will you learn?! by Rei · · Score: 1

      Most rennet these days comes from genetically engineered microbes. Traditional european cheesemaking does involve animal rennet, though.

      There are many non-GE, non-animal "rennets", but they're not as general purpose as the former two.

      I'm speaking as a vegetarian who used to have a cheesemaking hobby, and who still has some microbial rennet in the fridge. :)

      --
      Everybody point at the libertarian and laugh.
    17. Re:When will you learn?! by provigilman · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and then you drink and digest the yeast. So I guess you're right in that they aren't consumed by the process, they're consumed by your gut... Yeast killer!!!

      --
      "Life's short and hard, like a body building elf." -- The Bloodhound Gang
    18. Re:When will you learn?! by TheJasper · · Score: 1

      actually I think you'll find they don't generally survive the process, but if they do, then they get eaten. For cheese as well as alcohol. One of the reasons it's hard to get high alcohol levels in beer or wine (no distilation allowed) is because the yeast dies. Effectively it poisons it's environment with its own waste. Sort of like never flushing the toilet. Port, for example, is wine with added alcohol.

    19. Re:When will you learn?! by Boogaroo · · Score: 1

      What about crushing the plants on the way into the forest? Better to go watch your step in a rocky or sandy area. :)

    20. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A few people throughout history who didn't eat anything? That's just fucking loopy. Let me know how 5 and 6 work out for ya.

    21. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is interesting to note that the people who didn't eat anything are all dead now. (of course, so are most of the others)

    22. Re:When will you learn?! by TheBig1 · · Score: 1

      Some interesting links regarding this. I doubt that these are authentic, but hey, who knows? 8-)

      http://www.solarhealing.com/
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hira_Ratan_Manek
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungazing
    23. Re:When will you learn?! by snowgirl · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I know you're being funny, but you first have to learn to crawl before running. Similarly, you don't advance from Kindergarten to post PhD knowledge in one day.


      In a related analogy, you can't go from a sane and reasoning adult to believing this stuff in one day.

      Take all the time you need to realize how reality works, because after you die your opinions won't matter much anyways.
      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    24. Re:When will you learn?! by fitten · · Score: 1

      Plants have it rough... they have to grow in one spot and can't really move. That makes it easy to catch, kill, and eat them. Animals, though... those are a bit tougher to catch. At least they have a fighting chance to avoid my gnashing teeth! Poor plants :(

    25. Re:When will you learn?! by bckrispi · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm a level 5 vegan - I won't eat anything that casts a shadow.
      Ha! I'm a level 7 mage. I cast "remove shadow" on the cow, and "doogie's irresistable hunger" on truthsearch. Save vs. spell or eat the yummy bovine!!!
      --
      Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
    26. Re:When will you learn?! by Torodung · · Score: 1

      From the wiki article on "sungazing":

      [Khwaja Shamsuddin Azeemi] cautions against doing sungazing for prolonged periods as this could lead to mental health problems.

      Alternatively, the mental health problems could be causing sungazing for prolonged periods of time.

      We're not sure which.

      -- Toro
    27. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Gustav Fechner has also been quoted as saying:

      "BURN WITH ME."

      (Doctor Who, "42")

    28. Re:When will you learn?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice...

      Though may I propose Step 2 as all-organic foods?

    29. Re:When will you learn?! by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Hey look everyone! A new openning in the gene pool!

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    30. Re:When will you learn?! by siriuskase · · Score: 1

      Cheese has no purpose other than to be eaten.

      --
      If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
    31. Re:When will you learn?! by maop · · Score: 1

      There have been a few people throughout history who didn't eat anything, but you'll have to do your own research since you have to find your own truth.
      One step at a time. You have as many lifetimes as you need. So you believe in magic or reincarnation? Get a clue.
    32. Re:When will you learn?! by master_p · · Score: 1

      Bullshit. What does 'advancing your spirituality' mean other than being a nutcase?

    33. Re:When will you learn?! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      There is a difference between believing and knowing....

    34. Re:When will you learn?! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      Why does it matter to you what I do or don't eat?

    35. Re:When will you learn?! by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > because after you die your opinions won't matter much anyways.

      That's partially true! You'll realize the fact that you're a Spiritual Body living in a Physical Body having a Human Experience and wasted most of your life on useless rhetoric everyone else told instead you of instead of finding your own truth. The NDE/OBE is one way to verify this -- and then you _know_.

      The only way to truly understand Life is to understand Death. Death is not the end, just another beginning.

    36. Re:When will you learn?! by snowgirl · · Score: 1

      The NDE/OBE is one way to verify this -- and then you _know_.


      NDEs are regularly recreated without danger to a person in a centrifuge... it turns out that literally, when the brain starts to black out, the brain starts hallucinating.

      Interestingly, while not everyone gets an NDE experience from a centrifuge blackout, the ratio of people who do, are exactly the same who have otherwise uncontrolled NDEs.

      Just because I dream that I can fly doesn't mean that I think that it is physically possible. But since "NDEs" are only typically talked about by people who were in a near-death experience, we have a relation of those dreams as being significant to the death process. However, again, air force centrifuge personel will quite happily tell you, that they induce NDEs all the time, with no association with death, or passing.

      In fact, I suppose some people have "NDEs" so often in the centrifuge that they would just start ignoring them as they do normal dreams.
      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    37. Re:When will you learn?! by Reservoir+Penguin · · Score: 1

      Funny you said that >because after you die your opinions won't matter much anyways. Except for a few billion people who worship you as the prohet/messiah of the religion you established.

      --
      US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
    38. Re:When will you learn?! by snowgirl · · Score: 1

      No no no... your opinions still wouldn't matter then. Only their opinions of what your opinions would matter then. :)

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
  5. Sentience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dudley said "Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives"

    Why should anyone believe your statement that they lack cognition and memory?

    1. Re:Sentience by Chris+Burke · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why should anyone believe your statement that they lack cognition and memory?

      Well they asked the plants if they had cognition and memory, and the plants said "no". Then they asked if they meant they didn't have either or just didn't have both, and the plant said "both of what?" So there ya go.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    2. Re:Sentience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should anyone believe unicorns don't exist?

    3. Re:Sentience by calcapt · · Score: 1

      Depends on your definition of cognition, I guess. Plants do respond to stimuli, and in order to do so, they have to detect it somehow. But, it's not a mental faculty, which cognition implies. It's more like, cell mechanism detects this, tells other mechanisms to do that to respond.

      Plants don't, at least I believe they don't, have cells specialized to serve the purpose of nerves and neurons. There's no nervous system that leads to a brain, which then decides what to do, and tells the plant to start an action. This also excludes plants from having any sort of "memory" or they type of memory that we have. I'm sure plants have cellular mechanisms that allow plants to respond to repeated stimuli as if they had memory, but it certainly wouldn't be the kind of memory WE have.

      Regarding the article; I wonder if plants are able to recognize kin via a method resembling the self incompatibility mechanism (where mechanisms in certain plants species prevent self fertilization). Perhaps the plant roots of related plants secrete the same signal molecule, and it doesn't elicit any sort of response from the plants. But, when unrelated plants secrete different signal molecules, a competitive response is elicited.

    4. Re:Sentience by TheJasper · · Score: 1
      Well one can always get stuck on definitions, but I think cognition is more than responding to stimuli. Merriam webster calls it mental processes, which I don't believe plants have.

      if plants have a mechanism which allows them to simulate memory, then isn't that memory? It doesn't have to be our kind of memory, it just has to mean they respond to similar circumstances in the same way due to past experience. Learning behaviour. At least, I can't readily think of another good definition for things which can't communicate.

    5. Re:Sentience by calcapt · · Score: 1

      You bring up a good point, and as I said before, I definitely believe cognition is a mental process. And, I'm pretty sure a plant doesn't have a central command center like our brain, so I don't believe their capable of mental processes.

      I have to disagree with you on memory though. With human memory, we can recall one memory multiple times, and our response to that memory can be different. For example, hate your dad's imposing rules and vow you'll never do the same to your kid? Get older, you realize your dad was just trying to raise you to be a good kid, and you use the same rules on YOUR kids. This is essentially learning behavior, but it relies on having our sort of memory. Plants can't do this, and their sort of memory is probably more analogous to that of our adaptive immune system; sees a pattern it doesn't like, builds a response to that pattern, and always responds the same way. There may be an initial learning/imprinting process, but new responses to that stimuli can't be developed.

      As a result, I think using the single term memory for all types is misleading, and one needs to make differentiation between types.

    6. Re:Sentience by aztec+rain+god · · Score: 1

      Damned ents with their NAND operator...

      --
      Sig cannot be found.
    7. Re:Sentience by vandan · · Score: 1

      Exactly.

      Have a read of the absolutely brilliant book, 'Autopoieses and Cognition', by Humberto Maturana and Francesca Varella. They argue that cognition is a fundamental operation of all life, and they make their case extremely well. It's a hard book to track down, and a yet harder book to read, but it's well worthwhile.

    8. Re:Sentience by TheJasper · · Score: 1

      I see what you mean, and I suppose that is a form of memory I hadn't considered. Still, for most purposes the term memory suffices. When getting technical I believe scientists actually do have diffrent words for type of memory, but probabaly in relation to human or animal memory.

    9. Re:Sentience by calcapt · · Score: 1

      Eh heh, you'd think so, and I'd hope so =P Scientist are silly people.

  6. Stop anthropomorphizing plants! by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Funny

    They *hate* it when you do that!

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
    1. Re:Stop anthropomorphizing plants! by Radon360 · · Score: 1

      I don't see them protesting Veggie Tales.

      :-P

  7. Cognition and memory by Mostly+a+lurker · · Score: 1

    The article quotes Susan Dudley, associate professor of biology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, as saying plants lack cognition and memory. Has this been definitively demonstrated? I seem to remember experiments 20, 30 years ago that suggested this might be untrue.

    1. Re:Cognition and memory by man_ls · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Since most (all?) plants lack anything resembling a nervous system, and it's widely recognized that higher-order memory and cognitive functions can only occur in the presence of an organized nervous system, it stands to reason that plants aren't capable of memory and cognition.

      This isn't to say that plants can't "remember" things, for instance, plant immune response to pathogens, injury, etc. They can habituate to hormones, chemicals, and so forth. It simply means that the "memory" and "learning" being done is low-order physiological homeostasis maintenance and not an insightful act. Intracellular messaging systems account for a lot of "emergent" behavior from these organisms, but it's a far jump from that up to something that can actively plan its actions before it does them.

    2. Re:Cognition and memory by pverb · · Score: 1

      You should thank Susan; at least from her conclusion and your statement we can be reasonably sure that you are not a plant.

    3. Re:Cognition and memory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can habituate to hormones, chemicals, and so forth
      And your "higher-order memory and cognitive functions" work exactly how again?

      Not saying, just saying.
  8. Plant selflessness and selfish genes by saforrest · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is certainly consistent with the selfish-gene explanation for selfless behaviour: there is an evolutionary advantage, from the perspective of the genes, to co-operating with your siblings because your siblings also bear some of your genes.

    This is the same reason hy such "nepotism" exists elsewhere in biology; there's no reason why one would expect plants to be any different, though I imagine the problem of recognizing your siblings is somewhat harder.

    1. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Doesn't your logic recommend breeding with your siblings?

    2. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by maspatra · · Score: 1

      Not at all. The selfish gene point of view is that the gene, rather than the organism, is what is being selected. Therefore, there is altruism toward relatives, because those relatives are likely to hold copies of your own genes. This can eventually expand to (and even beyond) the same species.

      However breeding with your siblings, while in the short run is beneficial from a gene's point of view simply in terms of numbers, is ultimately detrimental because of the greater chance of inheriting a deadly recessive trait. Organisms that favored inbreeding would be more likely to be victims of said traits, which is a death knell for the genes in those bodies--you can't reproduce if your "host" body is dead! If a gene's primary interest is long-term survival, it would do best to guide its host toward less potentially dangerous mates.

      Read The Selfish Gene and The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins, all this stuff is covered in there. They're great books too.

    3. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by Nutty_Irishman · · Score: 1

      As someone with an adopted Niece, I can tell you that the nepotism for relatives on the human level is quite invariant to whether or not a relative shares the same genetics as you.

      I've never agreed with that whole spread your genes by helping family members (I've read half of the Selfish Gene until I realized it just didn't make much sense to me). Humans are one of the few (if not only) species whose ultimate goal is NOT to maximize their progeny (and henceforth spread their genes). Compare that to our near ape/chimps whose reflection on status is affected by how many children they have.

    4. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by Knara · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure I agree with that. Humans *can* have goals that don't include reproduction and raising of young as a primary purpose, but the sheer number of organisms who breed as soon as resource allocation makes possible (and often earlier) vs those who don't and have other goals which never include reproduction and raising of offspring would seem to indicate that reproduction is still the singular, most powerful driving force for homo sapiens.

    5. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by bckrispi · · Score: 1

      Humans are one of the few (if not only) species whose ultimate goal is NOT to maximize their progeny (and henceforth spread their genes). Compare that to our near ape/chimps whose reflection on status is affected by how many children they have.
      You only need to go back a few hundred years to find humans behaving quite similar to our other primate cousins.
      --
      Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
    6. Re:Plant selflessness and selfish genes by PMBjornerud · · Score: 0

      Nobody said that humans recognize family members by sniffing out their genetic makeup. But this does in no way invalidate the fact that for throughout history, families have shared genes, so helping your family is indirectly helping your own genes.

      Second, the ultimate goal have never been to maximize the progeny. The goal is to preserve and spread your genes, which in a basic form is acheived by maximize progeny. Don't confuse the two, because humans are more complex than plants.

      --
      I lost my sig.
  9. Sharing my pot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species".

    I know I get annoyed when forced to share my pot.

  10. Roots - of all sorts. by pragma_x · · Score: 2, Informative
    The paper is short, but gets to the point:

    We found that kin groups allocated less to their fine root mass than did stranger groups when they competed below ground, indicating that these plants could discriminate relatives. Root allocation did not differ between kin and stranger groups grown in isolated pots, indicating that the cues for kin recognition lie in root interactions. Siblings were less competitive than strangers, which is consistent with kin selection.
    I'm not a botanist, but that sounds like a rather profound change in growth behavior just because a nearby root system "looks familiar". Then again, on a biochemical level, maybe that's all there is to it.

    http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/biology_lette rs/RSBL20070232.pdf
  11. um... by njfuzzy · · Score: 1
    "the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives"


    Complex? I'm pretty sure that could be defined as the most simple social behavor possible.

    --
    My Photography - http://ian-x.com
    The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
    1. Re:um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives"

      Complex? I'm pretty sure that could be defined as the most simple social behavor possible.


      The author adapted the scope for Royal Britisch publication.

      Original publication

  12. Uh oh... by themoneyish · · Score: 1

    Now I'll have to start fooling the plants to think I'm related to them whenever I want my apples to grow larger.

    *ducks from the apple thrown at me by my apple tree that read this comment*

  13. PETA? by PygmySurfer · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, does this mean PETA will fuck off and die now?

    1. Re:PETA? by Pojut · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's like I always say to any vegetarian:

      "For every animal you don't eat, I'm going to eat three"

      Oh, and the always popular:

      "There is room for every one of god's creations...right next to the mashed potatoes."

    2. Re:PETA? by Mattintosh · · Score: 4, Funny

      My favorite:

      "If we aren't supposed to eat the animals, then why did God make them out of meat?"

    3. Re:PETA? by techpawn · · Score: 1

      What do you have against People Eating Tasty Animals?

      --
      Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
    4. Re:PETA? by Billosaur · · Score: 1

      Better:

      If you are what you eat, then I'm a vegetarian.

      --
      GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
    5. Re:PETA? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1
      Only after you pay your $0.10/pound tax on meat that the grazers demand...

      Vegetarian: old Cherokee word for bad hunter.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    6. Re:PETA? by Damek · · Score: 4, Funny

      Careful, cowboy, God made humans out of meat, too. You might want to reconsider that one... ;-)

    7. Re:PETA? by Damek · · Score: 1

      And people wonder why omnivores tend to be overweight. Three servings of meat at each meal and mashed potatoes? Might want to reconsider that diet ;-)

    8. Re:PETA? by tringstad · · Score: 1
      "For every animal you don't eat, I'm going to eat three"

      So, since I won't eat any of the animals in existence, you're going to eat three times as many animals as there are in existence?

      Good luck with that.

      -Tommy

      --
      "I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
    9. Re:PETA? by Pojut · · Score: 1

      Never said I would eat the same ones that you refuse to eat. I simply said I would eat three.

      Just for kicks though, I'll make sure I stick with eating the "cute" animals...I think I will start with dolphins.

    10. Re:PETA? by smellsofbikes · · Score: 4, Funny

      Whenever someone says that to me, I say the same thing about babies. It upsets people sometimes.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    11. Re:PETA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It's like I always say to any vegetarian:

      "For every animal you don't eat, I'm going to eat three"


      This is a Maddox quote. Link to the original page this meme came from (with picture!) http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sp onsor
    12. Re:PETA? by Pojut · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up, mod my OP down...forgot to cite the source. Thanks!

    13. Re:PETA? by slashrogue · · Score: 1

      Your whole family is made out of meat.
      :)

    14. Re:PETA? by Joe+Snipe · · Score: 1

      Don't forget to pay your $0.10/pound tax on meat you cock-smoking teabaggers!!

      (I couldn't resist)

      --
      Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
    15. Re:PETA? by Harald+Paulsen · · Score: 2, Funny

      Bite me!

      --
      Harald
    16. Re:PETA? by SkyFalling · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that be three times as many animals as exist?

    17. Re:PETA? by JamesSk · · Score: 1

      re: vegetarianism etc in the grand scheme of things there's only a miniscule genetic difference between humans and animals though : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/ a/2004/05/08/GENES.TMP&type=science Humans are animals too afterall, and if plants make concessions for other plants with a similar genetic make-up... What i'm trying to say is that animals are very close to us in the food chain. Isn't the sensible thing to expand our gene pool, by consuming foods of the most fundamental type, and with the genes most diverse from ourselves, instead of constricting it?

    18. Re:PETA? by tringstad · · Score: 1
      Simple logic completely eludes you.

      -Tommy

      --
      "I got a half gallon of Jack, and 2 dozen Ant Traps. I'm about to get wild." -me
    19. Re:PETA? by ross.w · · Score: 1

      What have you got against People Eating Tasty Animals?

      --
      If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
    20. Re:PETA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would you agree that... all vegetarians are communists?

    21. Re:PETA? by denttford · · Score: 2, Funny

      Vegetables are what food eats!

      --

      Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
    22. Re:PETA? by jc42 · · Score: 1

      I like to explain that I'm a carnivore, of ecological grounds. After all, if you want a balanced ecology, you need a small population of carnivores to eat the vegetarians and keep their population in check. This gets me some funny looks, but so far nobody has tried to argue against me.

      I keep hoping that some day someone will ask me who keeps the carnivore population in check, but this hasn't happened yet.

      (I suppose one answer might be like the old one about "It's turtles all the way down." In a food pyramid, it's carnivores all the way up, past the first couple of trophic levels. ;-)

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    23. Re:PETA? by Pojut · · Score: 1

      So tell me. You have a problem eating animals for nourishment, but no problem killing animals for fun? (in reference to your sig)

    24. Re:PETA? by PygmySurfer · · Score: 1

      I don't appreciate the competition - ever been to a restaurant only to find out they're out of prime rib?!

    25. Re:PETA? by PygmySurfer · · Score: 1

      Love Maddox' site, but I doubt he was the first person to say that.

    26. Re:PETA? by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Quiet, you fool

      You'll let the aliens know.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    27. Re:PETA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      mmmm Long pig

    28. Re:PETA? by DerangedAlchemist · · Score: 1

      I like to explain that I'm a carnivore, of ecological grounds. After all, if you want a balanced ecology, you need a small population of carnivores to eat the vegetarians and keep their population in check. This gets me some funny looks, but so far nobody has tried to argue against me.
      So you eat excess vermin like say mice or rats and not things that are in shortage like fish or have to have populations artificially inflated like cows, pigs or chickens?

      That is very ethical. Through that in the faces of the vegans.

    29. Re:PETA? by smoker2 · · Score: 1

      Slightly OT, but there is a good advert running in the UK at the moment -
      Have a look .... (10MB xvid)

    30. Re:PETA? by smoker2 · · Score: 1

      Or there is a crappy flash version here.

    31. Re:PETA? by Valdez · · Score: 1
      IANARZ, but last I checked... didn't he make Adam out of dust?

      Now, arguably, Eve was made out of a rib, so that may create kind of a grey area. I mean, it's not meat, but it's a bone. ;)

    32. Re:PETA? by smellsofbikes · · Score: 1

      I'll go this far: all communists are killers, and all vegetarians are killers. But it doesn't necessary follow that all vegetarians are communists, of course.

      --
      Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
    33. Re:PETA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Love Maddox' site, but I doubt he was the first person to say that.

      I'm not so sure. Do you know of a pre-2002 reference? Google doesn't turn up anything obvious on the web, and shows an explosion of references after he published the page. Likewise, Google groups shows 0 usages on Usenet before 8 Oct 2002 and many since then, with the earliest being references to that Maddox page.

      I'm not saying it's definitely original, but he usually writes original material and I can't find anything earlier (the T-shirts and posters popular a few years back were his as well).

  14. Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by GeekBoy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great, now we'll have the extreme left nut jobs chaining themselves to plants and committing vegetable rights terrorism in their war to save plants from the evils of corporations, America and that most loathsome enemy of all, worthy of destruction for the good of plants and animals alike, humanity!!!

    1. Re:Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Courtesy of Arrogant Worms:

      Listen up, brothers and sisters
      Come hear my desperate tale
      I speak of our friends of nature
      Trapped in the dirt like a jail

      Vegetables live in oppression
      Served on our tables each night
      This killing of veggies is madness
      I say we take up the fight

      Salads are only for murderers
      Cole slaw's a fascist regime
      Don't think that they don't have feelings
      Just 'cause a radish can't scream

      {Refrain}
      I've heard the screams of the vegetables, scream scream scream
      Watching their skins being peeled, having their insides revealed
      Grated and steamed with no mercy, burning off calories
      How do you think that feels, bet it hurts really bad
      Carrot juice constitutes murder, and that's a real crime
      Greenhouses prisons for slaves, let my vegetables grow
      It's time to stop all this gardening, it's dirty as hell
      Let's call a spade a spade, it's a spade it's a spade it's a spade

      I saw a man eating celery
      So I beat him black and blue
      If he ever touches a sprout again
      I'll bite him clean in two

      I'm a political prisoner
      Trapped in a windowless cage
      'Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
      By killing five men in a rage

      I told the judge when he sentenced me
      "This is my finest hour
      I'll kill those farmers again
      Just to save one more cauliflower"

      {Refrain}

      How low as people do we dare to stoop
      Making young broccolis bleed in the soup
      Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
      Set potted plants free, don't mash that potato, ah

      I've heard the screams of the vegetables scream scream scream
      Watching their skins being peeled fates in the stir fry are sealed
      Grated and steamed with no mercy you fat gourmet scum
      How do you think that feels leave them out in the fields
      Carrot juice constitutes murder V8's genocide
      Greenhouses prisons for slaves yes your compost's a grave
      It's time to stop all this gardening take up macramé
      Let's call a spade a spade it's a spade it's a spade it's a spade

    2. Re:Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by jagdish · · Score: 1

      As someone mentioned above
      "There is room for every one of god's creations...right next to the mashed potatoes."

    3. Re:Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by Bent+Mind · · Score: 1

      Great, now we'll have the extreme left nut jobs chaining themselves to plants and committing vegetable rights terrorism Or it could have the opposite effect. I never have understood vegetarians. People are omnivores. We eat animals, plants, bugs, microbes, and anything else that may, or may not, have nutritional value. So do a lot other animals. We tend not to eat friends, family, and pets because we share a bond. We shy away from eating our enemies because we don't want to be eaten when our enemies catch us. I've often wondered if a Vagen would advocate killing a lion for the terrible pain it caused while eating a gazelle.
      --
      Request a Linux Shockwave player here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/email/wishform/
    4. Re:Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by PenGun · · Score: 1

      When you've spilled enough blood ... you'll understand.

    5. Re:Enter the rise of Vegetable Rights Activists! by famebait · · Score: 1

      Great, now we'll have the extreme left nut jobs...

      I know what a nose job and a boob job is, but why the
      hell would anyone want a left nut job, let alone an
      extreme one?

      --
      sudo ergo sum
  15. antisocial by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives, says Dudley.

    Nonsense, the study showed that plants grow aggressively when they encounter foreign root systems. It is probably to the plant's advantage to increase its root growth rate in an environment when it might be crowded out by other plants. Identifying a mechanism which allows plants to respond to their environment is interesting but it is in no way a "social behaviour."

    My white blood cell count increases when I'm exposed to disease. I suppose that means my cells are capable of complex social behavior such as territorial aggression?

    1. Re:antisocial by Khyber · · Score: 1

      Considering those white blood cells come from *all over your body* to attack the one infected place (IE your lungs when you get influenza) I'd call that some territorial aggression, with orders to terminate with extreme prejudice.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  16. Could be... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    That, or we're all reading way too much into this :-)

  17. D00d, don't Bogart that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, at least they're only sharing it with their own species :-)

  18. Uh huh by ip_freely_2000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings"

    Ya right. I suggest they stop smoking the plants they are studying.

  19. Obligatory by tshillig · · Score: 1

    I for one hail our new botanical overlords. Long live Emperor Ficus!...(and his mother and siblings too)

  20. Plant cognition research in the 70s by billstewart · · Score: 1
    Most of the experiments about talking to plants, plants having cognition, etc. were done by people who had been sharing their pot with strangers....


    This peyote cactus, man, it's talkin' to me.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  21. Whatever: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    Floats your boat.

    One person's reality is another person's delusion.

  22. Obligitory Zelazny Quote by Prototerm · · Score: 2, Funny

    "I trusted him like a brother. That is, not at all"

    --From somewhere in the original Amber Series

    --
    "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
  23. Genetic anyhow by phorm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Seems to me this is the same as how one is more likely to achieve compatibility or lower rejection-rates with closer relatives in terms of organ-transplants, etc

    They don't recognise "relatives," they just see material that is close enough to not be considered an intruder.

    It doesn't quite work the same with people, as "relatives" or "siblings" can in fact be imported (re-marriage) or separated (divorce, adoption) and thus unrecognized.

  24. How screws many it take vegans does to light bulb? by veganboyjosh · · Score: 1, Funny

    A. Six thought and again three much disorder for too deficiency zinc.

  25. Not all rennet comes from calves' stomachs by benhocking · · Score: 1

    If you read the Alternative Coagulants section in the Rennet article, you'll see there are quite a few options open to vegetarians. If you are a vegetarian, just check the label. If it doesn't mention how the rennet was harvested, you should assume it came from a calf stomach. However, there are many options available that are vegetarian. Just Google "vegetarian cheese" for several useful sites.

    --
    Ben Hocking
    Need a professional organizer?
  26. They already exist. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:They already exist. by glwtta · · Score: 1

      That's... just, wow! Just when you think you've seen everything.

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
  27. This is the most obnoxious pseudo-science ever by stratjakt · · Score: 0, Troll

    Plants have feelings, huh?

    Fuck off you fucking stupid cocksmoking fucking assholes for even posting this.

    What is a plants sibling? A clone? You mean the same exact genetic material?

    Of course a plant doesnt attack its own root system.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:This is the most obnoxious pseudo-science ever by oznog · · Score: 1

      sibling = some shared genetic material

      clone/twin = (more or less) exact genetic material

    2. Re:This is the most obnoxious pseudo-science ever by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Fuck off you fucking stupid cocksmoking fucking assholes for even posting this.
      You must be new here.
      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  28. Cognition isn't the right concept by digitalderbs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Disclaimer : I'm not a plant biologist. I'm a physical biochemist.

    The process of biochemically detecting neighboring organisms is not new. Bacteria use quorum sensing biochemical pathways to "communicate" various things about environment such as population density -- molecules are exchanged and recognized in the extracellular environment.

    What is interesting here is that presummably there are different signals for siblings and non-siblings. A more interesting result, in my opinion, would be to find the biochemical connection to this selective quorum sensing. The answer could be complicated : it could include libraries of biochemicals (in varying concentrations) and differences in bacterial flora between plants.

    1. Re:Cognition isn't the right concept by ma6ic · · Score: 1

      Definitions I find useful Communication typically involves the use of a symbolizing capacity. i.e. meaning in a brain being represented by messages. Signals are different - signals are necessary cues that do not require (or connote) symbolism, but a more direct link. Animals send symbols and plants send signals? Thoughts...

      --
      Make Demonade.
  29. Re: Reading way too much into this... by mollog · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I had the same thought (reading way too much into this). Perhaps roots of related plants are toxic to each other and that's why the roots don't spread. Roots of unrelated plants are not toxic to each other. This could be an evolutionary adaptation that encourages cross-breeding of unrelated plants.

    Regardless, there are a number of possible reasons for the effect.

    --
    Best regards.
  30. Perfect by |deity| · · Score: 1, Funny

    This is perfect. Soon the vegans will realize that plant lives have just as much value as their own. They will have to quit eating plants and die of starvation.

    --
    Environmentalists are their own worst enemy. ~tricklenews.com
  31. Anthropomorphizing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt that the plants "sense" the other plants around them to such a high-level degree. It is more likely that one root encounters another root of such similarity (sibling plant) that it is no different than if it had encountered another root from the plant it is from.

    There is no "altruism"... plants just inheritantly grow so that thay don't ingrow themselves.

  32. Related Story...Vegans Starving by Fysiks+Wurks · · Score: 1

    Vegans are starving in droves after learning that plants have human altruism.

    Sounds like a win-win to me.

    --
    P226
    1. Re:Related Story...Vegans Starving by Fysiks+Wurks · · Score: 1

      If you live your life righteously said humor should roll off your back like water on a duck. If you live your life self righteously then such humor will enrage you. If I'm misreading you then my heartfelt apologies to you. Good day.

      --
      P226
  33. Ob Quote by g2devi · · Score: 1

    I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals.

    I'm not a vegetarian because I love hate vegetables.

  34. Drought Tolerance by mdsolar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    More deeply rooted plants are more resistant to drought. I wonder if it would make sense to do a sacrificial second sowing with a different batch of seeds to encourage root development as a hedge against drought?
    --
    Rent solar power with no maintenance fee: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-users -selling-solar.html

    1. Re:Drought Tolerance by TranscendentalAnarch · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Perhaps something a little less wasteful would be mixing whatever chemical/compound is signaling this behavior into the soil.

  35. Science... by glwtta · · Score: 1

    br - c > 0

    It works, bitches.

    --
    sic transit gloria mundi
  36. Umm a plant? by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Isnt sentient.. Its all about light and heat and food/water use..

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
    1. Re:Umm a plant? by PenGun · · Score: 1

      It is alive .. like you.

  37. really? by greenguy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You know how to link to actual paper from the web? That's a pretty good trick.

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
    1. Re:really? by dontthink · · Score: 1

      I thought so too, until I realized it was old news =/

      http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

  38. Next experiment by ardent99 · · Score: 1

    So what do they do when sharing a pot with their mother-in-law?

    1. Re:Next experiment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Scientists have just discovered the first case of a rose bush leaping out of the ground and strangling an older rose bush to death.

  39. So let me get this straignt... by fataugie · · Score: 1

    ...get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...]

    So they don't mind sharing their pot with siblings, but get hostile when they have to share thier pot with strangers of the same species?

    I know how they feel.

    Wait..what are we talking about? Plants? OH..That kind of pot...I thought you meant....nevermind.

    --

    WTF? Over?

  40. Smoke Up, Bro! by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...] Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours


    The family that par-tays together, is paranoid of the neighbors together.
    --

    --
    make install -not war

  41. Good news... by rdavidson3 · · Score: 0

    This is great news for Robert Plant.... oh, sorry wrong plant.

  42. Wrong by BitterAndDrunk · · Score: 3, Funny
    Oxygenarian is someone who's been alive 80 years.

    Do a google before you post next time so you don't look so ignorant.

    --
    You better watch out, there may be dogs about . . .
    1. Re:Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An *octo*genarian is someone who's been alive 80 years.
      Do a google before you post next time so you don't look so ignorant.

    2. Re:Wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I believe you mean octogenarian.
      An octogenarian is someone who is in their eighties (80-89).
      You might want to take your own advice and perform a search yourself.

    3. Re:Wrong by alx5000 · · Score: 1

      A *joke* is something which you don't seem to understand.
      Do a google search before you post next time so you don't look so ignorant.


      I though, admit the joke was bad enough to hardly qualify as such.

      --
      My 0.02 cents
    4. Re:Wrong by rich_r · · Score: 1

      Octogenarian is the word you're looking for. HTH!

    5. Re:Wrong by AmiAthena · · Score: 1

      Mod +1 GotTheJoke

    6. Re:Wrong by pregister · · Score: 1

      No, no. You're thinking of Octocenturian. In Roman times, these were groups of 8 (centurian is roman for "eight") soldiers (soldiers in ancient times were known as Octos (diminutive of Octorite which literally translates as "smelly and dangerous")). Interestingly, Claudia Octavia ("smelly and socially unpleasant") was married to Emperor Nemo who was an accomplished violin player. He went missing under suspicious circumstances and Octavia spent the rest of her life attempting to find Nemo.

    7. Re:Wrong by snowgirl · · Score: 1

      I was about to .... yeah... you contribute to Uncylopedia don't you?

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    8. Re:Wrong by pregister · · Score: 1

      I just enjoy a good game of word disassociation.

    9. Re:Wrong by pregister · · Score: 1

      No. I just enjoy a good game of word disassociation.

  43. Self incompatibility by cin62 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    When pollen from another plant arrives to stigma, some plants can find out whether the pollen grain is their own or belongs to another genetically distinct plant (of the same species). The pollen grain carries a certain protein on its coat, the type of which is determined by the parent ("father") of the pollen grain. Now, if the protein on the pollen is the same as the one the "mother" plant produces (it means that they are close relatives), it does not allow the pollen grain to fertilize the egg.
    Basically, it proves that there is a way for a plant to distinguish between self (maybe close relative?) and more distantly related ones.

  44. Recognize siblings? Do they tease each other? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If my plants ever started treating their siblings the way my kids do, they'd get a good smacking.

  45. Re: Reading way too much into this... by andreMA · · Score: 1

    I'd guess that the symbiotic bacteria and fungi in and around the roots are similar or dissimilar, and that's the basis upon which the plants appear to discriminate.

  46. Word Wars by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

    TFA sez : "Though they lack cognition and memory,"

    Yet they go on to use many terms in the article that refer to behaviors (including that word itself) that imply intention, something plants are not capable of. Sort of turns the quoted sentence fragment into a contradicted disclaimer.

    There are perfectly good terms from ecological and genetic biology that can be used. There's no need to try to dress it up with inapplicable psychological terms. It doesn't clarify anything, and it looks goofy.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  47. don't bogart by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Plants are just rude....not sharing their pot. Puff puff pass.

  48. Family Values by Gojaroo · · Score: 1

    Maybe plants have good family values?

  49. ignoratio elenchi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't even mention that plants can feel pain. What are the vegans going to eat?

    I have read the articles written making this claim, and examined the evidence presented. It is not even remotely compelling.

    The whole of the argument was this:

    1) Things that respond to injury feel pain.
    2) Plants respond to injury.
    3) Therefore plants feel pain.

    Premise 1 has been experimentally disproven. There are many tissues in the body which humans do not feel and that heal when injured. There are cases of humans born with malformed nervous systems such that they cannot feel pain, and yet their limbs heal. Surgical removal of parts of the nervous system was performed on some animals, and their tissues healed just fine afterwords. The ability to respond to injury is not a sufficient condition of the ability to feel pain.

    Furthermore, "feeling pain" is defined in terms of a chain of events within a central nervous system. Plants don't have one.

    The whole concept seems to have came around just to piss off a bunch of vegetarians and try to provide some weird moral justification for eating meat (as if a moral justification was needed). The implied argument was to the effect of: if plants feel pain, and it is okay to eat them, then it is okay to eat anything that feels pain (ever heard of a "dicto simplicter" fallacy?).

    So, in sum, the best biological information we have to date clearly indicates that plants do not feel pain (but they do respond to injury).

    1. Re:ignoratio elenchi by Ucklak · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They [plants] also have a rectangular cellular makeup and I'm sure their nervous system is nothing like us animals. They respond to stimuli like a mouse thinks "oh sh*t" when an owl or snake gulps him down. What's really cool about plants is that they make their own food. Stuff that decays near their roots is just dessert. It's a shame that humans aren't as efficient.

      If you have an alligator that tears a leg off a zebra, that zebra will still try to hobble away in order to survive.
      Likewise, you can tear a weed or a plant bud off the parent plant and it will try to grow on its own. That plant knows that something isn't right and it needs to adapt in order to survive.

      Just because it isn't able to scream doesn't mean it doesn't feel pain. The fact it doesn't scream makes vegans feel better.
      Vegans are about 50/50 in the health benefit [good for you] versus "think of the animals" [shut the hell up]. The latter are the annoying crowd that seem to represent the vegan population and may not neccessessarily be true. When I see snakes eating watermelons and tofu, I'll think about cutting meat out my diet.

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    2. Re:ignoratio elenchi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anonymous Summation:

      Humans are Omnivores.
      Omnivores have greater diversity in sources of nutrients than Herbivores or Carnivores.
      Specializing increases risk in the event of change in available food sources.

      In this context: How many vegetarians do you think would remain vegetarians given the lack of a grocery store.

      And conversely: In the presence of grocery stores, who cares in any event?

      Avoid eating somebodies mother all you want, and let those who prefer to remain omnivores do so. I'd hate to see the long long run where everyone got in line with vegetarianism across the board, eventually phasing out our ability to process meat proteins the way we do now. The argument would remain the same if there were vocal groups advocating purist carnivorous behaviour.

      Think Ringworld or Strata.

    3. Re:ignoratio elenchi by red+crab · · Score: 1

      The whole of the argument was this:
      1) Things that respond to injury feel pain.
      2) Plants respond to injury.
      3) Therefore plants feel pain.


      Plants in general don't respond to injury does not conclusively prove that they don't feel pain. Some plants namely Venus Trap and Touch-me-not do possess tactile sense. These are a few plants which do take a perceptible reaction to the sense of touch. Other plants might feel the touch aka injury but they possibly they don't have the mechanism to react.

  50. So... by tsanth · · Score: 1

    Vampires. They can eat vampires, right?

  51. in it or on it? by DeadDarwin · · Score: 0

    are the plants in the pot or having pot? shit of a bull !

  52. Psychological Altruism vs Evolutionary Altruism by Pfhorrest · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is a perfect example of the difference between psychological altruism (what we normally think of as "altruism", as describes a sort behavior) and evolutionary altruism (which is a precise technical term in biology which describes a property of heritable traits, not behavior).

    Psychological altruism is performing behavior which requires for motivation only the benefit (however broadly you are to construe benefit) of a person other than the one performing the action. So, if I'm inclined to do something nice for you, even if I don't get anything out of it, then I am an altruistic person, and such nice things are altruistic behavior.

    Evolutionary altruism is having heritable traits which increase the reproductive fitness of others without increasing the reproductive fitness of the individual who has that trait. Sterility is evolutionarily altruistic (in social animals at least), and yet clearly not psychologically altruistic (you don't choose what genes you're born with).

    These plants are evolutionarily altruistic. They are not psychologically altruistic, because they have no psychological traits at all.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  53. This is consistent with incest between plants by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So - the observed effect is consistent with altruistic feelings between siblings?

    Well hey - it is also consistent with the 'mother' plant wishing to molest her 'child' plants. Maybe she is unable to act on it, being a plant, but she wants to keep her kids close.

    It is thus proven by the scientific method (she is a scientist) that plants are not altruistic, they are rather sadistic and egoistic.

  54. it was barely a joke by BitterAndDrunk · · Score: 1

    it was funnier to see the people correct me. fucking nerds.

    --
    You better watch out, there may be dogs about . . .
  55. I can see it now... by thegsusfreek · · Score: 1, Funny

    People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants ...because plants have feelings too.

  56. Accommodating to relatives? by Twang+Avenger · · Score: 1

    This article doesn't make the distinction between plant growth and plant reproduction. The article makes it sound like plants almost always grow and reproduce around genetically similar specimens, when in nature this doesn't always happen. Many plant species have chemical blocks which prevent pollen from fertilizing ovules within plants which are too genetically alike. When you think about it, it makes sense because genetic diversity would be devastated if genetically similar plants always reproduced with one another.

  57. I think vaginatarianism is the best... by Optic7 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So my personal spiritual goal is to be a (strict) vaginatarian.

    1. Re:I think vaginatarianism is the best... by snowgirl · · Score: 1

      This is slashdot... Isn't the obligatory joke here supposed to be, "I think I would find more to eat by not eating anything at all, than you would being a vaginatarian!"

      --
      WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
    2. Re:I think vaginatarianism is the best... by johndiii · · Score: 1

      No, no. It would be "In Soviet Russia..." Er, sorry, can't quite bring myself to type that out.

      --
      Floating face-down in a river of regret...and thoughts of you...
  58. Oblig by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Semore, Feed me!

  59. What conclusions can we make? by philpalm · · Score: 1

    Using cruciferous catkin bearing plants in a pot they make several claims:
    1) Siblings tend to not compete as strongly as similar non-related but same species.
    Comment:How non-related? From plants from a different sand dune area? Or plants nearby but evidently not related? How did they decide that the plants are competing less against non- siblings?
    2)"but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings." How did they determine that the plants were accommodating? Did it mean that most of the plants in the same pot were all sturdy and strong?
    So as several controls they have plant family A all in one pot, family B All in one pot and in the third pot a mixture of both family A and B together.

  60. He Said Pot by ShrapnelFace · · Score: 0

    He said *hughn hughn ha* "Pot" *hughn hughn ha* like over an over *juh hahahahah*!

  61. Vegetarian by PenGun · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Seeing that this thread is about vegetarians I will reveal a little bit about myself, a lacto - ovarian vegetarian, milk and eggs since I was 18.

      I'm 60. Run 4 miles every few days. Lift weights nearly every day and hit on women with ,some success, old enough to be my daughter. My daughter is amused by this.

      Have fun with your bits of dead animal.

    1. Re:Vegetarian by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Simply proof that vegetarians are not human

      That was a Joke if you didn't get it

      You aren't fit because you are a vegetarian you are fit because you maintained an active lifestyle and a steady diet. You may be quiet surprised to find that non vegetarians who have remained active have achieved the same result, probably with a greater degree of ease with a varied diet. Remember its just as easy to become unhealthy eating only vegetables if you only eat the wrong ones. The key to what you have done is not, not eating meat but it is not eating too much meat. Consult a dietician or other such qualified medical professional if you need this explained.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. Re:Vegetarian by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Have fun with your bits of dead animal."

      Funny, that's what I expected those girls you date to say about you.

      By the way gramps, girls old enough to be your daughter are still 10-15 years too old for me. Have fun with your bits of old animal.

    3. Re:Vegetarian by PenGun · · Score: 1

      My daughter is 28. You will find, if you are lucky, that women, who care, learn all kinds of interesting things about men and the ones who have been around a bit ate often the most fun. YMMV ... puppy.

    4. Re:Vegetarian by PenGun · · Score: 1

      True enough, although I have no residual build up from hormone tainted meat and almost no bad cholesterol. There are a couple of other benefits as well but I do have to eat very carefully to bulk.

        I just got tired of the undoubtedly fat and ugly posters babbling about their carnivorousness. I don't eat animals because as a Buddhist I will not take a viewpoint into this universe for food.

    5. Re:Vegetarian by mjwx · · Score: 1
      I hold a lot of respect for Buddhists (although I am not one myself), Just to let you know that my post wasn't intentionally meant to be a flame.

      I just got tired of the undoubtedly fat and ugly posters babbling about their carnivorousness.
      Understand and agree completely.
      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  62. Was this research conducted by... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Rupert Sheldrake? Altruistic plants?

  63. Strawmen warning by aepervius · · Score: 1

    First at all the hybrid 50/50 and 90/10 are STRAWMEN. There is not such a things existing. Inventing scenario like that does not help your argument AT ALL. Constructing strawmen always show that you have a weak basis and try to artificially increase it. This should not be modded insightful for this reason. Now if you had limited yourself to the lsit below this would have been insightful.
    So now your list is :
    1* Would you eat husbandery animals ?
    2* Would you eat pet ?
    3* Would you eat cousin-animal related to human
    4* would you eat human ?

    1,2,3 is for me a no brainer. Those are animals. I am omnivore. Conclusion : bring me the salt, this meat need a bit more taste. Now with a bit more honesty there is also a cultural and taste effect. Rabbit are pet to some people same for horse. I consider both being food. Same for dog. I would have far more difficulty to eat cat, but for the rest.... Please also realize that you thougth to be clever with the dog/cat mention, but you have to understand that even if in some culture those are called pet, in some other culture they might be called food. Same for chimpanzee , and other human cousin : they are in some culture food.
    So in reality we can even ab-absurdo reduce your lsit to * animals which are human
    * human.
    But since I think you took it from the western cultural Point of view I kept it as above.

    Now for the sheep-on-two-leg, or thinking meat. Yes if I am hungry enough (read : starving on the verge of death) then I would eat human meat. I would rather become cannibal than die. Cannibalism might be only for a short period up to the point where I am not in such dire situation anymore. DEATH is for ever. But your mileage may vary.
    But culturaly we do not eat two legged sheep meat for various reason. So this would be an answer no for various reason.


    But as you read this is more a cultural reason than any other moral reason of violence against animal or what not. Food is food. Fine for you to have a high moral ground and decide not to eat what is mobile on its own and can walk/run/swim/crawl/fly. But the moment you start judging other because of their perfectly NORMAL food choice (read : we are omnivore for pity's sake) is the moment you make yourself "religious".

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Strawmen warning by mpe · · Score: 1

      Those are animals. I am omnivore. Conclusion : bring me the salt, this meat need a bit more taste. Now with a bit more honesty there is also a cultural and taste effect. Rabbit are pet to some people same for horse. I consider both being food.

      "Giant rabbits" were originally bred for meat, though some people consider them pets. Similarly cavies are food animals in South America but often kept as pets elsewhere. Pidgeons can also be considered pets, pets or food.

      Same for dog. I would have far more difficulty to eat cat, but for the rest.... Please also realize that you thougth to be clever with the dog/cat mention, but you have to understand that even if in some culture those are called pet, in some other culture they might be called food.

      IIRC native Australians consider feral cats to be food.

      Yes if I am hungry enough (read : starving on the verge of death) then I would eat human meat. I would rather become cannibal than die. Cannibalism might be only for a short period up to the point where I am not in such dire situation anymore. DEATH is for ever.

      There is the case of the plane crash survivors which was made into a movie...

  64. Warning : Woo/nutty alert by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Point 1 up to 3 are OK, point 4 I will not judge I do not know if it is possible or not after all this is a form of veganism, and if the amino acid, carbonhydrate, fat is ok then why not. But point 5 and 6 are complet woo , nutty. NOBODY can live on water or light alone. I am even surprised you did not mention breatharian which are complete utter stupidity. Pure woo. In case you did not know all breatharian which were tested (by randi for example), either the medical team had to break off the test due to organ failure (read : starvation) or they were caught sneaking out for a nighty burger. NOBODY can live very long without protein and carbonhydrate input.

    But then again you mention spirituality in conjunction with food intake, which is definitively not related. You can be very spiritual/philosophical and eat meat every day, and be a down the earth idiot vega.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Warning : Woo/nutty alert by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > But then again you mention spirituality in conjunction with food intake, which is definitively not related.

      All the world's major religions discuss the importance of not defiling the Body Temple.

      If you don't care for the moral reasons, there is also the health reasons to consider. Maybe you enjoy increasing your odds for disease -- that is your prerogative.

      Everyone has to their own choice to make concerning their fate... but it doesn't change the fact that you are a product of what you eat, think, and do.

  65. Tomatoes by WML+MUNSON · · Score: 1

    So like... if I eat baby tomato in front of papa tomato, it's gonna get angry?

  66. Summary Debate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think the main point here, that some people seem to be missing further on down the list, is that we are not talking "Hey! You're my sister!" type recognition, but instead the sort of recognition your body (hopefully) makes when you have an organ transplant.

    The plant cells are most likely making a comparison of surface marker proteins and structures to determine how similar another cell is to itself. If the cell is recognized, even if it comes from another plant, the cell will not compete against it, and instead may consider it the same as if it were simply another root of the same plant.

    As someone (sorry for not quoting!!!) pointed out below, animals select a mate that carries a different concoction of surface markers, essentially trying to increase genetic diversity. The point here is not that the plant is selecting for a similar mate (and indeed, in many cases, is not actually capable of selecting a mate (aside from itself)) but that it can recognize a marked cell from a sibling as being close enough to not compete against.

    That's the cool bit, and that's science.

    I don't understand the need for anthropomorphizing this at all. We are talking about a biologic method at the cellular level for a plant that is a close analogue to what we see in animals. The similarity is striking and quite interesting, but there is no need to read into intelligence or actual "thinking" by plants. When the research for that comes in, we'll all know.

    And now, the obligatory...*ahem*...I, for one, welcome our new sibling recognizing plant overlords.

  67. Excellent gardening tip here by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1

    When harvesting, keep the seeds from individual plants isolated from one another. Then when you replant, be sure to minimize genetic variability within each container by only planting seeds from one parent plant. When your sibling plants recognize their sisters they'll put less energy into competitive behavior intended to screw neighbors out of water and light, such as excessive rooting, excessive leaf production, and rapid vertical growth. Instead you'll get these short, stubby mellow plants with big buds.

  68. They can tell when others are suffering.. by clickclickdrone · · Score: 1

    Back in the seventies there was an experiment whereby a plant was attached to a lie detector type device to measure various parameters. In another room, a researcher dropped live prawns in to boiling water. Each time a prawn died, the plant's readings showed a blip. They concluded that the plant could somehow detect the pain even though the even occurred in a different room. I read about this is the book Supernature by Lyall Watson if anyone wants to know more.

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
  69. Oh well... by rizole · · Score: 1

    ...just time for another bath then.

  70. Ruthlessness by NoOneInParticular · · Score: 1

    I don't eat what I wouldn't feel comfortable killing myself. This excludes my pets (but possibly not yours), humans, and lots of endangered species (I don't eat cod and eel anymore for instance). Pigs, cows, horses, sheep, chicken, mussels, the occasional dolphin, small primates: all fair game.

  71. Obligatory "Secret Life of Plants" reference by Rmorph · · Score: 0

    I don't think its possible to sit through "The Secret Life of Plants" and not wonder just a little?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Pl ants

    This is a documentary from the 70s (with a wicked Stevie Wonder soundtrack) that slow-mo'd plants as they did their daily business. Totally psychedelic for its time, and even now a comfortingly bizarre look at our green friends.

    In the context of the TFA I can honestly say this documentary is another strong indication that not all plants are emotional vegatables (figuratively speaking).

  72. It's a garden out there by jollyreaper · · Score: 1

    May Kip Addotta forgive me...

    It was Cucumber the first; summer was over.
    I had just spinached a long day and I was busheled.
    I'm the kinda guy that works hard for his celery and I don't mind telling you I was feeling a bit wilted.
    But I didn't carrot all. 'Cause, otherwise, things were vine.
    I try never to disparagus and I don't sweat the truffles.
    I'm outstanding in my field and I know something good will turnip eventually.
    A bunch of things were going grape, and soon, I'd be top banana.
    At least, that's my peeling.
    But that's enough corn; lend me your ear and lettuce continue:
    After dressing, I stalked on over to the grain station.
    I got there just in lime to catch the nine-elemon as it plowed toward the core of Appleton,
    a lentil more than a melon-and-a-half Yeast of Cloveland.

    CHORUS
    Life in the slaw lane.
    They say plants can't feel no pain.
    Life in the slaw lane.
    I've got news for you:
    They're just as frail as you.

    No one got off at Zucchini, so we continued on a rutaBaga.
    Passing my usual stop, I got avoCado.
    I hailed a passing Yellow Cabbage and told the driver to cart me off to Broccolyn.
    I was going to meet my brother across from the eggplant where he had a job at the Saffron station pumpkin gas.
    As soon as I saw his face, I knew he was in a yam.
    He told me his wife had been raisin cane. Her name was Peaches:
    a soiled but radishing beauty with HUGE goards.
    My brother had always been a chestnut, but I could neve figured out why she picked him.
    He was a skinny little string bean who had always suffered from cerebral parsley.
    It was in our roots.
    Sure, we had tried to weed it out, but the problem still romained.
    He was used to having a tough row to how, but it irrigated me to see Artichoke,
    and it bothered my brother to see his marriage going to seed.

    CHORUS

    Like most mapled couples, they had a lot of grilling to do.
    Sure, they'd sown their wild oats, but just barley if you peas.
    Finally, Peaches had given him an ultomato. She said, "I'm hip to your chive,
    and you don't stop smoking that herb, I'm gonna leaf ya for Basil, ya fruit!"
    He said he didn't realize it had kumquat so far.
    Onion other hand, even though Peaches could be the pits, I knew she'd never call the fuzz.

    CHORUS

    So I said, "Hay, we're not farm from the Mushroom! Let's walk over."
    He said, "That's a very rice place. That's the same little bar where alfalfa my wife!"
    When we got there, I pulled up a cherry and tried to produce small talk.
    I told him I haven't seen Olive; not since I shelled off for a trip to Macadamia when I told her, "We cantaloupe."
    The time just wasn't ripe.
    She knew what I mint.
    When we left the Mushroom, we were pretty well-juiced.
    I told Arti to say hello to the boysenBerry and that I'd orange to see him another thyme.
    Well, it all came out in the morning peppers:
    Arti caught Peaches that night with Basil, and Arti beat Basil bad,
    leaving him with two beautiful acres.
    Peaches? She was found in the garden; she'd been pruned.

    CHORUS

    Well, my little story is okra now.
    Maybe it's small potatoes. Me? Idaho.
    My name? Wheat. My friends call me "Kernel".
    And that's life in the slaw lane.
    Thank you so mulch.

    CHORUS

    It's a garden out there!

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  73. Hippies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now that plants have feelings, what are all the hippies (vegans, vegetarians) going to eat. OH NO, what will they smoke.
    God Damn hippies!

  74. Yeah, but... by p3d0 · · Score: 1

    That was my first thought, but these scientists have surely thought of the possibility. Looking at the abstract of the article, I think the interesting part is that the plants can differentiate kin from strangers at all, whatever the mechanism. What I mean is, even if what's happening is that they can't differentiate kin from themselves, it's still interesting that they can differentiate kin from strangers.

    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
  75. No, why do you people display your ignorance? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "If the definition of anthropomorphic means having human form or attributes, how do we know that any particularly attribute is solely human?"

    You have significantly changed the definition by including that word. It does not belong there, and moots your point when removed.

    "In other words, if I say the cat is 'afraid', in a scientific context, and you say to me, "Don't anthropomorphise that cat", how do we know that particular attribute ( the feeling of fear ) belongs solely to humans?"

    No one with any understanding of the science involved would say that. You are making up new definitions to toss your philosophical musings against. And you used the word "solely" again when it is not part of the definition.

    I appreciate that you like sounding philosophically advanced, but making up new definitions and being ignorant of the concept you're actually discussing makes you sound kind of stupid.

  76. IWAB by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 1

    I Was A Botanist.

    My guess is that any botanist worth their salt is going to look at this and shrug. Truth is it really isn't news. It was known 25 years ago that you could inject a plant with a substance and it would show up in its neighbors in time, even if they were different species.

    Botany Lessson:

    I willl try to keep this short. If you take a seed and plant it in perfectly sterile soil, say after autoclaving it, and take another of the same seed and plant it in the same unautoclaved soil the plant in the autoclaved soil does worse. As far as the common perception goes that makes no sense, same seed, same nutrients, same conditions - but different growth. So what gives? The difference is this - Mycorrhiza In short, most plant roots aren't that great at pulling minerals out so they have a symbiotic fungus do it for them, then hand back complex sugars and other stuff to the fungus. Some plants are so adapted that by themselves they *cant* live without the symbiote. It it said that up to 95% of ALL plants have this relationship.

    So?

    Well, if you are the fungus you are indiscriminate with who you work with (last I knew there weren't that many species of mycorrhiza fungi - but it has been a long time since I worked in Dr Charvat's lab) so bonding with all your neighbors wouldnt be a bad idea. So now there is a pathway, we understand what it is, all we have to do is figure out the signal process. That I have no clue about - but if I had to guess - I would say that as a symbiote the fungus knows not to try to take too much from the plant, and if they are siblings it may not be able to discriminate between them there by giving less and taking less, and consequently helping less. From the outside it would look like less growth (because they weren't getting what they need). While the other situation might just be normal growth, though in comparison it would look aggressive. Or if it *is* more growth compared to a lone plant, it might be that the bigger fungi is able to provide more nutrients to both hosts, making them grow more then they would alone.

    Meh - my two cents

    Sera

    --
    Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
  77. Altruism ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I agree that it's kind of silly to apply emotional or social connotations such as altruism to a simple biological response. If a patients body rejects a stranger's kidney but accepts a sibling's, it isn't being altruistic and it's not recognition of kin of any social level, it's just a biological response.

  78. Humans as well by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I NEVER shared my pot with my sister, big stupidhead.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  79. Plus Interesting by scwizard · · Score: 1

    That comment deserves a since fiction story.

    --
    ~= scwizard =~
    1. Re:Plus Interesting by scwizard · · Score: 1

      *science (I like having the karma to make comments that soon after each other)

      --
      ~= scwizard =~