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Plants Can Hear Animals Using Their Flowers (theatlantic.com)
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via The Atlantic: The latest experiments in this niche but increasingly vocal field come from Lilach Hadany and Yossi Yovel at Tel Aviv University. In one set, they showed that some plants can hear the sounds of animal pollinators and react by rapidly sweetening their nectar. In a second set, they found that other plants make high-pitched noises that lie beyond the scope of human hearing but can nonetheless be detected some distance away. After the team released early copies of two papers describing their work, not yet published in a scientific journal, I ran them past several independent researchers. Some of these researchers have argued that plants are surprisingly communicative; others have doubted the idea. Their views on the new studies, however, didn't fall along obvious partisan lines. Almost unanimously, they loved the paper asserting that plants can hear and were skeptical about the one reporting that plants make noise. Those opposite responses to work done by the same team underscore how controversial this line of research still is, and how hard it is to study the sensory worlds of organisms that are so different from us.
First, two team members, Marine Veits and Itzhak Khait, checked whether beach evening primroses could hear. In both lab experiments and outdoor trials, they found that the plants would react to recordings of a bee's wingbeats by increasing the concentration of sugar in their nectar by about 20 percent. They did so in response only to the wingbeats and low frequency, pollinator-like sounds, not to those of higher pitch. And they reacted very quickly, sweetening their nectar in less than three minutes. That's probably fast enough to affect a visiting bee, but even if that insect flies away too quickly, the plant is ready to better entice the next visitor. After all, the presence of one pollinator almost always means that there are more around. But if plants can hear, what are their ears? The team's answer is surprising, yet tidy: It's the flowers themselves. They used lasers to show that the primrose's petals vibrate when hit by the sounds of a bee's wingbeats. If they covered the blooms with glass jars, those vibrations never happened, and the nectar never sweetened. The flower, then, could act like the fleshy folds of our outer ears, channeling sound further into the plant. (Where? No one knows yet!)
First, two team members, Marine Veits and Itzhak Khait, checked whether beach evening primroses could hear. In both lab experiments and outdoor trials, they found that the plants would react to recordings of a bee's wingbeats by increasing the concentration of sugar in their nectar by about 20 percent. They did so in response only to the wingbeats and low frequency, pollinator-like sounds, not to those of higher pitch. And they reacted very quickly, sweetening their nectar in less than three minutes. That's probably fast enough to affect a visiting bee, but even if that insect flies away too quickly, the plant is ready to better entice the next visitor. After all, the presence of one pollinator almost always means that there are more around. But if plants can hear, what are their ears? The team's answer is surprising, yet tidy: It's the flowers themselves. They used lasers to show that the primrose's petals vibrate when hit by the sounds of a bee's wingbeats. If they covered the blooms with glass jars, those vibrations never happened, and the nectar never sweetened. The flower, then, could act like the fleshy folds of our outer ears, channeling sound further into the plant. (Where? No one knows yet!)
As I recall, Mythbusters did a test of the effect of sounds on plants. When their data surprisingly DID clearly show an effect, they reminded viewers that their experiment wasn't rigorously scientific, and the results could have been caused by some experimental error. It was pretty clear they were not expecting that result, and didn't quite believe it.
... and yet they are unable to stop the brutal massacres that follow when those herbivores mutilate and maul them alive. Shame on you, Vegans!
Looks like PITA will have to change their name from PETA to PETE. [People for the Ethical Treatment of Everything] And their first targets will have to be Farmers and VEGANS. Plants have feelings too.
Makes me think of the story 'The Sound Machine' by Roald Dahl (part of the "Tales of the Unexpected" series in the UK) where a botanist invents a machine that lets him 'hear' plants.
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
They have evolved chemical reactions that are linked to vibrations of a certain pattern but they aren't hearing. The difference is that hearing implies cognition which plants lack.
This may seem pendant but it's like saying your stairs feel you walking up them because they squeak when you step on them.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Interesting if true indeed. It certainly seems a whole lot more plausible that the conclusions of this study. [PDF alert]
TL/DR: First, consider the author: Cleve Baxter of Baxter Research Foundation, Inc. Maybe he has an academic pedigree, but it's not obvious from his affiliation. Second, consider the publication: International Journal of Parapsychology.
The "money shot" in the paper is that the author claims to have observed a sudden change in the resistance of a plant's leaf as a result of him merely thinking about harming it. I have to take that conclusion with more than enough salt to cover the plant and him.
Paraphrasing something james Randi said once: it's important to keep an open mind -- open, but not gaping.
[I heard about this paper a long time ago. It seemed worth sharing in this discussion.]
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Their views on the new studies, however, didn't fall along obvious partisan lines.
How on Earth can this have a partisan divide?
I don't even know my member of parliament's stand on the issue.
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?
We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
Jack Handey - "Deep Thoughts"
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
Interesting question. I would say that if flowers and other plants can 'hear', they are likely only going to be able to hear things that increase their chances of reproduction and survival. Just as we humans can only hear things within a certain frequency band (arguably matching things we need to hear to survive and reproduce) I would imagine a flower is tuned to be the same through selective evolutionary processes. To get to your original question, IMO I would they they couldn't hear things such as pebbles or streams because they serve no advantage to their survival. (Full disclosure, this is just pure speculation from someone who is neither a biologist or expert on selective evolution).
Found some more stuff on Cleve Baxter here. He was a CIA interrogation specialist and polygraph instructor. His claims of primary perception in plant life were widely dismissed in the scientific community. Rightly so IMHO.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Hippies have been saying this for 40+ years and have been ridiculed for it the whole time.
It seems like you can't out-ridiculous it because people who were first discovering it would be bullied so bad, you've probably already practiced laughing at these facts.
Nothing new here except they're calling it "hearing" because people can hear a bee's wings beating. Another case of anthropomorphism click bait.
What they do is often called "science demonstrations".
I might want to teach my kid something about science, so I drop two balls from height - a big heavy one and a little ligjt one. I'm showing that they fall at the same rate. I *know* the principle I'm demonstrating. It's not something I thought up, it's well-known basic science.
If the balls don't drop at the same rate, I know that I messed up the demonstration in some way and I should admit that. (And yes there are a couple ways to screw up that demonstration).
I then have the option of doing a "revisit" and trying not figure out what caused the unexpected results.
Its always been a fun thought if trees can walk.
They are called Triffids. Don't piss them off.
why do 12 year olds feel the need to post on slashdot? Worst part is the mental defect that makes them somehow bring meaning to their miserable existence that they feel the need to attack others with name calling and generally coming off as a horrible waste of oxygen. I pity your parents and anyone who comes in contact with you, but since nobody ever comes to visits such a vile little minded child in your mothers basement at least few people have to actually deal with someone such as yourself who doesn't even have the mental capacity to understand humor or sarcasm that least in cases such as yours that Darwinism normally kicks in preventing the passing on of the genes and environmental factors that molds others to be anything like you.
Did they make noise or didnâ(TM)t they? Itâ(TM)s not like we donâ(TM)t have the ability to reliably detect sound.
As for hearing, of course the petals vibrate. The question is whether the vibrations have any effect. I canâ(TM)t imagine how temporal correlation between sonic emissions and chemial changes couldnâ(TM)t be found conclusively if the phenomenon exists.
what will they eat now, that plants can communicate, listen and react... and they might not be cool with harvest
How does this research impact marijuana growth?
It seems to me this implies some sort of nervous system and a primitive brain to process the information. Really?
E Proelio Veritas.
I would say that if flowers and other plants can 'hear', they are likely only going to be able to hear things that increase their chances of reproduction and survival.
Flowers responding to sound/vibrations isn't so wild if you think of Venus fly traps, which have small hair-like structures that sense movement and create electrical signals to trigger the trap to close. (Details: https://www.livescience.com/15... ) If there is a survival advantage to detecting and attracting pollinators, then maybe there is a similar mechanism to release nectar or pollen tuned to insect-specific sound frequencies/vibrations.
Armchair science is fun!
"35 Hidden Comments"
Now that's funny. Looks like a struck a nerve. Hope everyone excuses me if I'm not going to read through them all.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Jesus, how deep are those comments nested? Good god, I made one post and it brought out the rabid frothing insanity, this is hilarious. I value my time and sanity, so you understand that I'm not reading any of this mental diarrhea.
If you'd like to link to an interaction in the past though, try the post where I tore down every single one of your so-called "achievements" to show that you haven't done but Jack and Shit for the past two decades. Shit man, you're still trying to claim "achievements" like submitting patches to other people's projects that they decided to not even implement. Or a "thank you" for sending someone a link to the Windows API. These are what you're proud of, these are what stand out for you as great or notable things you've done over the past 15 or 20 years. And your Life's Work Magnum Opus is a fucking string sorting program. It's a huge joke. You're a huge joke.
Anyway, if you want to link to something, link to that. Dumbass.
OK, resume the unhinged frothing insanity. It's absurdly easy to trigger you, which is another reason why you have nothing to show over the past decades, because no one wants to hire or work with you, because you're a fucking nutcase. Go ahead, prove me right. Click that little "Reply" link and spew your shit. Again, please excuse me if I don't follow up, don't read anything you write, and don't respond. Just be careful about claiming I'm "running" when you know damn well there's a post out there that completely destroys all of the crap you claim. Unlike you, though, I haven't written some program to scrape Slashdot and send me alerts whenever people are talking about me, I don't stalk people like a lunatic, I don't have text files and text files full of links to refer back to, etc. That's all you, bud. So I'll leave it up to you to point out where you got destroyed. Or, you can ignore that, like a pussy. It's up to you, really.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black