Bad news for veggies - are plants self-aware?
A study into the sagebush plant has come up with a very surprising result - our green-leafed friends might have feelings.
Scientists from UC-Davis in America say plants "engage in self-recognition and can communicate danger to their 'clones' or genetically identical cuttings planted nearby", according to a report at the Examiner.
What does this mean?
Well, plants are aware of themselves and their surroundings, and look out for their pals.
The research showed that, somehow, injured plants sent out a signal to their neighbours to prepare for an attack.
Scientists clipped branches from sagebush (a small bush found in the Western United States) and planted these clipping near to its parent or, as a control, an unrelated bush.
They found that "plants within 60 centimeters of an experimentally clipped neighbor in the field experienced less leaf damage (by grasshoppers or other herbivores) over the season, compared with plants near an unclipped neighbor."
From this, researchers have concluded plants are self-aware, that they know they are incurring damage and must protect their own branches that were planted in another pot.
How they might go about this is anyone's guess.
There's obviously plenty more study to be done, and evidence to be gathered, but it's an intriguing result nonetheless.
And from now on, I might spare a thought for the broccoli on my plate.
Weird Science Factoid: The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. Until you catch up with the blighter with a rolled-up newspaper.
Join the Weird Science Facebook group here, or follow us on Twitter here or by searching for weirdsciblog.
Want to be sent the 'best' of the Weird Sci Blog every month? Then sign up for Weird News - a newsletter containing more info about the subjects we cover, plus some extra stuff that didn't make the blog. Interested? Subscribe by e-mailing wscience@me.com with the title 'count me in' and we'll do the rest.
1 Comments
Authors
Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
My guess is, being that these researchers were from Davis, that before, during and after their studies they had engaged in the burning of large quatities of another form of plantlife. And unlike Clinton, I'm sure they inhaled. :)