> r norman wrote:
>> On Sun, 1 Jun 2008 10:38:41 -0700 (PDT), Immortalist
>>
yahoo.com> wrote:>
>>>> In sci.physics Sanny
hotmail.com> wrote:>
>>>>> We know all living things have brains.
>>>> "We" know no such thing.
>
>>> If a brain is a group of fibers and bundles, so is a plant. It is
>>> stretch to believe that fibers in plants, although they do conduct
>>> electriciy, can emulate the patterns of activity in a brain, but there
>>> might be something going on that is a rationally explained as the
>>> activities in particular regions of the brain. Plus the evidence for
>>> plant consciousness is shakee also, so it is a wait and see thing but
>>> not totally implausable. Actually this issue is likely to arouse
>>> dogmatic prejudaces and stereotypes, which can be nasty.
>
>
>>>>
>
>> Unfortunately, "The Secret Life of Plants" is also drivel but not so
>> childish. Yes, this is a nasty dogmatic prejudice, but it is also
>> what science knows about plants as opposed to the pseudoscience in
>> that book and documentary show.
>
>> There are plants with cells that can make action potentials -- the
>> Venus Flytrap, the Sensitive Mimosa, and algae like Chara and Nitella.
>> Electrical activity in the cell membrane regulates a lot of cellular
>> activity and plants are no exception. However there is nothing at all
>> that can be considered a "nervous system" in plants. Plant fibers
>> have nothing whatsoever to do with coordination of activity except
>> that plant hormones travel through them. They are more like the
>> circulatory system in that regard.
>
> A circulatory system requires no coordination of activity? What an odd
> statement. Plants are made of living cells that communicate with each
> other. All neurons do is communicate with each other. Its a similar sort
> of thing, sorry. When a plant is wounded the cells send out a wound
> signal to other cells to stimulate enhanced protein synthesis. That is a
> definite coordination of activity.
Plants can communicate with other organisms. Tomato
plants are an interesting example. The familiar tomato
plant aroma is released when trichome glands are ruptured by
hornworm caterpillars, as a signal to braconid wasps
that a host is present.
