On Jun 5, 10:47Â pm, Father Haskell
yahoo.com> wrote:>> 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 inplants, 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, Â "The Secret Life ofPlants" Â is also drivel but not so
>>> childish. Â Yes, this is a nasty dogmatic prejudice, but it is also
>>> what science knows aboutplantsas opposed to the pseudoscience in
>>> that book and documentary show.
>
>>> There areplantswith 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 andplantsare no exception. Â However there is nothing at all
>>> that can be considered a "nervous system" inplants. Â Plant fibers
>>> have nothing whatsoever to do with coordination of activity except
>>> that plant hormones travel through them. Â They are more like the
>>> circulatory system in that regard.
>
>> A circulatory system requires no coordination of activity? What an odd
>> statement.Plantsare made of living cells thatcommunicatewith each
>> other. All neurons do iscommunicatewith 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.
>
> Plantscancommunicatewith other organisms. Â Tomatoplantsare an interesting example. Â 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.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
The plant isn't performing a process when the event occurs.
If by communicate you mean strictly to transmit data, then sure, it's
as much communication as the water-balloon exploding and releasing
water is communicating.
However, if there were no wasps around, would the tomato-plant still
perform the action?
It's a physio-chemical reaction. Would the plant exude something
different if there were butterflies around?
If you pop a water-balloon and you notice that a sound is made and
water comes out, then it's not communication.
It's a simple evolved response, the plant forms sacs full of stuff
that another insect has realized might indicate that food is present.
