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Detection of electrical signaling between tomato plants raises interesting questions:
UAH's [University of Alabama in Huntsville] Dr. Yuri Shtessel and Dr. Alexander Volkov, a professor of biochemistry at Oakwood University, coauthored a paper that used physical experiments and mathematical modeling to study transmission of electrical signals between tomato plants.
[...] "Dr. Volkov is a prominent scholar in biochemistry. Once, we were talking about the electrical signal propagation though the plant's stem and between the plants—plant communication—through the soil," Dr. Shtessel says. "I suggested building an equivalent electrical circuit and a corresponding mathematical model that describes these processes."
The mathematical modeling is based on ordinary and partial differential equations. Dr. Shtessel was in charge of building the models, running the simulations and generating the plots.
[...] Plants generate electric signals that propagate through their parts. When the roots of tomatoes are experimentally isolated from each other with an air gap, the electrical impedance of the gap is very large.
"The electrical signals won't go through this gap," Dr. Shtessel says. In that experiment, communication between plants via their roots was prevented, as was discovered by Dr. Volkov.
However, when the plants are living in common soil, experiments conducted by Dr. Volkov found that the ground impedance is not very large and they can communicate by passing electrical signals to each other through the Mycorrhizal network in the soil.
Maybe there is something to the "Tree of Souls" in Avatar?
Journal Reference:
Alexander G. Volkov et al. Underground electrotonic signal transmission between plants [open], Communicative & Integrative Biology (2020). (DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1757207)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 11 2020, @02:49PM (10 children)
It's not like a sciency article needs to be a patent application, with all the method explained until "those skilled in the art" can repro without further instructions - that's what the reference section [tandfonline.com] is for.
Speaking for myself, whatever I read from those references was from idle curiosity about what the heck is electrotonic potential.
The purpose of my comment was to point out the phys.org FA and the original FA are saying different things and that's where I stop - no intention to repro, much less to validate or even discuss the issue. Electrocution of plants is not a kink in which I indulge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:04PM (5 children)
I can imagine there would be MANY people interested in reproducing these results - they could have a big impact in our understanding of plant communication. Studying these electrical signals may eventually lead to a radical change in the way farmers monitor and manage crops.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:18PM (1 child)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissive about those who have this kink, I have some different ones and I don't expect all the others would enjoy mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:59PM
If they involve Mads Rafferty we might be interested. :)
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday July 11 2020, @03:56PM
And maybe that crazy cat lady who talks to her plants isn't so crazy after all?
(Score: 3, Funny) by choose another one on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:43PM (1 child)
Only if we can decode the signals. We have known about tomatoes "screaming" for years, we just don't know what they are saying.
I really really really want someone to figure this out, mostly because I am gonna love it if their distress call is "vegans are coming", then I am gonna celebrate with filet steak and foie gras - if I can stop laughing for long enough to eat it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @07:20PM
Even if we could start decoding it would take us awhile to ketchup.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday July 11 2020, @04:44PM (3 children)
Well, I mostly agree with you except in the matter of the purpose of scientific publication. I thought the whole point of publishing a scientific paper was to forge consensus among researchers, and one of the main ways in which this happens is by making it possible for other researchers to replicate the results. I didn’t find the reference section to be particularly helpful in that regard, but maybe you had more patience looking through it than I did.
But really, the questions I’m asking here are very basic and fundamental to an electromagnetic communications link: what’s the power level and directivity of the transmitter, and what’s the sensitivity and bandwidth of the receiver? In the specific case of the paper, how does the application of an external stimulus address address any of these questions?
If indeed great strides have been made in the understanding of inter-plant communication, maybe the journalists at phys.org could give us an overview of where we are, and why this particular paper is worthy of citation.
So really, I’m left to conclude that there is no intention whatsoever to give readers an understanding of what’s going on here. And quite possibly, the reason for that is that it’s junk science.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 11 2020, @05:28PM (1 child)
Purpose of publishing,
Is precluding the proverbial perishment,
And providing possibility of protracted provisionmet.
Thus persons printing promulgate.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday July 11 2020, @08:37PM
There once was a poster named Nonymous
Whose quantity of posts were gironomous
Some posts that you’ll see
Will fill you with glee
Too bad they’ll never be eponymous
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday July 12 2020, @08:29AM
Without answers to those, any claims of electrical anything are basically akin to scientology.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves