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How Plants Communicate and Think
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2020-02-18 at 3:19 PM UTCLearning from Bacteria about Natural Information Processing:
Under natural growth conditions, bacteria live in complex hierarchical communities. To conduct complex cooperative behaviors, bacteria utilize sophisticated communication to the extent that their chemical language includes semantic and even pragmatic aspects. I describe how complex colony forms (patterns) emerge through the communication‐based interplay between individual bacteria and the colony. Individual cells assume newly co‐generated traits and abilities that are not prestored in the genetic information of the cells, that is, not all the information required for efficient responses to all environmental conditions is stored. To solve newly encountered problems, they assess the problem via collective sensing, recall stored information of past experience, and then execute distributed information processing of the 109–1012bacteria in the colony—transforming the colony into a “super‐brain.” I show illuminating examples of swarming intelligence of live bacteria in which they solve optimization problems that are beyond what human beings can solve. This will lead to a discussion about the special nature of bacterial computational principles compared to Turing algorithm computational principles, in particular about the role of distributed information processing.
https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05022.x -
2020-02-18 at 8:56 PM UTC
Manifesto for a New Bacteriology:
We put forward the hypothesis that all bacteria of our planet form a single clonal entity, as is a single oak or a horse, only far more complex. A series of uninterrupted divisions ensured a physical continuity between the present living bacterial cells and that of their first ancestor. One should remember that in bacteria the mother cell never dies, it only changes generation after each division. Furthermore, ecological and epidemiological evidence suggest that the simple planet-wide bacterial clone is able to perform many complex functions. One clear example is the widespread appearance of bacterial resistance to sulfa drugs and to the many existing anti-biotics.
Our general view has a superficial likeness to the now disreputed hypothesis of pleomorphism, which unleashed a particularly bitter controversy around the end of the 19th century until it was definitely rejected. In some cases, the observation that any bacterial strain could change completely under modified external circumstances had been proven to be the product of the contamination of the culture. It is thus understandable that this ideological dispute resulted in a hostility against every unifying concept in bacteriology, considered almost as a heresy. Only entirely new and decisive evidence could overcome the long-lasting scientific anathema for any speculation resembling pleomorphism. This decisive evidence was recently found by bacterial genetics, which provides an overwhelming support for a unifying view through what we consider the genetic solidarity of all bacteria. Each bacterial cell can easily benefit in nature from genes derived from other bacterial strains, a phenomenon unlike anything occurring in eukaryotes. -
2020-05-09 at 1:42 PM UTCWith world distracted, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of this year, with 1,202 square kilometres of forest wiped out
That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for the first four months of the year since records began
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3083623/world-distracted-amazon-rainforest-continues-burn -
2020-05-09 at 1:44 PM UTC
Originally posted by Obbe With world distracted, the Amazon rainforest continues to burn
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of this year, with 1,202 square kilometres of forest wiped out
That was a 55 per cent increase from the same period last year, and the highest figure for the first four months of the year since records began
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/americas/article/3083623/world-distracted-amazon-rainforest-continues-burn
if your not going to feed them or give them money so that they dont have to exploit their forests for subsistence,
then why bother what they do with *THEIR* forests ?
hmmmmm. -
2020-05-09 at 1:48 PM UTC
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2020-05-09 at 1:50 PM UTC
Originally posted by Obbe Yes, the world could be run in a better way and tragedies like this could be avoided.
Originally posted by vindicktive vinny if your not going to feed them or give them money so that they dont have to exploit their forests for subsistence,
then why bother what they do with *THEIR* forests ?
hmmmmm. -
2020-05-09 at 1:51 PM UTC
Originally posted by vindicktive vinny if your not going to feed them or give them money so that they dont have to exploit their forests for subsistence,
then why bother what they do with *THEIR* forests ?
hmmmmm.
Originally posted by Obbe Yes, the world could be run in a better way and tragedies like this could be avoided.
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2020-05-22 at 7:13 PM UTC
Monica Gagliano has single-handedly pioneered the revolutionary new field of Plant Bioacoustics, which is providing the most powerful evidence to date that plants possess forms of cognition that could constitute “personhood.”
Michael Pollan, who has studied the human-plant relationship in such classic bestselling works as The Botany of Desire, has now turned his attention in his new book How To Change Your Mind to what cutting-edge research on psychedelic substances (which are nearly all derived from or modeled on plant molecules) is revealing about human consciousness. -
2021-03-17 at 9:01 PM UTCSingaporean scientists develop device to 'communicate' with plants using electrical signals. As a proof-of concept, they attached a Venus flytrap to a robotic arm and, through a smartphone, stimulated its leaf to pick up a piece of wire, demonstrating the potential of plant-based robotic systems:
https://media.ntu.edu.sg/NewsReleases/Pages/newsdetail.aspx?news=ec7501af-9fd3-4577-854a-0432bea38608 -
2021-03-17 at 10 PM UTC
