The Memories of Plants
atlasobscura.com
The Memories of Plants
1–10 of 34 posts
Re: The Memories of Plants
#2Interestingly enough, a similar chromatin-based mechanism could be responsible for long term memories in animals.
If that is the case, this could mean interesting times for, say, cryonics or even psychiatry.
Re: The Memories of Plants
#3That's really fascinating about the Mimosa pudica responding differently to being dropped after a while.
Interestingly along with Venus fly traps, their movement response can also be triggered with electricity.
Re: The Memories of Plants
#4A surprisingly common argument against veganism is "but plants feel pain, too," based on interpretations of articles such as this one on Vice [https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xd74nd/we-asked-a-botanis...]. I suppose the argument is that, if there is any amount of cruelty in our consumption, then we may as well surrender to this fact and eat whatever we want. (Also, haha vegans are dumb.) I'm sure this study will be added as support for this perspective.
But it should be obvious that even if plants were proven to be sentient, vegans would continue to eat them. Our primary directive on this planet is to survive, just like every other organism. Once that's settled we can focus on doing so with as little suffering as possible, to the best of our ability.
Re: The Memories of Plants
#5I wonder to what extent cuttings are effected by these epigenetic memories?
Ex.
- Grow plant A. Expose it to stimuli to make it form a 'memory'
- Take a cutting from plant A and root it, making plant B.
- Test plant B for response to the stimulus.
Does plant B have the memory? If so, how many cutting-generations does it take for the memory to decay?
Re: The Memories of Plants
#6That's really fascinating about the Mimosa pudica responding differently to being dropped after a while. Interestingly along with Venus fly traps, their movement response can also be triggered with electricity.
Considering that it all boils down to ions moving to trigger various actions, it's not surprising that electricity could trigger it. That's a good way to get anything with muscles to move, too. :)
Re: The Memories of Plants
#7A surprisingly common argument against veganism is "but plants feel pain, too," based on interpretations of articles such as this one on Vice [ https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xd74nd/we-asked-a-botanis... ]. I suppose the argument is that, if there is any amount of cruelty in our consumption, then we may as well surrender to this fact and eat whatever we want. (Also, haha vegans are dumb.) I'm sure this study will…
And the Vegan shows up! I kid, but the stereotype really holds true all too often.
The unsaid assumption in your comment, that I disagree with, is that harvesting animals causes anymore suffering than caring for and harvesting plants (in a humane manner, which admittedly, many facotry farms fail at on either side.)
Re: The Memories of Plants
#8That's really fascinating about the Mimosa pudica responding differently to being dropped after a while. Interestingly along with Venus fly traps, their movement response can also be triggered with electricity.
Considering that it all boils down to ions moving to trigger various actions, it's not surprising that electricity could trigger it. That's a good way to get anything with muscles to move, too. :)
Heh, that's true.
As far as I know though, you can't force the venus fly trap or mimosa to open it's leaves again via electricity.
I think with the mimosa iirc, strong bright light can open it's leaves though.
Re: The Memories of Plants
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Considering that it all boils down to ions moving to trigger various actions, it's not surprising that electricity could trigger it. That's a good way to get anything with muscles to move, too. :)
Heh, that's true. As far as I know though, you can't force the venus fly trap or mimosa to open it's leaves again via electricity. I think with the mimosa iirc, strong bright light can open it's leaves though.
Correct. Both of those actions occur due to the ion channels and gates resetting to their normal, pre-triggered state. In both of these plants their movements are triggered by ion potentials changing, like nerves in animals, opening channels to move water from one area to another, changing the shape of cells, bending cell walls due to water pressure, causing the movement. Then, slowly the water is moved back to its pre-trigger state, slowly opening the venus fly trap, or leaflets in this plant. Some insects move their legs through adjusting liquid pressure.
Re: The Memories of Plants
#10A little off-topic, but since Atlas Obscura crops up here fairly often, I'd just like to say that their book's a very pleasant thing to own, if you're into coffee-table books at all. I bought it on a whim after seeing an ad on the site, and I'm quite enjoying picking through it in fits and starts. Nothing in it that isn't on the site as far as I'm aware, but sometimes a laptop just doesn't cut the mustard for leisure reading.