Weeping Plants

[Mr. M]

Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans

and labors with birth pangs together until now.

This article from the esteemed science mag Nature seems to 

confirm that nature does indeed cry out.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00890-9

[Mr. M]

Crying crops

To eavesdrop on plants, Lilach Hadany at Tel-Aviv University in Israel and her colleagues placed tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants in small boxes kitted out with microphones. The microphones picked up any noises made by the plants, even if the researchers couldn't hear them. The noises were particularly obvious for plants that were stressed by a lack of water or recent cutting. If the sounds are pitched down and sped up, “it is a bit like popcorn — very short clicks”, Hadany says. “It is not singing.”

[ayin jade]

If you read their study, it shows that plants are not reacting with emotion. It is the same as the way a house creaks. Especially if the plant is stressed, their individual features that transport nutrients around the plant creak. 

[Mr. M]

2 minutes ago, ayin jade said:

If you read their study, it shows that plants are not reacting with emotion. It is the same as the way a house creaks. Especially if the plant is stressed, their individual features that transport nutrients around the plant creak. 

I wouldn't know how to assign emotions to plants, a bit anthropomorphic.

Just a reminder that there are things going on that is outside our range of hearing

(and seeing) that confirms that we cannot rely on our physical senses alone.

If nature "sounds out" under stress, how great must that stress be now?

Of course I read the study, and it just reminded me of Romans 8, not offering up

anything revelatory. When I post in "Science and Faith", I am not trying to build

anyone's faith on such discoveries, it is more general interest, maybe even fun.

[FJK]

Plants (bugs too I think) do not have the same kind of  life as the animals and people do.  Both plants and animals have life, but they have different kinds of life.

[AnOrangeCat]

17 hours ago, Mr. M said:

Just a reminder that there are things going on that is outside our range of hearing

(and seeing) that confirms that we cannot rely on our physical senses alone.

I'd add that it's not just our physical senses, but also our knowledge. It wasn't all that long ago in human history that a guy presented the notion that there was an unseen world that could have a dramatic effect on our lives and wellbeing and could even kill us if we weren't mindful of it. Put that way it sounds supernatural. Many of the learned men of the day ridiculed it. But it turned out that this guy was Joseph Lister, and he was right. It stands out in my mind as an especially strong example of the majority of the scientific and academic communities at large being not only woefully wrong but also behaving in a way that was detrimental to the true pursuit of knowledge.

[Mr. M]

2 hours ago, AnOrangeCat said:

I'd add that it's not just our physical senses, but also our knowledge. It wasn't all that long ago in human history that a guy presented the notion that there was an unseen world that could have a dramatic effect on our lives and wellbeing and could even kill us if we weren't mindful of it. Put that way it sounds supernatural. Many of the learned men of the day ridiculed it. But it turned out that this guy was Joseph Lister, and he was right. It stands out in my mind as an especially strong example of the majority of the scientific and academic communities at large being not only woefully wrong but also behaving in a way that was detrimental to the true pursuit of knowledge.

Not many people know and understand that the Law of Moses contains quarantine procedures long before we understood germs and viruses and communicable disease. If we would teach this awe inspiring wisdom to the world, they would more likely be able to grasp what a wonderful God of Truth is revealed to us through His Word. 

Deuteronomy 4:6 Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’

[JustClay]

Interesting thread, @Mr. M.    Nature reveals so much about our Creator if we just take time to observe.  I didn’t know that distressed plants actually cried out, but I can actually see a plant’s distress when its green leaves become dull, become spotted, or turn brown.  I can see if it’s being attacked by pests if I examine the back of the leaves and stem.  I believe our Father shows us these things to teach us that close observation can also help us detect people in distress so that we can share the hope we have in Christ with them.  His wisdom is available to us everywhere.   

[BeyondET]

On 3/31/2023 at 12:23 PM, FJK said:

Plants (bugs too I think) do not have the same kind of  life as the animals and people do.  Both plants and animals have life, but they have different kinds of life.

The fruitfly does have a primitive Limbic system, part of the brain like humans and other living things that deals with emotions. I've read their being studied on how to treat ADHD and other issues. Probably alot of other insects have the ability as well. Pray mantis and the jumping spider are afew.

Plants don't feel pain but they can have social networks.

Edited April 5, 2023 by BeyondET

[The Barbarian]

On 3/31/2023 at 11:23 AM, FJK said:

Plants (bugs too I think) do not have the same kind of  life as the animals and people do.  Both plants and animals have life, but they have different kinds of life.

Insects are animals.   And many of them have more cognitive functions than had been previously suspected:

As a mathematical concept, the idea of zero is relatively new in human society—and indisputably revolutionary. It's allowed humans to develop algebra, calculus and Cartesian coordinates; questions about its properties continue to incite mathematical debate today. So it may sound unlikely that bees—complex and community-based insects to be sure, but insects nonetheless—seem to have mastered their own numerical concept of nothingness.

Despite their sesame-seed-sized brains, honey bees have proven themselves the prodigies of the insect world. Researcher has found that they can count up to about four, distinguish abstract patterns, and communicate locations with other bees. Now, Australian scientists have found what may be their most impressive cognitive ability yet: “zero processing,” or the ability to conceptualize nothingness as a numerical value that can be compared with more tangible quantities like one and two.

While seemingly intuitive, the ability to understand zero is actually quite rare across species—and unheard of in invertebrates. In a press release, the authors of a paper published June 8 in the journal Science called species with this ability an “elite club” that consists of species we generally consider quite intelligent, including primates, dolphins and parrots. Even humans haven’t always been in that club: The concept of zero first appeared in India around 458 A.D, and didn't enter the West until 1200, when Italian mathematician Fibonacci brought it and a host of other Arabic numerals over with him.

But animal cognition researchers at the RMIT University of Melbourne, Monash University in Clayton, Australia and Toulouse University in France had a hunch that honey bees might just be one of the few species able to grasp the concept. Despite the fact that they have fewer than one million neurons in their brain—compared to 86,000 million in a human brain—the team recognized their cognitive potential.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bees-may-understand-zero-concept-took-humans-millennia-grasp-180969282/

It's noteworthy that most human hunter-gatherer sociieties count 1...2...3...many.

Edited April 10, 2023 by The Barbarian