A plant that seems to remember (2015) | Hacker News Reader

A plant that seems to remember (2015)

nationalgeographic.com

54 pointsclukic14 comments

I can't help thinking about the late, great Douglas Adams when reading this (and just about any scientific article).

In the first Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, upon firing the Infinite Improbability Drive while trying to escape two missiles (with nuclear warheads attached), the missiles turned into a very surprised sperm whale and a bowl of petunias.

He goes on to describe "what went through the head of the whale", with a long dialog about coming to terms with its life (while shortly having to come to terms with no longer having one).

"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was 'Oh no, not again'. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the Universe than we do now."

Silliness aside, it's fascinating seeing unexpected discoveries like this -- and something like this really does underscore how large the body of knowledge is that "we don't know" about biology, in general.

Funnily enough, the pot of petunias is part of a "brick joke" in one of the later books, where it is revealed to have been part of a reincarnation-line of a single being, which was killed by Arthur Dent every time it lived, either directly or indirectly. (Hence the 'Oh no, not again')

Douglas Adams had a way of thinking which made him right about quite a lot of future discoveries/technologies, even though most of his predictions were meant as hyperbole...

Made me think about the Skroderiders from Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep."

Far more interesting than the mimosa plant is the fact that Gagliano went on to perform Pavlov's experiment with pea plants - successfully.

She trained Pea Plants to associate airflow with light, causing them to grow towards a breeze expecting it to soon be followed with light.

That shows far more than just desensitization memory.

https://theconversation.com/pavlovs-plants-new-study-shows-p...

I wonder if the breeze was warm, that could be a good hint for the plant.

I remember reading : The presence of the past by Rupert Sheldrake and thinking it was a little bit too much pseudo science personally, but it did raise some interesting questions that I don't think have been resolved.

It's an interesting thought experiment for me though to imagine.

Another interesting one is the box jellyfish with eyes yet appear to not have any brains for processing the images : https://www.livescience.com/13929-box-jellyfish-eyes-navigat...

There are some studies that show that Bacteria also have memories. This shows that the memory can also be stored in other places than neurons.

Some examples:

Bacteria can pass on memory to descendants, researchers discover https://phys.org/news/2018-04-bacteria-memory-descendants.ht...

Collective memory discovered in bacteria https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160307153047.h...

Bacteria become “genomic tape recorders” https://news.mit.edu/2014/bacteria-storage-device-memory-111...

And slime mold (TED talk) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UxGrde1NDA

Two things are interesting about this to me:

First, the fact that bacteria can have memory!!

Second, the fact that this surprises me. Trivially, even for a single cell animal, it is not shocking that it might gain some survival advantage from having a memory of sorts, and that is really not a high bar to jump over in terms of required infrastructure. Almost any sort of very simple memory could be used advantageously.

> Plants, they [mainstream botanists] insist, are mainly genetic robots

Interestingly, that's what many people thought about animals too; Descartes famously described animals (all animals, including usual pets like dogs, etc.) as machines, mindless robots.

It's already common knowledge that plants communicate with one another about danger; why shouldn't they remember? Just because we don't know how doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

The capacity to respond at all implies "memory", so this is a beat-up title. However, do the plants obtain sensory input regarding the artificial motion in a similar fashion to that in which they become aware of wind? If so, even given that vicious winds could be damaging (1) different places will inevitably have different wind levels and these could changes seasonally or with microclimatic variation (eg. fallen trees) (2) plants can't exactly get up and move. Therefore, some adaptability with respect to local conditions should be expected. I would be surprised if there isn't more advanced research in this area.

How does the capacity to respond imply memory rather than reflex?

False dichotomy. Ongoing actuation requires memory of the past, period. Even if that memory is created in an instant, dispelled after the fact, and otherwise inaccessible.

I'm super curious how this reflex to curl the leaves in response to touch is adaptive for this plant in the first place.

I'd guess to avoid damage from heavy rain/hail/wind. The responses seem to lower surface area, especially when looking down on the plant. That would reduce the number of strikes from rain drops and probably lower their impact.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com