Grounded Garden

Can Plants Think, Communicate, and Remember?

In a new study, scientists have found a cabbage relative capable of remembering and responding to information. Plants are able to remember information and react to it, thanks to an internal communications system that can be likened to a central nervous system in animals, according to a new study by a Polish plant biologist.

Plants "remember" information about light, and a certain type of cell transmits that information, much like nerves do in animals.

In the study, which was published in the early online version of the journal Plant Cells July 16, the researchers found that light shone on one leaf of an Arabidopsis thaliana plant caused the whole plant to respond. The response lasted even after the light source was taken away, suggesting the plant remembered the light input.

"The signaling continues after the light is off; it is building short-term memory," said the lead author, Stanislaw Karpinski, in an e-mail message. "The leaves are able to physiologically 'memorize' different excess light episodes and use this stored information, for example, for improving their acclimation and immune defenses."

How Plants Remember and React

In the video below Stefano Mancuso talks about the roots of plant's intelligence at the July 2010 TED Lecture in Oxford, England.

Below is another video on plant intelligence from the BBC.

Electricity Running Through Wire Creates Electromagnetic Field

"When an electrical current flows in a wire, the movement of the electrons produces a similar field in space, but one that is oriented around the wire. If the current is a DC (direct current), the magnetic field is steady, like that form a permanent magnet. The strength of the magnetic field depends upon the amount of current flowing in the wire--the more current there is, the stronger the magnetic field will be. If the current in the wire is fluctuating, the magnetic field will have the same fluctuations." (http://tuberose.com/Electromagnetic_Fields.html)

Earth & Grow's Effects on Bean Sprouts

In this informal experiment, a friend plugged in two different sets of bean seeds from the same package.... The bean sprouts on the left were plugged in using an Earth & Grow prototype. The bean sprouts on the right were not.

We are still not 100% sure how reconnecting plants to the Earth affects them in every situation. Some plants germinate faster and emerge through the soil strong, stocky, healthy and vibrant. Others prefer to be plugged in as young seedlings. Honing in on how the Earth's energy affects every plant, in every situation, during each stage of growth, is a very exciting challenge that we welcome with open minds!!