Intelligent Plants How does one begin to explain how a plant can be hacked and somehow be made to send emails? This is so outrageous a concept that it seems like a joke. When you find out more about some of the capabilities of plants, it can be very startling. There have been many science fiction stories about plants becoming intelligent. Take for instance “The Thing.” The original version which was released in 1951. This is where a flying saucer crashes in the Arctic and its only passenger is a being which when thawed out comes to life and attacks people on our base. After scientific examination the doctor remarks the being was more closely related to a carrot than related to any human. That may have been fantasy, but even though plants have no brains some of the things they are capable of are incredible. MIT scientists have used nanotechnology in a very unique way. They used it to alter the ability of the spinach plant to not only detect explosives, but to send an email when they do. When I saw the article about this, I just had to read it. I wanted to know what the criteria was for the plants to do this and also find out how they did it. The answer to the first part of the question was most explosives use nitroaromatics in water and the plants are altered to be sensitive to this. When they detect it a warning signal is sent out by the altered plant which triggers the email. One scientist said, “This is a novel demonstration of how we have overcome the plant/human communication barrier.” We have married electronics to plants and this has become known as plant nanobionics. So, what exactly is nanobionics? It is a soft coating which is made of infrared emitting minerals that can be applied to any type of surface. It use was original thought to be ideal for humans because it could use our body heat as an energy source. It was then realized it had many other possible uses as seen with the spinach plant. Eventually it was realized we could use it to alter plants to allow them to perform functions nature never intended. It seems one of the most useful ways to use this with plants is to create plants which are sensors which alert an electronic component in some way. Plants themselves have some surprises before being altered. Did you ever wonder how some plants have the ability to follow the sun in the sky? How do they know the sun is there? They don’t have eyes or brains and yet they accomplish this task every day. It turns out the key in this is a hormone auxin. It steers plants to grow toward the light. The name for the direction of a plant growing toward the light is heliotropism. While growing toward the light is one thing, plants like Sunflowers actually track the light and these are called heliotropic or phototropic flowers. If we look at dangerous plants, one which has to be on the top of the list is a plant with exploding fruit. Imagine reaching for what you think looks like a delicious fruit and it blows up in your face. The plant is Hura Crepitans and also Monkey no climb. The reason for the second name is the bark of the plant is studded with treacherous long thorns. The tree grows to 197 feet high. When the fruit explodes it has seeds which are said to be as hard as steel and they travel at almost 150 miles per hour. If somehow you get to eat the fruit you are poisoned. One plant is known as the shy plant. It has other names such as Touch me not and sensitive plant. This is all with good reason. The plant has what is known as a rudimentary nervous system and when the plant knows it was touched its leaves close. The same is true if it get shaken. The name which is most famous is Mimosa pudica. Here is even a stranger part to the plant, if it is bothered it can let other plants know. How it does this is a good question, but just knowing it does is incredible. There are plants which communicate with others, exhibit incredible longevity and are capable of things most of us believe plants should not be able to do. Another plant which is able to communicate is the common cabbage. Think about this next time you eat it. If the plant is attacked by insects or animals it releases a gas letting members of the cabbage family know of the danger. There are also some plants that actually use sound as communication. The oldest living things on the planet are plants. They are Bristlecone pines and are located in the White Mountains in the United States. The two trees are unbelievably old. One is over 4800 years old and the other is over 5000 years old. We are talking about a plant which is as old as the Great Pyramid in Egypt. Imagine if we could last that long. It is also amazing no tragedy has struck them in all that time such as fire or flood. When we think of incredible plants, many of us might think of the Venus Flytrap. It is a carnivore, and there are others which also are which can even eat animals like small monkeys and such. The Flytrap has another feature which most people don’t know about. It can count. When a bug gets into its leafy trap it waits for five taps by the bug before closing the trap. How can this be, since when can a plant count? It is one of the most amazing things a plant can do. It makes you wonder if we are underrating plant life. Another thing to wonder about is could the plant be taught how to count much higher? If so, wouldn’t it rival the intelligence of say a dog? There are even plants which recognize other plants in their family because they remember them, or at least this is what we think. A chemical is released which does this allowing the plant to share nutrients. A plant sharing its food with its relatives? You have to admit this sounds nuts, but it happens. One such plant is Impatiens poallida. All this makes me wonder, when we finally get out into the universe and look for intelligent life, should we also be checking alien plants? Perhaps we will find intelligent ones which are as smart or even smarter than us.
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