Independent thinking or mechanical command control—
Some plants seem to be "smart" when they grow. They seem to be able to think and make reasonable plans for their growth and development. Do plants really have thoughts? This is also a question that scientists have been arguing about. Some scientists believe that the complex behavior of plants is only mechanical instructions, and more comes from heredity.
Some scientists believe that flora can carefully consider their living environment and predict the future.
Mustard is an ordinary plant that can only live for six weeks. If the balance stone on its root tip (a starch "brain" used to communicate with other plants in the outside world) is cut off, it will not survive. Moreover, mustard grass, a small parasitic plant with light color, seems to be able to perceive the presence of friends, enemies or food around it, and can quickly decide how to get close to them!
Podophyllum podophyllum living in the northwest of the United States, can plan its growth in the next two years according to the estimation of weather characteristics.
Because scientists have made some valuable discoveries, even those who are skeptical about the evolutionary paradigm of "plant intelligence" have to admit that the whole plant kingdom, from the simplest magnolia and ferns, knows everything about the big forest.
Some scientists believe that flora can carefully consider their living environment, predict the future, conquer territory and enemies, and sometimes people think that they have the power of prophecy. From gardeners to philosophers, many people get valuable inspiration from plants.
The theme of plant "brain" has also become the focus of debate in botany seminars.
Now, the scientific community has been debating whether nature itself has "intelligence". In fact, some unusual new discoveries about how plants "study" the environment and respond to it provide strong evidence for this debate.
Anthony, a plant biochemist and famous plant intelligence scholar at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK? Levas said: "People's attitude towards intelligence has changed substantially. People's concept of intelligence is being liberated from the shackles of narrow views. I believe that not only human beings have intelligence, but other creatures also have this kind of thing that belongs to human beings. "
Even without the logic of Socrates' philosophy or Shakespeare's thinking, the theme of plant "brain" has become the focus of debate in botany seminars. Some people doubt this. Plants certainly don't fall in love, bake souffles or recite beautiful poems. So just through the simple reaction of plants to the environment, can we conclude that plants have active and conscious reasoning ability?
But the late plant geneticist and Nobel Prize winner barbara mcclintock called plant cells "thoughtful". Darwin once wrote an article about the root tip "brain". Scientists now say that plants can not only communicate with each other, communicate with insects by writing gas evaporation codes, but also complete the calculation of Euclidean geometry by "cell calculation method". In addition, plants seem to be able to keep small things as big as sesame seeds firmly in mind like a grumpy boss.
Scientists explore how to prove that plants are also intelligent, rather than simple creatures that can only reproduce in flowerpots.
For more and more biologists, knowing that plants can challenge and influence other species is enough to prove that plants have basic intelligence. Leslie Spears, a biologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, said: "If intelligence refers to the ability to master and apply knowledge, then plants are absolutely smart."
An important discovery of plant intelligence is that two pieces cut from the same parent plant or two small plants cloned from the same parent plant will behave differently even if they are cultivated under the same conditions.
Dr Levas said, "We now know that plants have the ability to recognize themselves. In fact, plants themselves have this extraordinary ability. " But no one seems to have studied this problem seriously. Now people and some plant biologists generally believe that plants are just simple creatures that reproduce in flowerpots.
Others suspect that the complex behavior of plants is just a mechanical instruction.
American Indians have an ancient ceremony. Whenever the corn is about to bear ears, elderly Indian women and old people will go to the corn field to communicate with the "mother corn" and talk with the corn plants in a consulting tone in order to reach a friendly understanding: "Let your children and corn seeds feed my children!" I also want my children to feed your children. I want my children to grow corn from generation to generation. "But what is circulated in these traditional cultures only reflects people's desire to communicate with plants and proves that primitive people are afraid of nature, which does not mean that plants are conscious and can communicate with people.
Even in the technologically advanced United States, many universities have established one plant research laboratory after another. Some experts are revealing the mystery of heredity, while others analyze the internal working principle of living plants through laser microscope. Until today, plant biologists are still exploring the mystery of "signal conversion", or how genetic, chemical and hormone sequences are dispersed into the complex behavior of plants.
However, some experts suspect that plants are not intelligent products, and their complex behaviors are only mechanical instructions, which are more genetic than intelligent. Some people attribute intelligence to oversimplification of plant affinity, which is a complex human characteristic.
Intelligence is a kind of self-awareness, and whether plants have this point needs further study.
Although scientists are studying plants more and more deeply, it is still unknown how the complex instructions of plants are clearly expressed and executed. Heike, a plant biologist in North Carolina, USA? Winter? Cedrov said: "At present, we still have a lot to learn about the working principle of plants, but intelligence refers to self-awareness to a large extent, which plants obviously do not have."
NASA gave North Carolina State University money to study the effects of gravity on crops, partly because they recently found that plants have neurotransmitters very similar to humans, which may provide more clues for scientists and finally discover how gravity affects conscious humans.
The National Science Foundation of the United States has allocated $5 million to find out the "clock structure" of molecules. Through the molecular "clock structure", plants know when to grow and when to bloom. In May this year, in Florence, Italy, scientists will also hold the first meeting in the new research field of plant neurobiology-the first forum on plant neurobiology.
The study of plant "intelligence" may help scientists cultivate new species.
People's discussion on the "intelligence" of plants is rapidly surpassing the theoretical level. In space, "intelligent plants" can not only provide food, oxygen and clean water, but also provide valuable "partners" for lonely space travelers. If Americans land on Mars in the future, it will bring great convenience to astronauts. For example, the study on the working principle of mustard seed balance stone may one day help scientists cultivate grains that can grow in the gravity environment of only the earth 1/8 to 3/8.
At the same time, some farmers living on the earth may one day determine the final growth date of crops by communicating with plants. The new gene "Bypass- 1" discovered by researchers at the University of Utah may make this imagination come true.
However, at present, ordinary indoor plants are hard to win people's respect, and even those who study them sometimes don't take them seriously. Dr. Spos said, "When I was a postdoctoral student, one of my neighbors saw me buy back plants, didn't water them, and finally threw them out, and then bought them back and threw them out. She thinks I'm crazy. If she knows that I have a doctorate in botany, I think she may be crazy! "