Posted on 04/04/2023 1:06:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Plant owners know just how difficult it can be to figure out what they need, especially when leaves start browning or wilting. But it turns out that plants may have been telling you all along. A new study found that when plants are stressed, they emit specific sounds that identify what's wrong.
Previous studies had shown that plants vibrate when under stress, but for years, scientists have debated whether those vibrations become sound waves. By studying tomato and tobacco plants in an acoustic chamber inside a greenhouse, researchers at Tel Aviv University discovered that it's true – plants cry out for help through airborne ultrasonic sounds.
"We found that plants usually emit sounds when they are under stress and that each plant and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound," researchers said in a news release from the university. "While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects."
Human adults can only hear frequencies up to 16 kilohertz, researchers said, but ultrasonic microphones placed about 10 centimeters from each plant used in the study detected sounds at frequencies between 20 and 250 kilohertz. Those recordings were analyzed by special AI algorithms that could differentiate between plants and the types of sounds they were emitting.
And the more stressed plants were, the more they screamed.
"Unstressed plants emitted less than one sound per hour, on average," researcher Lilach Hadany said, "while the stressed plants – both dehydrated and injured – emitted dozens of sounds every hour."
They also found that after a certain peak of dehydration, the sounds would simply stop. Their findings were published in the journal Cell on Thursday.
"Our findings suggest that the world around us is full of plant sounds, and that these sounds contain information – for example about water scarcity or injury," Hadany said. "We assume that in nature the sounds emitted by plants are detected by creatures nearby, such as bats, rodents, various insects, and possibly also other plants - that can hear the high frequencies and derive relevant information."
But it's not just small animals and insects that can use this information, but humans too, Hadany said. All they need is the "right tools – such as sensors that tell growers when plants need watering."
This could prove particularly beneficial in the agriculture industry, as researchers noted in their publication that "more precise irrigation can save up to 50% of the water expenditure and increase the yield." This ability could only get more important as climate change continues to increase the intensity and frequency of droughts and the world continues to grapple with food security issues.
"Apparently, an idyllic field of flowers can be a rather noisy place," Hadany said. "It's just that we can't hear the sounds."
See BS so this might not be true
And the angel of the lord came unto me
Snatching me up from my place of slumber
And took me on high and higher still
Until we moved to the spaces betwixt the air itself
And he brought me into a vast farmlands of our own Midwest
And as we descended cries of impending doom rose from the soil
One thousand nay a million voices full of fear
And terror possessed me then
And I begged Angel of the Lord what are these tortured screams?
And the angel said unto me
These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots!
You see, Reverend Maynard
Tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust
And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat
Like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared
“Hear me now, I have seen the light!
They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul!
Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers!
Can I get an amen? Can I get a hallelujah?
Groot!.............
They are not making it up.
Oh no, poor vegans.
The next step is to eat only mineral matter.
“Lithians”.
> plants cry out for help <
To what end? Let’s say a cow cries out for help. There’s a good chance that other cows will help, or will at least be alerted to a danger. But what would be the evolutionary (or intelligent design) value of a plant expending energy to do so?
Oh, and good job CBS for shoving climate change into the story. Because as we all know, every last thing is somehow related to climate change.
So now I can tell vegans they’re engaging in cruelty when the murder plants to eat? Cool!
G.K. Chesterton was making fun of vegetarians/vegans in one of his books. [I think specifically Leo Tolstoy] I think he had them eating salt.
Nah.
But I will give you a giggle.
In 1972 I was showing a newspaper clipping of this to guys in the army.
Isn’t anything ever new?
When an oak tree falls, it screams ‘Falling’. Usually in english.
If true, the measurements should be quantifiable and repeatable.
I can believe plants in distress might signal distress in some way, and perhaps even that insects that feed on them might be able to detect those signals, but cry for help? No.
They can eat ze bugs.
Old news (https://www.irva.org/speaker/backster-cleve).
“Mr. Backster established the polygraphy program at the Central Intelligence Agency beginning in 1947. In the mid-1960s, he began experiments with plants and other biological entities to see if they exhibited electromagnetic responses to distant stimuli. Associated with this were a number of psychokinetic experiments conducted with a newly emerging parapsychology researcher named Ingo Swann. Cleve Backster played an important role in bringing Mr. Swann and Dr. Hal Puthoff together for the first time in what ultimately led to the quarter-century-long government remote viewing program.”
Using a spectrum analyzer to measure frequency and signal strength, a tree set on fire can communicate the disaster hundreds of miles away.
Cleve Baxter. . .look him up for early findings about plants and polygraphs.
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