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My very unscientific take is the noises are the result of a mundane mechanical process that is a consequence of the plant not having enough water or loss of wat

My very unscientific take is the noises are the result of a mundane mechanical process that is a consequence of the plant not having enough water or loss of water due to cutting, which leads to some cavitation bubbles forming. So it may only be as interesting as saying that your water starts "screaming" when it is being boiled.

hackerlight 4y ago
Makes sense, it's hard to see see an evolutionary purpose to this.
- mdp2021 4y ago
  > This might be very helpful for agriculture. For instance, tomato plants emit sounds of stress before they started looking dehydrated We can now process it, so, as proactive evolution, it worked. Before that, > We know that certain animals are capable of hearing these sounds ... We still need to understand who is using this sound, what role does it play in the world, but it suggests many many possibilities // It's also possible plants themselves could react to these sounds, Hadany said. The same team found in a paper published in 2019 that plants can respond to the sounds of pollinators like bees. "They respond within three minutes by making sweeter nectar"
stuaxo 4y ago
Would love the new age types to get onto the idea that water screams.
- no_wizard 4y ago
  There's already a bunch of new age types getting into the idea that water holds "emotional" values. IE, they claim that if you scream and have negative conversations at a glass of water, you can analyze the water and see changes to it that are negative, and doing the inverse (happy, positive conversations) makes the water "happier" and has positive changes. I remember hearing this at a seminar of new age things (I was doing an investigative thing at the time, which is why I was there) So they already are!
  - mixologic 4y ago
    Spooky ~~action~~ belief at a distance.
  - ricardobeat 4y ago
    I thought that was homeopathy.
bmitc 4y ago
You could also describe a human having an appendage chopped off in the same "mundane" mechanical way: loss of fluids, mechanical damage to nerves sending electrical pulses, etc. To some external observer, it's "just" a purely physical process. I'm not sure it's a useful description or perspective. The point here is that although maybe the mechanism here is just a mechanical process (although, what isn't?), the important thing are the responses to this, by the plant, other plants, and other organisms. Boiling water isn't going to take some action based upon it boiling nor are other organisms.
- eckza 4y ago
  When you cut off a human's appendage, the screaming comes from a voice. The voice comes from a sort of... consciousness. Which while we haven't exactly nailed down what makes one up, we are reasonably certain that it involves a nervous system.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    Plants communicate distress using their own kind of nervous system: Model mustard plant uses the same signals as animals to relay distress https://www.science.org/content/article/plants-communicate-distress-using-their-own-kind-nervous-system https://www.science.org/content/article/plants-communicate-d...
    - geoelectric 4y ago
      Making this absurd for a sec to make my point, I think they’re just saying if the physical sound of an arm being cut off just happened to mimic a human voice crying out, that wouldn’t make it a sign of consciousness like an actual “Ow!” from the speech center. There’s a difference between a creature’s higher level response to a stimulus and just stuff that happens as a direct physical consequence of the stimulus. It’s the same deal as boiling live lobsters. They aren’t actually screaming, even if you would be. That’s steam escaping. What the plant sound actually is, no clue. But I think the lobster scenario is what was being suggested upthread.

hackerlight 4y ago

Makes sense, it's hard to see see an evolutionary purpose to this.

mdp2021 4y ago
> This might be very helpful for agriculture. For instance, tomato plants emit sounds of stress before they started looking dehydrated We can now process it, so, as proactive evolution, it worked. Before that, > We know that certain animals are capable of hearing these sounds ... We still need to understand who is using this sound, what role does it play in the world, but it suggests many many possibilities // It's also possible plants themselves could react to these sounds, Hadany said. The same team found in a paper published in 2019 that plants can respond to the sounds of pollinators like bees. "They respond within three minutes by making sweeter nectar"

stuaxo 4y ago

Would love the new age types to get onto the idea that water screams.

no_wizard 4y ago
There's already a bunch of new age types getting into the idea that water holds "emotional" values. IE, they claim that if you scream and have negative conversations at a glass of water, you can analyze the water and see changes to it that are negative, and doing the inverse (happy, positive conversations) makes the water "happier" and has positive changes. I remember hearing this at a seminar of new age things (I was doing an investigative thing at the time, which is why I was there) So they already are!
- mixologic 4y ago
  Spooky ~~action~~ belief at a distance.
- ricardobeat 4y ago
  I thought that was homeopathy.

bmitc 4y ago

You could also describe a human having an appendage chopped off in the same "mundane" mechanical way: loss of fluids, mechanical damage to nerves sending electrical pulses, etc. To some external observer, it's "just" a purely physical process. I'm not sure it's a useful description or perspective. The point here is that although maybe the mechanism here is just a mechanical process (although, what isn't?), the important thing are the responses to this, by the plant, other plants, and other organisms. Boiling water isn't going to take some action based upon it boiling nor are other organisms.

eckza 4y ago
When you cut off a human's appendage, the screaming comes from a voice. The voice comes from a sort of... consciousness. Which while we haven't exactly nailed down what makes one up, we are reasonably certain that it involves a nervous system.
- bmitc 4y ago
  Plants communicate distress using their own kind of nervous system: Model mustard plant uses the same signals as animals to relay distress https://www.science.org/content/article/plants-communicate-distress-using-their-own-kind-nervous-system https://www.science.org/content/article/plants-communicate-d...
  - geoelectric 4y ago
    Making this absurd for a sec to make my point, I think they’re just saying if the physical sound of an arm being cut off just happened to mimic a human voice crying out, that wouldn’t make it a sign of consciousness like an actual “Ow!” from the speech center. There’s a difference between a creature’s higher level response to a stimulus and just stuff that happens as a direct physical consequence of the stimulus. It’s the same deal as boiling live lobsters. They aren’t actually screaming, even if you would be. That’s steam escaping. What the plant sound actually is, no clue. But I think the lobster scenario is what was being suggested upthread.