Recent research from Vidi researcher Josef Stuefer at the Radboud University Nijmegen reveals that plants have their own chat systems that they can use to warn each other. Therefore plants are not boring and passive organisms that just stand there waiting to be cut off or eaten up. Many plants form internal communications networks and are able to exchange information efficiently.
Many herbal plants such as strawberry, clover, reed and ground elder naturally form networks. Individual plants remain connected with each other for a certain period of time by means of runners. These connections enable the plants to share information with each other via internal channels. They are therefore very similar to computer networks. But what do plants want to chat to each other about?
Recently Stuefer and his colleagues were the first to demonstrate that clover plants warn each other via the network links if enemies are nearby. If one of the plants is attacked by caterpillars, the other members of the network are warned via an internal signal. Once warned, the intact plants strengthen their chemical and mechanical resistance so that they are less attractive for advancing caterpillars. Thanks to this early warning system, the plants can stay one step ahead of their attackers. Experimental research has revealed that this significantly limits the damage to the plants.
[source] http://www.physorg.com/news109944832.html
livingphorm
- by H. Shin
- University College of London, The Bartlett School of Architecture, United Kingdom
- livingphorm is a space dedicated to Shin's advanced architectural studies and research in redefining architecture in this chaotic age. Topics that stimulate Shin are the complex relationship between human/man made creation and the mother nature, the connections between new invention/ conceptual technology and biotech. The study perceives nature as a core for all design principles. Homo-sapiens that live within the nature should not disobey the complexity system therefore architecture which is one of the man-made products that consuming large amount of spaces and resources on planet Earth should be humbled to the nature rules and constraints. The approach is to unlearn from proven failures and redefine architecture in the shifting paradigm in Anthropocene Age and researching on methodologies of 'growing' architecture instead of 'building' architecture which is leading human race to a Dystopia in near future.