Sometimes you may hear, particularly in the context of such politicians as Jason Chaffetz or Trey Gowdy, 'that person doesn't have the intelligence of a houseplant' and, given this new research, that assessment may be more accurate than it seems. Plants are 'aware' of the temperature and actively measure it to determine the speed at which they should be growing. (Science Daily: Plant 'thermometer' discovered that triggers springtime budding by measuring night-time heat)
Finding implicit intelligence in organisms we typically regard as simple is a keen delight for the greater awareness of we are part of Something Much Bigger and that means anything from Gaia the Earth Mother to whatever you like. Whether such intelligent behavior comes from deduction with a calculator or is genetically dispatched doesn't make much functional difference when the organism takes some action which is more beneficial than some other action it could have taken.
In one immediate example, crocus is an early-flowering plant which starts so early in the season it may well experience snow before the bloom ever materializes. When that happens, growth stops until the snow passes and then it begins again. See above about being 'smarter than a houseplant' since this looks like highly intelligent behavior to someone who has enjoyed them for many years.
Note: crocus grow from bulbs which are typically planted in the Autumn to flower in the early Spring. They will disappear relatively quickly after flowering but that will return the next season and for many after. Crocus give one of the first signs of Spring and they bring a perennial delight that way. They're also not at all needy and hardly any maintenance is required.
Researchers have revealed that molecules called phytochromes -- used by plants to detect light during the day -- actually change their function in darkness to become cellular temperature gauges that measure the heat of the night.
The new findings, published today in the journal Science, show that phytochromes control genetic switches in response to temperature as well as light to dictate plant development.
At night, these molecules change states, and the pace at which they change is "directly proportional to temperature" say scientists, who compare phytochromes to mercury in a thermometer. The warmer it is, the faster the molecular change -- stimulating plant growth.
At night, however, it's a different story. Instead of a rapid deactivation following sundown, the molecules gradually change from their active to inactive state. This is called "dark reversion."
"Just as mercury rises in a thermometer, the rate at which phytochromes revert to their inactive state during the night is a direct measure of temperature," says Wigge.
Finding implicit intelligence in organisms we typically regard as simple is a keen delight for the greater awareness of we are part of Something Much Bigger and that means anything from Gaia the Earth Mother to whatever you like. Whether such intelligent behavior comes from deduction with a calculator or is genetically dispatched doesn't make much functional difference when the organism takes some action which is more beneficial than some other action it could have taken.
In one immediate example, crocus is an early-flowering plant which starts so early in the season it may well experience snow before the bloom ever materializes. When that happens, growth stops until the snow passes and then it begins again. See above about being 'smarter than a houseplant' since this looks like highly intelligent behavior to someone who has enjoyed them for many years.
Note: crocus grow from bulbs which are typically planted in the Autumn to flower in the early Spring. They will disappear relatively quickly after flowering but that will return the next season and for many after. Crocus give one of the first signs of Spring and they bring a perennial delight that way. They're also not at all needy and hardly any maintenance is required.
Researchers have revealed that molecules called phytochromes -- used by plants to detect light during the day -- actually change their function in darkness to become cellular temperature gauges that measure the heat of the night.
The new findings, published today in the journal Science, show that phytochromes control genetic switches in response to temperature as well as light to dictate plant development.
At night, these molecules change states, and the pace at which they change is "directly proportional to temperature" say scientists, who compare phytochromes to mercury in a thermometer. The warmer it is, the faster the molecular change -- stimulating plant growth.
- Science Daily
There you have it that the plants do not magically acquire some cosmic awareness but rather are actively measuring the temperature to take direction from that.
- Insert obvious editorial on Republicans have no awareness of temperature changes in the context of climate change and therefore houseplants are demonstrably more intelligent than they. -
Here at the Rockhouse, we take a magical intrigue in the way genetic systems have evolved which result in such perfect tuning and responsiveness to the environment and changes within it. The crocus 'knows' the temperature and it stops. More accurately based on the research, it's the other way around since it grows only when it encounters 'agreeable' temperatures.
Another way the effect of the phytochromes is seen in response to shade since that's not a good situation for most plants so they react to it.
If a plant finds itself in shade, phytochromes are quickly inactivated -- enabling it to grow faster to find sunlight again. This is how plants compete to escape each other's shade. "Light driven changes to phytochrome activity occur very fast, in less than a second," says Wigge.
At night, however, it's a different story. Instead of a rapid deactivation following sundown, the molecules gradually change from their active to inactive state. This is called "dark reversion."
"Just as mercury rises in a thermometer, the rate at which phytochromes revert to their inactive state during the night is a direct measure of temperature," says Wigge.
- Science Daily
The real time reaction to the changing environment has such implicit cleverness that it leads to all the more respect for the evolution of the genetic systems which drive it. However, since there's a substantial change of this missive evolving to sound like a religious tract, consider further review of the article as you will and there's more interesting content in it yet.
Here at the Rockhouse, we will kick back in reverence toward Gaia the Great Earth Mother.
Om, Om, Om ...
(Ed: you don't go OM to the Earth Mother!)
Hey, she's one of the gods so she can figure it out, right?
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