And right in the middle of the yard is a tree. And his idea was to see if he could condition these dogs to associate that food would be coming from the sound of a bell. Just the sound of it? ROBERT: She says one of the weirdest parts of this though, is when sick trees give up their food, the food doesn't usually go to their kids or even to trees of the same species. Pics! So Monica moves the fans to a new place one more time. Transcript. So what they're saying is even if she's totally sealed the pipe so there's no leak at all, the difference in temperature will create some condensation on the outside. I don't think Monica knows the answer to that, but she does believe that, you know, that we humans We are a little obsessed with the brain. SUZANNE SIMARD: We had to dig from the sides. The water is still in there. Big thanks to Aatish Bhatia, to Sharon De La Cruz and to Peter Landgren at Princeton University's Council on Science and Technology. ROBERT: So here's what she did. The point here is that the scale of this is so vast, and we didn't know this until very, very recently. There was some kind of benefit from the birch to the fur. Oh, yeah. She made sure that the dirt didn't get wet, because she'd actually fastened the water pipe to the outside of the pot. ANNIE: Yeah. JENNIFER FRAZER: From a particular direction. And they still remembered. So light is -- if you shine light on a plant you're, like, feeding it? SUZANNE SIMARD: Into the roots, and then into the microbial community, which includes the mushroom team, yeah. There's -- on the science side, there's a real suspicion of anything that's anthropomorphizing a plant. There are multiple ways of doing one thing, right? So Monica moves the fans to a new place one more time. One of the roots just happens to bump into a water pipe and says -- sends a signal to all the others, "Come over here. And every day that goes by, I have less of an issue from the day before. JENNIFER FRAZER: It is! But let me just -- let me give it a try. That's okay. So we are going to meet a beautiful little plant called a mimosa pudica, which is a perfectly symmetrical plant with leaves on either side of a central stem. Eventually over a period of time, it'll crack the pipe like a nutcracker. Yours is back of your house, but let's make it in the front. If you get too wrapped up in your poetic metaphor, you're very likely to be misled and to over-interpret the data. We went to the Bronx, and when we went up there, we -- there was this tall man waiting for us. It's a costly process for this plant, but She figured out they weren't tired. All right, my hypothesis is that what happens is You got somewhere to go? If a plant doesn't have a brain what is choosing where to go? But it was originally done with -- with a dog. They just don't like to hear words like "mind" or "hear" or "see" or "taste" for a plant, because it's too animal and too human. Begins with a woman. And then I needed to -- the difficulty I guess, of the experiment was to find something that will be quite irrelevant and really meant nothing to the plant to start with. MONICA GAGLIANO: Again, if you imagine that the pot, my experimental pot. MONICA GAGLIANO: Not really. Because if I let you go it's gonna be another 20 minutes until I get to talk. Because what she does next is three days later, she takes these plants back into the lab. Never mind.". Yeah, plants really like light, you know? Yeah, absolutely. JENNIFER FRAZER: Yeah, it might run out of fuel. MONICA GAGLIANO: Yeah, plants really like light, you know? ANNIE: Yeah. Whatever. We were waiting for the leaves to, you know, stop folding. SUZANNE SIMARD: And those chemicals will then move through the network and warn neighboring trees or seedlings. Same as the Pavlov. Radiolab is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. April 8, 2018 By thelandconnection. ROBERT: So I think what she would argue is that we kind of proved her point. Yours is back of your house, but let's make it in the front. No. But then ROY HALLING: Finally! And she says this time they relaxed almost immediately. And she goes into that darkened room with all the pea plants. This is the headphones? Or even learn? Ring, meat, eat. And so we're up there in this -- in this old forest with this guy. So we've done experiments, and other people in different labs around the world, they've been able to figure out that if a tree's injured ROBERT: It'll cry out in a kind of chemical way. Every one of them. Smarty Plants. ALVIN UBELL: The tree will wrap its roots around that pipe. We went to the Bronx, and when we went up there, we -- there was this tall man waiting for us. He shoves away the leaves, he shoves away the topsoil. They need light to grow. I mean, to say that a plant is choosing a direction, I don't know. SUZANNE SIMARD: And so I designed this experiment to figure that out. Each one an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce. Give it to the new -- well, that's what she saying. It's a -- it's a three-pronged answer. It was done by radiolab, called "smarty plants". Yeah, mimosa has been one of the pet plants, I guess, for many scientists for, like, centuries. ROBERT: Two very different options for our plant. But we are in the home inspection business. Then Monica hoists the plant back up again and drops it again. On the fifth day, they take a look and discover most of the roots, a majority of the roots were heading toward the sound of water. ROBERT: Oh, hunting for water. Science writer Jen Frazer gave us kind of the standard story. I mean, it's a kind of romanticism, I think. Would just suck up through photosynthesis. Actually that's good advice for anyone. Jad and Robert, they are split on this one. And therefore she might, in the end, see something that no one else would see. Smarty Plants by Radiolab | Podchaser Episode from the podcast Radiolab Next Episode Smarty Plants Released Wednesday, 14th February 2018 3 people rated this episode About Insights Pro Reviews Creators 9 Lists 1 Do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? Yes, in a lot of cases it is the fungus. Along with a home-inspection duo, a science writer, and some enterprising scientists at . If I want to be a healthy tree and reach for the sky, then I need -- I need rocks in me somehow. JAD: Well, okay. SUZANNE SIMARD: Well, when I was a kid, my family spent every summer in the forest. And if you go to too many rock concerts, you can break these hairs and that leads to permanent hearing loss, which is bad. Once you understand that the trees are all connected to each other, they're all signaling each other, sending food and resources to each other, it has the feel, the flavor, of something very similar. But instead of dogs, she had pea plants in a dark room. ], And Alvin Ubell. On the outside of the pipe. MONICA GAGLIANO: Like for example, my plants were all in environment-controlled rooms, which is not a minor detail. So no plants were actually hurt in this experiment. And it was almost like, let's see how much I have to stretch it here before you forget. And the salivation equivalent was the tilt of the plant? To remember? So she decided to conduct her experiment. Which by the way, is definitely not a plant. I'm a professor emeritus of plant biology at UC Santa Cruz. Radiolab Smarty Plants. On the outside of the pipe. My name is Monica Gagliano. So now, they had the radioactive particles inside their trunks and their branches. That's okay. LARRY UBELL: It's not leaking. And it's good it was Sunday. He was a, not a wiener dog. Or No. Image credits: Photo Credit: Flickred! ALVIN UBELL: And the tree happens to be a weeping willow. JENNIFER FRAZER: As soon as it senses that a grazing animal is nearby ROBERT: If a nosy deer happens to bump into it, the mimosa plant ROBERT: Curls all its leaves up against its stem. MONICA GAGLIANO: So then at one point, when you only play the bell for the dog, or you, you know, play the fan for the plant, we know now for the dogs, the dog is expecting. And we saw this in the Bronx. ROBERT: There's -- on the science side, there's a real suspicion of anything that's anthropomorphizing a plant. One of the roots just happens to bump into a water pipe and says -- sends a signal to all the others, "Come over here. LATIF: Yeah. So they might remember even for a much longer time than 28 days. 36:59. There's not a leak in the glass. Like, the tree was, like, already doing that stuff by itself, but it's the fungus that's doing that stuff? I don't really need it all right now. Hopefully I tied that into cannabis well enough to not get removed. That apparently -- jury's still out. This episode was produced by Annie McEwen. Radiolab will continue in a moment. Back and forth. Hi. But we don't know. ROBERT: I don't think Monica knows the answer to that, but she does believe that, you know, that we humans MONICA GAGLIANO: We are a little obsessed with the brain. ROBERT: Well, so what's the end of the story? Suzanne says she's not sure if the tree is running the show and saying like, you know, "Give it to the new guy." And we were all like, "Oh, my goodness! ROBERT: All right, that's it, I think. And the -- I'm gonna mix metaphors here, the webs it weaves. SUZANNE SIMARD: They can't photosynthesize. Like the bell for the dog. The next one goes, "Uh-oh." They still remembered. So we're really -- like this is -- we're really at the very beginning of this. ROBERT: Yes, because she knew that scientists had proposed years before, that maybe there's an underground economy that exists among trees that we can't see. She's not gonna use hot water because you don't want to cook your plants, you know? Couldn't it just be an entirely different interpretation here? One of the spookiest examples of this Suzanne mentioned, is an experiment that she and her team did where they discovered that if a forest is warming up, which is happening all over the world, temperatures are rising, you have trees in this forest that are hurting. But it didn't happen. So Monica moves the fans to a new place one more time. So they can't move. LATIF: It's like Snow White and The Seven Tubes or something. Because after dropping them 60 times, she then shook them left to right and they instantly folded up again. They remembered what had happened three days before, that dropping didn't hurt, that they didn't have to fold up. I think there are some cases where romanticizing something could possibly lead you to some interesting results. Crossposted by 4 years ago. The plants would always grow towards the light. The plants -- the plants stopped -- what is it they did? No. 2018. The roots of this tree of course can go any way they want to go. ROBERT: The plants would always grow towards the light. That's a parade I'll show up for. JENNIFER FRAZER: Yes, in a lot of cases it is the fungus. ROBERT: And that's just the beginning. In the Richard Attenborough version, if you want to look on YouTube, he actually takes a nail And he pokes it at this little springtail, and the springtail goes boing! The show is known for innovative sound design, smashing information int Let him talk. Monica thought about that and designed a different experiment. JAD: Would you say that the plant is seeing the sun? Well, people have been measuring this in different forests and ecosystems around the world, and the estimate is anywhere from 20 to 80 percent will go into the ground. I mean, you've heard that. ROBERT: I think that's fair. She's done three experiments, and I think if I tell you about what she has done, you -- even you -- will be provoked into thinking that plants can do stuff you didn't imagine, dream they could do. ROBERT: What do mean, the fungi will give me my sugar back? ROBERT: Peering down at the plants under the red glow of her headlamp. So he brought them some meat. 2018. Birds. I think there is something like a nervous system in the forest, because it's the same sort of large network of nodes sending signals to one another. And I do that in my brain. MONICA GAGLIANO: Yeah, plants really like light, you know? JAD: So today we have a triptych of experiments about plants. So just give me some birds. JENNIFER FRAZER: That something bad is happening. ROBERT: Picture one of those parachute drops that they have at the -- at state fairs or amusement parks where you're hoisted up to the top. How does it know which way to turn and grow its roots so that it can find the water? I don't know. SUZANNE SIMARD: He was a, not a wiener dog. So this Wood Wide Web, is this just, like, the roots? JENNIFER FRAZER: Right? Or maybe slower? And then they came back JENNIFER FRAZER: And they found that most of the springtails were dead. We showed one of these plants to him and to a couple of his colleagues, Sharon De La Cruz Because we wanted them to help us recreate Monica's next experiment. The magnolia tree outside of our house got into the sewer pipes, reached its tentacles into our house and busted the sewage pipe. So it wasn't touching the dirt at all. They shade each other out. ROBERT: When you go into a forest, you see a tree, a tall tree. If you get too wrapped up in your poetic metaphor, you're very likely to be misled and to over-interpret the data. It's like a savings account? I mean, to say that a plant is choosing a direction, I don't know. JENNIFER FRAZER: And the fungus actually builds a tunnel inside the rock. They start producing chemicals that taste really bad. LARRY UBELL: I'm not giving my age. She says the tree can only suck up what it needs through these -- mostly through the teeny tips of its roots, and that's not enough bandwidth. JENNIFER FRAZER: Yeah, it might run out of fuel. ROBERT: Yeah. This happens to a lot of people. I remember going in at the uni on a Sunday afternoon. ROBERT: She says the tree can only suck up what it needs through these -- mostly through the teeny tips of its roots, and that's not enough bandwidth. ROBERT: They're sort of flea-sized and they spend lots of time munching leaves on the forest floor. Had indeed turned and moved toward the fan, stretching up their little leaves as if they were sure that at any moment now light would arrive. LARRY UBELL: We are the principals of Accurate Building Inspectors of Brooklyn, New York. SUZANNE SIMARD: There's an enemy in the midst. , centuries metaphor, you see a tree, a tall tree does next is three days,. 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