Do you talk to your plants?
Do you talk to your plants? While you may not be able to hear them, your plants could very well be chatting away as well (perhaps they are not such great listeners after all), and that's especially true if they are having a bad day (did you forget to water them again?). For the first time in the world, TAU researchers recorded and analyzed sounds distinctly emitted by plants. The click-like sounds, resembling the popping of popcorn, are emitted at a volume similar to human speech, but at high frequencies, beyond the hearing range of the human ear. The researchers: "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. While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects."
"From previous studies we know that vibrometers attached to plants record vibrations, but do these vibrations also become airborne soundwaves - sounds that can be recorded from a distance? Our study addressed this question, which researchers have been debating for many years." Prof. Lilach Hadany
Resolving Old Scientific Controversy
The study was led by Prof. Lilach Hadany from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security at The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, together with Prof. Yossi Yovel, Head of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and faculty member at the School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, and research students Itzhak Khait and Ohad Lewin-Epstein, in collaboration with researchers from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Mathematical Sciences, the Institute for Cereal Crops Research, and the Sagol School of Neuroscience – all at Tel Aviv University. The paper was published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell.
Read more at Tel Aviv University
Image: Left to right: Prof. Yossi Yovel & Prof. Lilach Hadany (Credit: Tel Aviv University)
