Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Can Plants Scream?

 

 

When you stub your toe on the corner of a desk the first thing you’ll do is scream. Most animals have standard responses to stress and pain. A lot of times the response is screaming. It is a common response, and it can clearly be heard. What if plants were also screaming in response to pain and stress? In a study, researchers isolated tomato and tobacco plants and tested them in different situations. They were trying to figure out if they would scream in response the situations. 

 

The results of the study were surprising. They discovered that tomato and tobacco plants let out a specific frequency when their stems are cut. However, in a natural state they do not emit any noise. Also, they simulated drought conditions on both plants and once again the plants emitted certain noises in these conditions. These noises were compared to any noises the plants produced during normal and non-stressful environments. This revealed that in a sense plant are screaming in response to pain.

 

I found this study interesting because the question of do plants feel pain has been up in the air for quite a long time. There have been conclusions that plants in fact do not feel pain, but it is interesting to see the physical responses they have to stressors. Also, it is funny to think that people who refuse to eat animals because of morality issues will also have the same response to plants if there is evidence for them feeling pain.

 

Jackelyn Raymundo Santizo (6)

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/507590v4.full

13 comments:

  1. I wonder if all plants emit a frequency when they are injured? I also wonder how much that frequency varies from plant species to plant species (do different plant species have their own frequencies)? I had never considered this concept of non-animal organisms emitting noise in response to painful stimuli its pretty fascinating.
    - Declan Downing

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    1. This is a very unexplored field of research. I don't think that there is much research done on the frequencies but it would be cool to see what else we could learn from doing more research. I also had never thought about this topic until I ran into this paper, it's such an interesting topic to learn about.

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  2. I know that when mice die they release a pheromone that lets other mice know that they die, I wonder if this is the same for plants even when they get hurt.

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    1. I didn't know this at all. It sounds similar to the plants frequency because it is in response to pain or danger. I wonder what else is known about other organisms' response to stress that they do unconsciously.

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  3. Hi Jackelyn,
    I have wondered about this question for a long time! I wonder what factors effect the frequency of the plants? Height? Location? I also think you bring up a really fair point in the vegan/vegetarian diet. People say they don't eat meat because animals can feel pain, but if plants can scream, doesn't this mean something? I really liked this post, it was very interesting!!
    -Kristina Baldeo

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  4. This a really interesting post and is the first time i've ever heard of such a thing. How did the scientists get the idea to test such a hypothesis? And at what frequency are the screams that the plants emit?

    - David Miropolsky

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  5. This is a very interesting topic. With research showing that plants don't feel pain I wonder why they have this response to stress?

    -Zach Conant

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    1. This was actually the reason I became so interested in the research paper. It has been disproven by multiple studies (I think) that plants can feel pain. This raises the question of why they have certain responses to stress. This field of research would be interesting to look more into and it could answer a lot of questions.

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  6. The title caught me so off guard and it made me laugh, but this was actually a very interesting read.
    -Hannah K

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    1. I agree with this comment because it definitely caught my eye and I was able to learn something new. I had no idea tobacco and tomato plants let out a certain frequency when their stems are cut and I found this very interesting

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  7. Wow this is such an interesting article! Very eye-catching. It's cool that all living things have their own form of a language that they can communicate with.

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  8. Hi Jackelyn,
    I never knew that frequencies are emitted from plants when they are injured. WHy do you think this frequency emission occurs?
    Morianna Saint-Cyr

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