How much you want to bet the spy agencies are working on (already have working?) ways to eavesdrop on people by listening to the plants in the room, and not by putting bugs in the plants.
New research, published in the journal Trends in Plant Science, has revealed that plants not only respond to sound, but they also communicate to each other by making “clicking” sounds. Using powerful loudspeakers, researchers at The University of Western Australia were able to hear clicking sounds coming from the roots of corn saplings.
Researchers at Bristol University also found that when they suspended the young roots in water and played a continuous noise at 220Hz, a similar frequency to the plant clicks, they found that the plants grew towards the source of the sound.
Found by Brother Uncle Don
“Using powerful loudspeakers, researchers at The University of Western Australia were able to hear clicking sounds coming from the roots of corn saplings.”
That is a *Facepalm* sentence. I would think even weak headphones should suffice with a good mic.
The clicking sounds were weevil grubs.
My Dad and Grandpa always claimed on hot July nights in Minnesota, you could hear the corn grow.
My ficus plant just told me that this is, like total BS.
In my high-school days popular (quasi)science was all about plant feelings. Ranging from somewhat reasonable possibility of “plant nervous system” to Crackpot/Buzzkill level claims about psychic powers.
Well, I made me a machine to test some of that (simplified: sensitive electronic galvanometer connected to an amplifier with a measurable output and conversion to the sound on speakers). Test subject: few years old cherry tree, about 10 ft tall. I never found any of psychic powers (well, maybe it was my lack of them) but if you actually cut or burnt a leaf on one side of the tree, a good clear signal would come from electrodes attached to any other leaf, even furthest away ones. Converted to sound it was a series of increasing/decreasing amplitude and frequency clicks (not digital noise, equipment was old fashioned all-analogue one). If there is some electromagnetic activity happening in plants there would be plenty of natural processes that could convert that to sounds, of some or no use to plants but plausible to happen.
Yes, at the time I was hoping for psychic “thinking of burning the plant leaf” to result in some signal before the actual action but no banana 🙂
220 Hz is the “background sound” of the universe.
THE CMB SOUND SPECTRUM
The slide above shows the CMB sound spectrum plotted on an exponential frequency scale, which allows a piano keyboard to be directly superposed. Click on the red speaker to hear the sound. Since this is a single moment in cosmic history, 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the sound is steady and doesn’t vary.
Yeah, I Googled 220Hz too.
Another find:
Question:
If the fundamental frequency of a guitar string is 220 Hz, what is the frequency of the second harmonic? Of the third harmonic?
Answer:
The root note is the 1st harmonic, the fundamental.
If the 1st harmonic is 220 Hz
the 2nd harmonic is 440 Hz
the 3rd harmonic is 660 Hz
The nth harmonic is 220 times n Hz
Incidentally, 440Hz is concert ‘A’ above middle C.
220Hz is an octave lower.
660Hz is E, an octave and a third above middle C.
What next, for George Clooney. “The Men Who Listen to Plants”?
The Myth Busters busted this a long time ago. 🙂
Damn. I thought we were on a path to discover the origins of all life.
Back to the drawing board. 🙂
Laugh all you will , but the plants you see aren’t what’s running the show , the roots are only sending up an intelligence and energy collector , disguised as a pretty flower or tree . They are in contact with each other through the earths energy , and will if they must shut the place down .
So before you kill something even a shrub , remember it’s screams will reverberate through the planet . Once they’ve had enough , times up buddy .
GIANFRANCO FRONZI .sept. 4 / 12
They don’t need to bug the plants !!! ALL your ELECTRONIC GADGETS ARE BUGGED AND REPORTING TO THE MOTHERSHIP 24/7/365 !!! Even when you sleep, the listen !!!