Tuesday, 4 April 2023, Bangalore, India
A recent experiment carried out by a bunch of scientists proves that plants do have a subconscious state, and they use it too. The experiment is indeed an opening to understanding plant psychology and how it can and will affect human life. This experiment was a study published in the journal Cell, and it was titled ‘Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative.’ A recent study conducted by scientists at Israel’s Tel Aviv University tells us that plants, when under deep stress, emit small and popping sounds as a signal to them experiencing stress. In a brief, the study concludes that when plants suffer from dehydration or have a part of them cut off, they go into a state of shock, and to express that state they stress out and emit those sad popping noises that cannot be heard by any human.
The plants under stress emit sounds that are similar to human speech but are of higher frequencies that are not perceived by humans. These sounds can be recorded and positively classified. “We recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants inside an acoustic chamber and in a greenhouse, while monitoring the plant’s physiological parameters,” one of the scientists said.
Scientist Lilach Hadany along with her colleagues had this idea to monitor the plants. They wanted to know the outcome if plants were mistreated. Lilach and her team decided to carry out this experiment at their University. They placed two small boxes containing tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants with attached microphones in an acoustic chamber. The team monitored every behavioral change made by the plants and noted it down. In the meantime, the microphones picked up various sounds emitted by the plants that the human ear cannot hear. They recorded the sound, and upon analyzing, it was known that the sounds were indeed stress noises. The sound that plants emit cannot be perceived by the human ear, so they pitched down the sounds and sped it up, only to find out it resembles popcorn’s click sound. These are very short clicks.
“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,” the news release from the university said. “While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects.”
A human being can only hear sounds up to a certain frequency, and beyond that, the eardrums would burst open, making the human lose its hearing capabilities. Humans can only hear sounds up to 16-kilohertz frequency, but the ones emitted by the plants in the experiment were between 20 and 250 kilohertz. In this experiment, Lilach added that they noticed an unstressed plant would make one sound in an hour, but a stressed plant would make at least a dozen sounds in an hour. The study also proves plants do possess certain human-like qualities. Scientists found that after a certain peak, they give in to the stress and stop emitting any sound.
A recent experiment carried out by a bunch of scientists proves that plants do have a subconscious state, and they use it too. The experiment is indeed an opening to understanding plant psychology and how it can and will affect human life. This experiment was a study published in the journal Cell, and it was titled ‘Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative.’ The recent study conducted by scientists at Israel’s Tel Aviv University tells us that plants when under deep stress, emit small and popping sounds as a signal to them experiencing stress. In a brief, the study concludes that when plants suffer from dehydration or have a part of them cut off, they go into a state of shock, and to express that state they stress out and emit those sad popping noises that cannot be heard by any human.
The plants under stress emit sounds that are similar to human speech but are of higher frequencies that are not perceived by humans. These sounds can be recorded and positively classified. “We recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants inside an acoustic chamber and in a greenhouse, while monitoring the plant’s physiological parameters,” one of the scientists said.
Scientist Lilach Hadany along with her colleagues had this idea to monitor the plants. They wanted to know the outcome if plants were mistreated. Lilach and her team decided to carry out this experiment at their University. They placed two small boxes containing tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants with attached microphones in an acoustic chamber. The team monitored every behavioral change made by the plants and noted it down. In the meantime, the microphones picked up various sounds emitted by the plants that the human ear cannot hear. They recorded the sound, and upon analyzing, it was known that the sounds were indeed stress noises. The sound that plants emit cannot be perceived by the human ear, so they pitched down the sounds and sped it up, only to find out it resembles popcorn’s click sound. These are very short clicks.
“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,” the news release from the university said. “While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants can probably be heard by various animals, such as bats, mice, and insects.”
A human being can only hear sounds up to a certain frequency, and beyond that, the eardrums would burst open, making the human lose its hearing capabilities. Humans can only hear sounds up to 16-kilohertz frequency, but the ones emitted by the plants in the experiment were between 20 and 250 kilohertz. In this experiment, Lilach added that they noticed an unstressed plant would make one sound in an hour, but a stressed plant would make at least a dozen sounds in an hour. The study also proves plants do possess certain human-like qualities. Scientists found that after a ceyrtain peak, they give in to the stress and stop emitting any sound.
Sources –India Today
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