Scientists check whether plants are aware.  This can come as a shock to vegetarians

Flora is still a big mystery to us, but more and more of her research is showing that plants are more like animals than we all think. anyway Plants don’t have brains And the nervous system, however, they have something close to it. Thanks to this, they can not only control their individual parts, but also communicate with each other.

Such discoveries were published some time ago by scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. When an insect attacks a plant, it is Defense systems send information With warnings for other parts of the plant, allowing them to get ready for action.

for example shy mimosa Leaves wrinkle when touched. There are many such interesting plants. Until now, biologists believed that representatives of plants could possess such very complex abilities, but now we have convincing evidence of this. However, researchers note that the best is yet to come.

anyway Plants do not have nervous systems like animals do And we humans have evolved something very similar to it over millions of years. It is a signaling system based on glutamic acid. When a predator attacks, it is released into the cell and releases a wave of calcium ions into neighboring cells. The information can be spread throughout the plant and even spread to other plants.

Scientists explain that the plant reacts to a stress factor such as cutting one of its leaves. Information about this spreads across the plant at an approximate speed. millimeter per second (in animals 120 meters per second).

In the meantime, scientists from the University of Murcia, under the leadership of Paco Calvo, decided to delve into the topic further and verify it Whether plants are unaware. Researchers have developed a test that records their behaviour. The question here is whether there are any signs of cooperative action with the chosen target and whether it has anything to do with some environmental event.

Calvo suggests that early research suggests that beans are an interesting plant for showing awareness. At its height, you’re looking for a good anchor point, and when you find one, you’re in it Increases electrical activity. This could mean some form of cognitive function, like the many new neural networks that are forming in the brains of animals or humans.

Searching for plants and looking for signs of consciousness in them is a very difficult task. It’s as if we’ve gone to an alien planet, found a moving stone and tried to contact it, not even knowing if it’s really alive or just our fantasies. Scientists show that decades may pass before we know the answer to this key question. However, they are sure that this fact It can turn our idea of ​​plants upside downEspecially changing the lives of vegetarians beyond recognition.

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