Similarities between human and plants (Part-03: Smell similarity)

Functional similarities between human and plant (P.C.: Research Gate)

Human and plant consciousness share a remarkable number of similarities, particularly in relation to the five senses which both use to navigate the complexities of the world. There has been an ever-increasing body of research developing over the years demonstrating that consciousness is indeed not limited only to animals and humans, but plants as well and more so even objects we consider inanimate like rocks and metals. After all, there is no difference in composition between any of these things at the subatomic level. Everything we can perceive and even that which we cannot are made of electrons and protons circling around a nucleus. At the sub-atomic level there is little difference between the human brain and dirt (not to diminish the incredible complexity of the brain…). 

Smell Similarity

The parasitic vine called dodder is the sniffer dog of the vegetable world. It contains almost no chlorophyll – the pigment that most plants use to make food – so to eat it must suck the sugary sap from other plants. Dodder uses olfaction to hunt down its quarry. It can distinguish potential victims from their smell, homing in on its favorites and also using scents emitted by unhealthy specimens to avoid them (Science, vol 313, p 1964).

Dodder is exceptionally sensitive to odors, but all plants have a sense of smell. In animals, sensors in the nose recognize and bind with molecules in the air. Plants also have receptors that respond to volatile chemicals. What do they smell?

Back in the 1920s, researchers with the US Department of Agriculture demonstrated that treating unripe fruit with ethylene gas would induce it to ripen. Since then, it has become apparent that all ripening fruits emit ethylene in copious amounts, can smell it, and respond by ripening. This ensures not only that a fruit ripens uniformly but also that neighboring ones ripen together, producing more ethylene and leading to a ripening cascade. Coordinated ripening is important because it attracts animals to eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. Ethylene is a plant hormone that regulates many processes, so being able to smell it has other advantages too, such as in the coordination of leaf-color changes in the autumn.

Above all, however, smell allows plants to communicate. Research in the 1980s showed that healthy trees in the vicinity of caterpillar-infested ones were resistant to the pests because their leaves contained chemicals that made them unpalatable. Other trees isolated from the infestation did not produce these chemicals, so it seemed that the attacked trees had sent an airborne pheromonal message that primed healthy trees to prepare for imminent attack. We now know that many volatile chemicals are involved.

Acknowledgment: Helix, Quora, Zazenlife.com

Similarities between human and plants (Part-02: Touch similarity)

Functional similarities between human and plant (P.C.: Research Gate)

Human and plant consciousness share a remarkable number of similarities, particularly in relation to the five senses which both use to navigate the complexities of the world. There has been an ever-increasing body of research developing over the years demonstrating that consciousness is indeed not limited only to animals and humans, but plants as well and more so even objects we consider inanimate like rocks and metals. After all, there is no difference in composition between any of these things at the subatomic level. Everything we can perceive and even that which we cannot are made of electrons and protons circling around a nucleus. At the sub-atomic level there is little difference between the human brain and dirt (not to diminish the incredible complexity of the brain…). 

Touch Similarities

Plants live in a very tactile world. Branches sway in the wind, insects crawl across leaves, and vines search out supports to hang on to. Plants are even sensitive to hot and cold, allowing them to respond to the weather by doing things like changing their growth rates and modulating their use of water. Simply touching or shaking a plant is often enough to reduce its growth, which is why vegetation in windswept locations tends to be stunted.

All plants can sense mechanical forces to some degree, but tactile sensitivity is most obvious in the carnivorous Venus flytrap. When a fly, beetle or even a small frog crawls across its specially adapted leaves, these spring together with surprising force, sandwiching the unsuspecting prey and blocking its escape. The Venus flytrap (pictured) knows when to shut because it feels its prey touching large hairs on the two lobes of the trap. But it won’t just snap shut with any stimulation – at least two hair touches must occur within about 20 seconds of each other. This helps to ensure that the prey is the ideal size and will not be able to wiggle out of the trap once it closes.

The mechanism by which the Venus flytrap feels its prey is uncannily similar to the way you feel a fly crawling on your arm. Touch receptors in your skin sense the insect and activate an electrical current that passes along nerves until it reaches your brain, which registers the fly’s presence and instigates a response. Likewise, when a fly rubs up against the Venus flytrap’s hairs, it induces a current that radiates throughout the leaves. This activates ion channels in the cell membrane and the trap springs shut, all in less than one-tenth of a second.

Although most plants do not react this fast, they feel a mechanical stimulus in the same way. What’s really fascinating is that even at the level of individual cells, plants and animals use similar proteins to feel things. These mechanoreceptors are embedded in the cell membranes and, when stimulated by mechanical pressure or distortion, they allow charged ions to cross the membrane. This creates a difference in electrical charge between the inside and the outside of the cell, which generates a current. Unlike us, plants lack a brain to translate these signals into sensations with emotional connotations. Nevertheless, their sensitivity to touch allows them to respond to their changing environments in specific and appropriate ways.

Acknowledgment: Helix, Quora, Zazenlife.com

Similarities between human and plants (Part-01: Sight similarity)

Functional similarities between human and plant (P.C.: Research Gate)

CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK ABOUT PLANTS!

Human and plant consciousness share a remarkable number of similarities, particularly in relation to the five senses which both use to navigate the complexities of the world. There has been an ever-increasing body of research developing over the years demonstrating that consciousness is indeed not limited only to animals and humans, but plants as well and more so even objects we consider inanimate like rocks and metals. After all, there is no difference in composition between any of these things at the subatomic level. Everything we can perceive and even that which we cannot are made of electrons and protons circling around a nucleus. At the sub-atomic level there is little difference between the human brain and dirt (not to diminish the incredible complexity of the brain…). 

Sight

What do plants see? The obvious answer is that, like us, they see light. Just as we have photoreceptors in our eyes, they have their own throughout their stems and leaves. These allow them to differentiate between red and blue, and even see wavelengths that we cannot, in the far red and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. Plants also see the direction light is coming from, can tell whether it is intense or dim and can judge how long ago the lights were turned off.

Studies have shown that plants bend to the light as if hungry for the sun’s rays, which is exactly what they are. Photosynthesis uses light energy to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar, so plants need to detect light sources to get food. We now know they do this using phototropins – light receptors in the membranes of cells in the plant’s tip. Phototropins are sensitive to blue light. When they sense it, they initiate a cascade of signals that ends up modulating the activity of the hormone auxin. This causes cells on the shaded side of the stem to elongate, bending the plant towards the light.

Plants see red light using receptors in their leaves called phytochromes. A phytochrome is a sort of light-activated switch: when irradiated with red light, it changes its conformation so that it is primed to detect far-red light, and when irradiated by far red it changes back to the form that is sensitive to red light. This has two key functions. It allows plants to “turn off” at the end of the day – because far-red light predominates at sunset – and wake up again next day when the sun is high enough in the sky for red light to switch their phytochromes back on. It also allows them to sense when they are in the shade. Chlorophyll, the main pigment for photosynthesis, absorbs red but not far-red light, so when a plant is being crowded out by other plants it will see more far-red light than when it is growing in full sunshine. This directly influences the level of activated phytochromes, causing the plant to grow rapidly to get better exposure to the sun.

Phototropins and phytochromes are completely different from the photoreceptors found in animals’ eyes, although all consist of a protein connected to a chemical dye that absorbs the light. There is one type of photoreceptor, however, that we share. During daylight hours, cryptochromes within cells detect blue and UV light, using this signal to set an organism’s internal clock or circadian rhythms. In plants, this clock regulates many processes, including leaf movements and photosynthesis. So sight even helps plants tell the time. 

Acknowledgment: Helix, Quora, Zazenlife.com