Humans have always grown and evolved with nature and owe her a lot. We are social beings who interact and live with our kind. But have you ever wondered if plants could communicate with each other, just like us? Can plants feel and have emotions? When our moms warned us not to pluck the leaves of a plant, were they hurting the plant?
In his 1902 paper, Sir J.C. Bose, a physicist, biologist, botanist, and writer, said, "All around us, the plants are communicating. We just don't notice it." After finding success in his work with radio waves, he began researching plants. He believed that plants were conscious of their surroundings and could react. With the help of his invention, the crescograph, he was able to measure growth and movements in plant parts such as leaves, roots, and more. The device could detect even the smallest growth of 0.00001 inches. He conducted a variety of experiments with the crescograph and studied the reactions of plants toward temperature, light, chemicals, and pollution, among other things.
He believed that pulsations were present even in plants. He explained processes such as phototropism, which is the "thirst for light," geotropism, nastic movements, and many others. He explained that these pulsations helped the plant to grow in the required region and direction. In one of his experiments, he exposed the plant to a heavily toxic bromide solution. The crescograph presented a light spot from the plant on its smoke plate. The spot moved vigorously back and forth as the plant's pulses ran. Similarly, he discovered that an electric spasm occurred in a plant during its death, and its actual moment of death could be recorded. He concluded that plants have a sensitive nervous system that can respond to stimuli electrically and chemically.
These experiments of Bose showed how plants are alike to any other creature by being aware of their surroundings. Cleve Backster, another person who experimented in this field, developed a theory explaining that plants can feel pain through their extrasensory perception (ESP). Backster was an expert in using the polygraph instrument, aka the lie detector machine, which checks for breathing rate, sweating, and pulse rate and shows sharp peaks when the person is probably lying. He served in World War II, the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, and the C.I.A. and also founded the Backster School of Lie Detection, where he trained many agents and detectives. "I like to think of the polygraph," he once said, "as a truth detector."
One early morning, as he lay back with his coffee and stared at the dracaena plant in his room, he casually decided to attach his polygraph to the plant, and that's where it all began. He made use of philodendron plants for his experiment. In one room, he placed the plant that was attached to the polygraph, and in another, a machine would dump shrimp into boiling water. All of it was machine-operated without any human intervention. They left the place and returned for results. As expected, the plants were affected by the death of shrimps and could respond, while there was no response when the machine dumped no shrimps into the water. The shrimps somehow managed to convey their terror to the plants.
In another experiment, he asked one of his students to kill one of the two plants in the room. Nobody except for the chosen student knew who the killer was. The other plant showed no reaction when the students walked into the room, but for the killer, the polygraph showed fierce and chaotic responses. Hence, he concluded, "The plant identified the killer."
Experiments have shown how talking to plants and positive vibes from people can affect their growth. Plants have also demonstrated a healthier response to soothing music than to harsh sounds. Today, plant parenting has become a trend, and people share their experiences of raising plants. However, problems such as deforestation, extinction, and pollution need to be addressed. Let's remember that we all share equal parts of this planet and must coexist together.
References:
https://www.thebetterindia.com/76587/jagdish-chandra-bose-indian-biophysicist-radio-plant
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/musings/we-have-time-lets-talk-to-plants-
Sir J.C. Bose - The Scientist who Redefined Plant Physiology - Realbharat
https://www.esalq.usp.br/lepse/imgs/conteudo_thumb/Experiments-prove-plants-have-feelings.pdf
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