February 16, 2018

Smarty Plants--My Latest Guest Spot for Radiolab

In which we revisit the hot-button topic of plant intelligence

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This week I am a guest on Radiolab's most recent episode on plant intelligence -- although if you can believe it, the interview was recorded way back in August! Have a listen, and if you do, keep listening past the start of the thank-yous for my Rant on Plant Glory.

I also appeared on Radiolab in 2016 in their episode on the Wood Wide Web,

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From Tree to Shining Tree, which covered the related subject of mycorrhizal networks.

Plant intelligence is a topic that is no stranger to these pages.

Back in January when I wrote about the fact you can knock out sensitive plants like the one featured on this show – or any plant, actually -- with anesthesia. I also considered what that implies for our centuries-long quest to understand how anesthesia works and perhaps even understanding our own consciousness.

I have also written about the odd but true fact

that Venus Flytraps can count to relatively high numbers.

And if you’re just looking to read one of my neglected posts about how great plants are,

I wrote yesterday about the deceptive reproductive practices of the cast iron plants and how they dupe poor, dim-witted (yet still highly annoying) fungus gnats into doing their evil bidding. Enjoy.

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