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Bill who putters · 11-12-2010, 10:29 PM posted to rec.gardens

In article ,
"David Hare-Scott" wrote:

Brooklyn1 wrote:
On Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:11:50 -0500, wrote:

Bill who putters writes:

"The idea that plants basically have nerves a conclusion that
grows out of hard-to-interpret observations of electrical activity
in plant tissue has ignited a thunderstorm of its own among plant
scientists in recent years.

Article in question is a semantic game.

Here they are attempting to stretch the meaning of the phrase
"swarm intelligence".

Plants reacting to the environment is in no way intelligence as the
word is commonly understood.

That's a matter of perspective. Flora survives well without fauna but
not vice versa... plants have obviously evolved a higher form of
intelligence... reproduction and photosynthesis from the perspective
of plants is the higher intelligence... only humans make asinine
superiority judgements.

Of course there is nothing asinine about using a private definition of
"intelligence" to muddy the waters further. By any common definition of the
word plants are not intelligent. Yes they react to their environment but so
do microorganisms and crystals. That is not intelligent.

I hadn't thought before today that you were not superior to plants but since
you are claiming it I am forced to accept that there might be something in
it. This might also explain how you can see the world from a plant's
perspective. How do you do that? Do you wave your stamen in the breeze
hoping a receptive female will be near enough for you to reproduce?

David

Seems life does what it does . Weird wonder full world.

.....................
Psychol Sci. 2010 Feb 1;21(2):276-83. Epub 2009 Dec 22.
Scent of a woman: men's testosterone responses to olfactory ovulation
cues.
Miller SL, Maner JK.
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
32306-4301, USA.
Abstract
Adaptationist models of human mating provide a useful framework for
identifying subtle, biologically based mechanisms influencing
cross-gender social interaction. In line with this framework, the
current studies examined the extent to which olfactory cues to female
ovulation--scents of women at the peak of their reproductive
fertility--influence endocrinological responses in men. Men in the
current studies smelled T-shirts worn by women near ovulation or far
from ovulation (Studies 1 and 2) or control T-shirts not worn by anyone
(Study 2). Men exposed to the scent of an ovulating woman subsequently
displayed higher levels of testosterone than did men exposed to the
scent of a nonovulating woman or a control scent. Hence, olfactory cues
signaling women's levels of reproductive fertility were associated with
specific endocrinological responses in men--responses that have been
linked to sexual behavior and the initiation of romantic courtship.
PMID: 20424057 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

"Always tell the truth and you don't have to remember anything."
--Mark Twain.