radiolab smarty plants

But over the next two decades, we did experiment after experiment after experiment that verified that story. JENNIFER FRAZER: So what do we have in our ears that we use to hear sound? ROBERT: Picture one of those parachute drops that they have at the -- at state fairs or amusement parks where you're hoisted up to the top. And then I needed to -- the difficulty I guess, of the experiment was to find something that will be quite irrelevant and really meant nothing to the plant to start with. Thud. Picasso! And so of course, that was only the beginning. Now, can you -- can you imagine what we did wrong? No, so for example, lignin is important for making a tree stand up straight. Is it, like -- is it a plant? And his idea was to see if he could condition these dogs to associate that food would be coming from the sound of a bell. So the deer's like, "Oh, well. They need light to grow. Ring, meat, eat. JENNIFER FRAZER: Yeah, it might run out of fuel. Me first. I'm 84. ], [JENNIFER FRAZER: Our staff includes Simon Adler, Brenna Farrow, David Gebel. No, it's far more exciting than that. Turns the fan on, turns the light on, and the plant turns and leans that way. In this case, a little blue LED light. ROBERT: Huh. ROBERT: Special thanks to Dr. Teresa Ryan of the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, to our intern Stephanie Tam, to Roy Halling and the Bronx Botanical Garden, and to Stephenson Swanson there. To remember? ROBERT: And the idea was, she wanted to know like, once the radioactive particles were in the tree, what happens next? Was it possible that maybe the plants correctly responded by not opening, because something really mad was happening around it and it's like, "This place is not safe.". The thing I don't get is in animals, the hairs in our ear are sending the signals to a brain and that is what chooses what to do. This is Roy Halling, researcher specializing in fungi at the New York Botanical Garden. So today we have a triptych of experiments about plants. Special thanks to Dr. Teresa Ryan of the University of British Columbia, Faculty of Forestry, to our intern Stephanie Tam, to Roy Halling and the Bronx Botanical Garden, and to Stephenson Swanson there. Was it possible that maybe the plants correctly responded by not opening, because something really mad was happening around it and it's like, "This place is not safe.". ROBERT: What's its job? ROBERT: They would salivate and then eat the meat. SUZANNE SIMARD: He was a, not a wiener dog. ALVIN UBELL: In a tangling of spaghetti-like, almost a -- and each one of those lines of spaghetti is squeezing a little bit. What is the tree giving back to the fungus? Can you make your own food? JENNIFER FRAZER: Apparently she built some sort of apparatus. MONICA GAGLIANO: The idea was to drop them again just to see, like, the difference between the first time you learn something and the next time. What was your reaction when you saw this happen? ROBERT: So the beetles don't want to eat them. And moved around, but always matched in the same way together. Remember that the roots of these plants can either go one direction towards the sound of water in a pipe, or the other direction to the sound of silence. Yeah. JAD: Where would the -- a little plant even store a memory? [laughs]. Like for example, my plants were all in environment-controlled rooms, which is not a minor detail. [laughs]. MONICA GAGLIANO: Yeah, plants really like light, you know? You should definitely go out and check out her blog, The Artful Amoeba, especially to the posts, the forlorn ones about plants. Plants are really underrated. Monica thought about that and designed a different experiment. And the tree happens to be a weeping willow. JAD: The part where the water pipe was, the pipe was on the outside of the pot? ROBERT: So let's go to the first. Huh. SUZANNE SIMARD: They start producing chemicals that taste really bad. Well, I have one thing just out of curiosity As we were winding up with our home inspectors, Alvin and Larry Ubell, we thought maybe we should run this metaphor idea by them. Like, two percent or 0.00000001 percent? I mean, it's -- like, when a plant bends toward sunlight. It would be all random. ROBERT: She determined that you can pick a little computer fan and blow it on a pea plant for pretty much ever and the pea plant would be utterly indifferent to the whole thing. You got somewhere to go? They have to -- have to edit in this together. We pulled Jigs out and we threw him in the lake with a great deal of yelping and cursing and swearing, and Jigs was cleaned off. If you have this kind of license, then you are only allowed to grow up to that certain height; if . JENNIFER FRAZER: With when they actually saw and smelled and ate meat. Support Radiolab today atRadiolab.org/donate. So actually, I think you were very successful with your experiment. They curve, sometimes they branch. And again. Yeah. Nothing happened at all. They're not experiencing extra changes, for example. Here's the water.". ROY HALLING: So there's an oak tree right there. Like, if you put food into one tree over here, it would end up in another tree maybe 30 feet away over there, and then a third tree over here, and then a fourth tree over there, and a fifth tree over there. Now that's a very, you know, animals do this experiment, but it got Monica thinking. So after much trial and error with click and hums and buzzes She found that the one stimulus that would be perfect was A little fan. Where would the -- a little plant even store a memory? Do you have the lens? ROBERT: Apparently, bears park themselves in places and grab fish out of the water, and then, you know, take a bite and then throw the carcass down on the ground. Transcript. So Monica moves the fans to a new place one more time. Little fan goes on, the light goes on. She says one of the weirdest parts of this though, is when sick trees give up their food, the food doesn't usually go to their kids or even to trees of the same species. And her family included a dog named Jigs. I found a little water! Why waste hot water? It's almost as if the forest is acting as an organism itself. But still. And it begins to look a lot like an airline flight map, but even more dense. Like, would they figure it out faster this time? The problem is is with plants. It was like, Oh, I might disturb my plants!" Or No. ALVIN UBELL: You have to understand that the cold water pipe causes even a small amount of water to condense on the pipe itself. And again. And what we found was that the trees that were the biggest and the oldest were the most highly connected. My name is Monica Gagliano. So I'd seal the plant, the tree in a plastic bag, and then I would inject gas, so tagged with a -- with an isotope, which is radioactive. And so I don't have a problem with that. And does it change my place in the world? ROBERT: Like, would they figure it out faster this time? They're father and son. They still remembered. It's definitely crazy. She thinks that they somehow remembered all those drops and it never hurt, so they didn't fold up any more. This is the headphones? ]. JENNIFER FRAZER: And his idea was to see if he could condition these dogs to associate that food would be coming from the sound of a bell. The next one goes, "Uh-oh." As abundant as what was going on above ground. If she's going to do this experiment, most likely she's going to use cold water. Now, can you -- can you imagine what we did wrong? It didn't seem to be learning anything. Minerals from the soil. Hi. ROBERT: Five, four, three, two, one, drop! Or even learn? And they, you know, they push each other away so they can get to the sky. So I don't have a problem. ROBERT: And we saw this in the Bronx. ], Test the outer edges of what you think you know. Fan, light, lean. JENNIFER FRAZER: Yeah, it might run out of fuel. They'd remember straight away. JAD: Wait a second. Same as the Pavlov. There was a healthier community when they were mixed and I wanted to figure out why. Five, four, three, two, one, drop! The glass is not broken. And the tree happens to be a weeping willow. ROBERT: Again, science writer Jennifer Frazer. Coming up on the Plant Parade, we get to the heart -- or better yet, the root -- of a very specific type of plant. It'd be all random. ROBERT: So you are related and you're both in the plumbing business? So they might remember even for a much longer time than 28 days. Like what she saw in the outhouse? It spits out the O2. JENNIFER FRAZER: The whole thing immediately closes up and makes it look like, "Oh, there's no plant here. MONICA GAGLIANO: My reaction was, "Oh ****!" You got the plant to associate the fan with food. However, if that's all they had was carbon That's Roy again. Robert, I have -- you know what? Yeah, it might run out of fuel. ROBERT: But what -- how would a plant hear something? Yes, because she knew that scientists had proposed years before, that maybe there's an underground economy that exists among trees that we can't see. If you look at these particles under the microscope, you can see the little tunnels. And might as well start the story back when she was a little girl. And then those little tubes will wrap themselves into place. ROBERT: What happened to you didn't happen to us. ROBERT: Yeah. Wait. Pics! ALVIN UBELL: And I've been in the construction industry ever since I'm about 16 years old. I'm a professor emeritus of plant biology at UC Santa Cruz. So the -- this branching pot thing. And while it took us a while to see it, apparently these little threads in the soil. And so I was really excited. ROBERT: And they're digging and digging and digging. It's a very interesting experiment, and I really want to see whether it's correct or not. ]. And then someone has to count. LARRY UBELL: Good. And his idea was to see if he could condition these dogs to associate that food would be coming from the sound of a bell. Playing via SpotifyPlaying via YouTube Playback options Listening on Switch Spotify device Open in Spotify Web Player Radiolab - Smarty Plants. MONICA GAGLIANO: The idea was to drop them again just to see, like, the difference between the first time you learn something and the next time. So it's predicting something to arrive. Maybe there's some kind of signal? No, I actually, like even this morning it's already like poof! ], Maria Matasar-Padilla is our Managing Director. Her use of metaphor. So I don't have a problem. ROBERT: So that's what the tree gives the fungus. I go out and I thought there's no one here on Sunday afternoon. JAD: That is cool. Radiolab will continue in a moment. ROBERT: Now, you might think that the plant sends out roots in every direction. SUZANNE SIMARD: It'll go, "Ick. Ring, meat, eat. She made sure that the dirt didn't get wet, because she'd actually fastened the water pipe to the outside of the pot. So this is our plant dropper. Then of course because it's the BBC, they take a picture of it. Well, you can see the white stuff is the fungus. Exactly. Do you really need a brain to sense the world around you? ROBERT: Could a plant learn to associate something totally random like a bell with something it wanted, like food? So otherwise they can't photosynthesize. MONICA GAGLIANO: Light is obviously representing dinner. ROBERT: All right, that's it, I think. They still remembered. And of course we had to get Jigs out. Then Monica hoists the plant back up again and drops it again. I've been looking around lately, and I know that intelligence is not unique to humans. Nothing delicious at all. We pulled Jigs out and we threw him in the lake with a great deal of yelping and cursing and swearing, and Jigs was cleaned off. Let us say you have a yard in front of your house. However, if that's all they had was carbon ROBERT: That's Roy again. Can Robert get Jad tojoin the march? ROBERT: They shade each other. And so I don't have a problem with that. Because what she does next is three days later, she takes these plants back into the lab. Let him talk. And it was almost like, let's see how much I have to stretch it here before you forget. And so we are under the impression or I would say the conviction that the brain is the center of the universe, and -- and if you have a brain and a nervous system you are good and you can do amazing stuff. It's like a savings account? ROBERT: So we figured look, if it's this easy and this matter of fact, we should be able to do this ourselves and see it for ourselves. This feels one of those experiments where you just abort it on humanitarian grounds, you know? MONICA GAGLIANO: So, you know, I'm in the dark. You have to understand that the cold water pipe causes even a small amount of water to condense on the pipe itself. JAD: The thing I don't get is in animals, the hairs in our ear are sending the signals to a brain and that is what chooses what to do. Wait. ROBERT: That is actually a clue in what turns out to be a deep, deep mystery. This is very like if you had a little helmet with a light on it. But we are in the home inspection business. I'll put it down in my fungi. This is the plant and pipe mystery. Is there anyone whose job it is to draw a little chalk outlines around the springtails? I mean, to say that a plant is choosing a direction, I don't know. JAD: What exchange would that be, Robert? And so I was really excited. And then all the other ones go in the same direction. And then when times are hard, that fungi will give me my sugar back and I can start growing again. SUZANNE SIMARD: And, you know, my job was to track how these new plantations would grow. ROBERT: No, no, no, no, no. Each one an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce. ROBERT: It turns that carbon into sugar, which it uses to make its trunk and its branches, anything thick you see on a tree is just basically air made into stuff. One time, the plant literally flew out of the pot and upended with roots exposed. ROBERT: Oh. I mean, what? So we know that Douglas fir will take -- a dying Douglas fir will send carbon to a neighboring Ponderosa pine. It's gone. ROBERT: And when you look at the map, what you see are circles sprouting lines and then connecting to other circles also sprouting lines. You know, they talk about how honeybee colonies are sort of superorganisms, because each individual bee is sort of acting like it's a cell in a larger body. And it's good it was Sunday. Join free & follow Radiolab. LATIF: Wait. ROBERT: And she was willing to entertain the possibility that plants can do something like hear. Or even learn? ROBERT: It won't be a metaphor in just a moment. On one side, instead of the pipe with water, she attaches an MP3 player with a little speaker playing a recording of And then on the other side, Monica has another MP3 player with a speaker. Oh, yeah. ROBERT: Monica's work has actually gotten quite a bit of attention from other plant biologists. So after the first few, the plants already realized that that was not necessary. Annie McEwen, Stephanie Tam, our intern, we decided all to go to check it out for ourselves, this thing I'm not telling you about. This peculiar plant has a -- has a surprising little skill. It's a family business. Yeah. So it's not that it couldn't fold up, it's just that during the dropping, it learned that it didn't need to. Pics! ROBERT: So here's what she did. Well of course, there could be a whole -- any number of reasons why, you know, one tree's affected by another. 2018. SUZANNE SIMARD: And so in this particular summer when the event with Jigs happened ROBERT: What kind of dog is Jigs, by the way?