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October 30, 2007

Plant Intelligence

Nicole Martinelli in Wired:

Plantoid_580x_2

Professor Stefano Mancuso knows it isn't easy being green: He runs the world's only laboratory dedicated to plant intelligence.

At the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology (LINV), about seven miles outside Florence, Italy, Mancuso and his team of nine work to debunk the myth that plants are low-life. Research at the modern building combines physiology, ecology and molecular biology.

"If you define intelligence as the capacity to solve problems, plants have a lot to teach us," says Mancuso, dressed in harmonizing shades of his favorite color: green. "Not only are they 'smart' in how they grow, adapt and thrive, they do it without neuroses. Intelligence isn't only about having a brain."

Plants have never been given their due in the order of things; they've usually been dismissed as mere vegetables. But there's a growing body of research showing that plants have a lot to contribute in fields as disparate as robotics and telecommunications. For instance, current projects at the LINV include a plant-inspired robot in development for the European Space Agency. The "plantoid" might be used to explore the Martian soil by dropping mechanical "pods" capable of communicating with a central "stem," which would send data back to Earth.

Posted by Robin Varghese at 07:16 PM | Permalink

Comments

"Intelligence isn't only about having a brain."

Brilliant. Nobody has to tell that to anyone fighting a poison ivy infestation! They're like that malevolent chameleon in Monsters Inc.

Posted by: Carlos | Oct 30, 2007 7:46:05 PM

It seems like much of what's described in the article can be done even by bacteria, whether it is movement toward light or chemical signaling.

Oh, and if you define intelligence as the capacity to make exact clones, bacteria have a lot to teach us there as well. If you so define.

Posted by: D | Oct 30, 2007 7:59:41 PM

I agree, bacteria is about the most successful 'living thing there'. But remember, all surviving species actually have a limited number of solutions for a limited number of problems, if there is nothing wrong with imitating architecture to face these problems, why limit ourselves to just one kind of natural being?

Posted by: pachanka | Nov 5, 2007 7:03:43 AM

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