Plant Neurobiology - Commentary - The New Yorker
Summary
TLDRIn the video script, Michael Pollan delves into the fascinating field of plant neurobiology, exploring how plants, despite lacking brains and neurons, exhibit agency and responsiveness. Time-lapse photography reveals plants as dynamic entities, actively sensing their environment and striving to achieve goals, such as a bean plant's determined efforts to reach a pole. The script also touches on the competitive nature of plants, as seen when one plant gives up after losing a 'race' to a pole to another, showcasing a behavior that, while metaphorical, appears remarkably similar to human-like striving and defeat.
Takeaways
- 🌿 Michael Pollan has a long history of writing about plants and gardening.
- 🧠 The concept of plant neurobiology intrigued Pollan, despite plants lacking brains and neurons.
- 🕊 Plants exist in a different time dimension from humans, often appearing inactive due to their slower movements.
- 📹 Time-lapse photography helps bridge the gap between human and plant time scales, revealing plant activity.
- 🌱 Watching plants in time-lapse can lead to a newfound respect for their capabilities and agency.
- 🔍 A video of a single plant reaching for a pole shows the leaves working hard to assist the plant in achieving its goal.
- 🌱 Once the plant's tendril hooks onto the pole, the leaves appear to relax, suggesting a change in behavior.
- 🎣 The bean plant's growth and movement are described as effortful and purposeful, like casting a fly rod.
- 🤼♂️ A second video shows two plants competing for the same pole, with one giving up when it loses the competition.
- 😔 The losing plant appears to 'lose heart' and redirects its efforts elsewhere, but ultimately gives up, suggesting awareness of its environment.
- 🤔 While words like 'striving' and 'knowing' are metaphorical for plants, the videos suggest a level of awareness and effort.
Q & A
Who is Michael Pollan and what is his background in relation to the topic discussed in the transcript?
-Michael Pollan is a well-known author who has been writing about plants for a considerable amount of time. He is also an experienced gardener, which has given him a deep understanding and appreciation for the natural world of plants.
What is plant neurobiology and why was Michael Pollan intrigued by it?
-Plant neurobiology is a field of study that explores the behavior and responses of plants, despite the absence of brains and neurons. Michael Pollan was intrigued by the concept because it challenges our traditional understanding of how plants operate and interact with their environment.
Why do plants seem inactive or still to humans?
-Plants appear inactive or still because they exist in a different time dimension compared to humans. Their movements and responses occur at a slower pace, which is not easily perceptible to us in real time.
How does time-lapse photography help in understanding plant behavior?
-Time-lapse photography allows us to observe plant movements and behaviors over an extended period, compressed into a shorter time frame. This helps bridge the gap between the time scales of plants and humans, revealing the dynamic nature of plant life.
What does the video of a single plant reaching for a pole reveal about plant behavior?
-The video shows that plants are active agents of their own fate, capable of sensing their environment and moving in a specific direction. It also illustrates how the plant's leaves change behavior once the tendril reaches the pole, appearing to 'relax' and 'be happy'.
How does the bean plant's motion in the video resemble the action of casting a fly rod?
-The bean plant's motion is described as effortful and striving, with the plant growing a few centimeters and then 'throwing itself' over and over again with good aim, similar to the repeated casting of a fly rod to hit a specific spot on a river.
What happens in the second video when two bean plants compete for the same pole?
-In the second video, when one bean plant reaches the pole first, the other plant seems to lose heart and stops aiming at the pole. It then starts reaching in other directions, behind the pole, as if searching for an alternative support.
Why does the second bean plant eventually give up in the video?
-The second bean plant gives up because it is unable to find anything to hold onto behind the pole. It appears to be aware of its environment and the lack of support, leading to a sense of defeat.
How does the behavior of plants in the videos challenge our metaphorical understanding of their actions?
-The use of words like 'striving,' 'looking,' 'knowing,' and 'noticing' are metaphorical when applied to plants. While we should be cautious of attributing human-like moods and attitudes to plants, their behavior in the videos suggests a level of awareness and effort that is strikingly similar to human actions.
What is the significance of the script's discussion on plant behavior and our perception of it?
-The script highlights the complexity and dynamism of plant life, urging us to reconsider our understanding of plants as passive entities. It encourages a deeper appreciation for the capabilities of plants and the need for further research in plant neurobiology.
Outlines
🌿 The Fascination of Plant Neurobiology
In this introductory paragraph, Michael Pollan expresses his curiosity about the emerging field of plant neurobiology, which studies the behavior and responses of plants despite their lack of brains and neurons. He highlights the challenge of comprehending plant life due to their different time dimension and the use of time-lapse photography to bridge the gap between human and plant perception of time. Pollan emphasizes the newfound respect for plants as active agents capable of sensing their environment and moving purposefully, as demonstrated in time-lapse videos.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Plant Neurobiology
💡Time-lapse
💡Agent of Its Own Faith
💡Sensing Environment
💡Tendril
💡Behavior Change
💡Striving
💡Competition
💡Giving Up
💡Awareness
💡Metaphorical Language
Highlights
Michael Pollan's long-term engagement with writing about plants and gardening.
Introduction of the new field of plant neurobiology, sparking Pollan's curiosity.
The absence of brains and neurons in plants challenges traditional understanding.
Plants exist in a different time dimension, often perceived as inactive due to slower movement.
Time-lapse photography as a tool to bridge the time scale gap between plants and humans.
Time-lapse reveals plants as active agents capable of sensing their environment.
Observation of a single plant's behavior as it reaches for a pole, showcasing its active nature.
The plant's leaves appear clenched and tight, indicating effort in reaching its goal.
The plant's behavior changes upon reaching the pole, suggesting a sense of achievement.
The motion of the plant is described as effortful and striving, akin to casting a fly rod.
A second video shows two plants competing for the same pole, illustrating plant competition.
One plant outgrows the other, leading to the latter's apparent loss of motivation.
The losing plant redirects its growth, searching for an alternative support behind the pole.
The plant's eventual surrender and defeat when no support is found.
Plants' awareness of their environment and their active efforts to grow towards a goal.
The metaphorical use of words like 'striving', 'looking', 'knowing', and 'noticing' in the context of plants.
A cautionary note on anthropomorphizing plants and the need for skepticism.
Transcripts
my name is Michael Pollan and I've been
writing about plants for a long time and
have been a gardener for an even longer
time and when I learned about this new
field called plant neurobiology I was
immediately intrigued because plants
don't have brains and they don't have
neurons so what could this possibly mean
so much of our difficulty in
understanding plant traces to the fact
that they exist in a completely other
time dimension than we do they seem
still they seem inactive just because
they're moving at a different scale than
we are and so time-lapse is a way to
close the gap between the the plants
time scale and our own time scale but as
soon as you do that you begin to seed
the plant for what it is which is a
agent of its own faith and able to sense
its environment and move in a certain
direction and as soon as you look at
plants and time-lapse you gain a new
respect for them and what they can do
and that they are much more active this
video of the single plant reaching for
the pole is striking for a couple things
watch the leaves as the thing goes on
the leaves look very kind of clenched
and tight and they too are working hard
to help the plant reach its goal so as
soon as the hook of the of the tendril
reaches the pole watch how they change
their behavior instead of being looking
so strained and strenuous they look like
they're relaxing they look very happy
all of a sudden and the other thing to
look at is the the the nature of the
motion and how effortful and striving it
is basically the bean plant grows a
couple centimeters and throws itself
over and over again with very good aim
it reminded me of someone with a fly rod
casting repeatedly to hit a spot on a
river in the second video we see two
plants bean plants and they're competing
for the same Pole and one of them gets
the edge and is growing a little bit
more quickly and as soon as it makes
contact the other one seems to lose
heart
and suddenly stops aiming at the pole
which has been taken in some sense and
starts reaching in other directions
behind the pole you have to look
carefully to see this but it's reaching
back in space and does that repeatedly
but there's nothing there it's very sad
and there's nothing there for it to hold
on to and eventually it just gives up in
defeat but somehow this plan is aware of
its environment and is working really
hard
I mean striving to get to that pole now
words like striving and looking and
knowing and noticing all are
metaphorical in the case of plants and
we should be skeptical of this of mood
and an attitude in plants but it sure
looks that way when you look at these
videos
you
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