View Full Version : plants feel pain
sumthin fishy
09-07-2006, 6:32 PM
Did anyone catch mythbusters last night? They hooked up a plant to a lie detector, and an ekg and put it through stress tests. When one leaf was harmed(slapped, burned, or even yelled at) the plant showed electrical impules in areas other than the leaf affected. Whats more, even when they THOUGHT of hurting the plant, it showed a response. dont slap your plants please
bettagurl
09-07-2006, 6:53 PM
:eek:
Bunny13
09-07-2006, 6:58 PM
You know, I have heard about this before but its cool that they actually tested it and got a response. It doesn't surprise me though, plants grow and move towards better conditions(i.e. more sun light) so I would think that they would have some kind of "nervous" system to allow then to sense the difference.(maybe thats just my strange logic though :p: ) They also did a test to see if plants liked being read to and listening to music but if I remember correctly they didn't seem to really care one way or another....
...wow I feel funny talking about plants like that!!!
webcricket
09-07-2006, 7:04 PM
I did catch that yesterday...yogurt doesn't have feelings though, so yell at live bacteria all you want. But please, keep the plant in the other room while doing it! :D
UncaBret
09-07-2006, 9:19 PM
Wow, what will the tree-huggers eat now?
bkw1982
09-07-2006, 9:21 PM
i think there was a study tht examined if plants scream too...then again i think that may have been a highschool bio joke. i cant remember
fishcatch22
09-07-2006, 9:22 PM
well, it just goes to show you, you can't eat anything without hurting something.....
RockabillyChick
09-07-2006, 9:23 PM
i always feel just as bad for the half dead unwatered plants at the home and garden store as i do for the half dead diseased fish at walmart.
whenever i go to a home and garden store and find that the plants are dry and wilting, i always either tell an employee, and then make sure they water them, or go find the hose and do it myself!
also, did they test how the plant feels when it is pruned and leaves are removed? i didn't catch that episode, but i wish i had.
fish_freak
09-07-2006, 9:47 PM
Wow, what will the tree-huggers eat now?
My thoughts exactly now we will have a new orginazation PETP People for the ethical treatment of plants
Rallysman
09-07-2006, 9:53 PM
"In order to survive, you have to kill something else"
2 The Ranting Gryphon has a fantastic rant on vegitarians/meat eaters that is absolutely hilarious. It's pretty vulgar, otherwise I would post a link.
rosita
09-07-2006, 9:56 PM
Ya, I remember tests like these being conducted a number of years ago. AND, plants are said to retain their "life force" for a certain number of hours after harvesting, so if you can eat them soon after, they provide you with. . . their life force. Hmmm. . . . does water have a spirit? :huh: To quote the infamous words of Charlie Brown, "Good grief!!!"
sumthin fishy
09-07-2006, 10:56 PM
.....also, did they test how the plant feels when it is pruned and leaves are removed? i didn't catch that episode, but i wish i had.
They slapped it, cut it , burned it, and tore off leaves. When they did the mental test, both angry thoughts toward the plant, and happy thoughts, showed stimuli.
125gJoe
09-08-2006, 3:18 AM
Some larger "plants" enjoy the human touch...
http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/top/daryl-hannah-climbs-tree-on-behalf-of-squatting-farmers-everywhere-180425.php
:D
____________
UncaBret
09-08-2006, 8:36 AM
well, it just goes to show you, you can't eat anything without hurting something.....
Eat steak, eat steak
'Cause its good for you
Eat a cow, eat a cow
Its a thing that goes.... 'Moooo'
rwspear76
09-08-2006, 8:47 AM
fish heads fish heads
roly poly fish heads
fish heads fish heads
eat em up YUM
flyte00
09-08-2006, 11:03 AM
--Wow, what will the tree-huggers eat now?--
Ah crap, I'ma vegetarian.. does that also give me the status of 'tree-hugger'? I dunno what I'm gonna eat now.
btw- I don't agree with PETA at all (or PETP) :p:
Sarah :)
rwspear76
09-08-2006, 11:26 AM
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals
jm1212
09-08-2006, 5:23 PM
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals
lol thats a good one
cohazard
09-08-2006, 8:12 PM
Well.... I just got some spider plant babies from my aunt, and placed one of them in the same pot as my hanging porthos. At least now my porthos wont be lonely while I'm at work I guess....
The blue fin damsels in my SW tank love macro algae/SW plants, so hopefully they don't "think" of eating my hanging plants and hurt the plants feelings.... that would suck.
Has anyone else heard the weezer song "we are all on drugs" ????
jm1212
09-10-2006, 6:02 PM
the episode where they see if plants feel pain is on right now (6:00 eastern, 5:00 central)
bkw1982
09-10-2006, 6:03 PM
if anyone is interested the espisode of mythbuster where they test if plants feel pain is comin on now on discovery channel....enjoy....jm1212 u beat me to it, im watchin tht and cowboys game lol
dorkfish
09-10-2006, 7:10 PM
the episode where they see if plants feel pain is on right now (6:00 eastern, 5:00 central)
Ack! I missed it by an hour.
khombre
09-10-2006, 9:24 PM
So do you guys think it helps plant health when you talk to them? A lot of people here who are into gardening talk to their plants. :rolleyes:
fishcatch22
09-10-2006, 10:04 PM
So do you guys think it helps plant health when you talk to them? A lot of people here who are into gardening talk to their plants. :rolleyes:it's actually quite controversial, and garden loving green-thumbs have been debating it for ages. I used to be on the it doesn't help side, but after hearing this, I think it may just do something for them....
OrionGirl
09-10-2006, 10:49 PM
Actually, it wasn't proven--they couldn't reproduce the results when they weren't standing in the room, meaning there's not a viable explanation for the results. Doesn't mean it's true, just that it happened. Most likely, it was their presence that caused the responses, rather than the plant.
RockabillyChick
09-10-2006, 10:57 PM
i just watched it now and what happened is that while in the room, 33% of the time they got a reaction, while OUT of the room, 28% of the time they got a reaction. however they could not get a reaction when they used yoghurt, or when they took white blood cells from a team member and tested it for reactions when they electrocuted him, and they also didn't get a reaction from the plant when they boiled eggs nearby.
therefore i believe that plants can feel and sense when there are hostile thoughts towards them, but not to other things (though eggs aren't even alive unless they are fertilized)
the theory they were testing was that one living thing could feel when another living thing was being hurt. that was disproved, however the secondary thing they stumbled upon is that plants can sense when a being is having hostile thoughts towards them.
Must4ng s4lly
09-11-2006, 1:18 PM
OK I am REALLY freaked! I just hacked and cut a bunch of plants this weekend as they were getting really crazy in the yard. They were all growing into each other and I had to cut them back.....Ahhhhh! :thud: LOL!
That is a pretty interesting thing....
Ms.Bubbles
09-11-2006, 1:35 PM
Well, having hostile thoughts about a plant and pruning it vigorously are quite different aren't they? I mean, after a vigorous pruning, plants often come back stronger and livelier than before, right? Unless they are masochists, they must "enjoy" the pruning to some extent, otherwise they wouldn't respond so positively...
On a side note, I had a freaky incident this weekend that made me think that fish might also be responsive to human thoughts and words. I lost my beloved betta, and was complaining bitterly to someone about how I didn't really like my other fish (who was located in a different tank). The next thing I knew, the fish I had just "dissed" committed suicide by bouncing repeatedly off the lid of the tank until he fell to the bottom of the tank, lifeless. Suffice it to say I am careful what I say around my fish now!
Chickieepooh2u
09-11-2006, 2:43 PM
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals
LMAO!! Just saw that on a T-shirt. Guy was in line a McDonalds no less. lol
who was it that had on thier siggy...."Vegitarians are people who can't hear carrots scream" :p:
jm1212
09-11-2006, 6:33 PM
who was it that had on thier siggy...."Vegitarians are people who can't hear carrots scream" :p:
that is hysterical
i wonder
if people think plants feel pain, then i wonder if they are all going to look at the sun for nourishment like that one lady on Wife Swap! i remeber she was a vegan but she was also trying to stop eating by looking at the sun for hours!
If plants feel pain then quite frankly I'm glad I'm not one. Seriously, why would God or evolution or anything give a capacity for pain to something that gets constantly stepped on, munched on by insects and is constantly dying and regrowing anyway? A plant probably shows electric signs anyway or picks up static. It's just a bunch of tough cells full of water. it can't sense anything.
Other than that I am going to start a campaign for the rights of Christmas trees. For too long now they have been humiliated by evil, callous humans. How would you like to be ripped out of the ground and covered in tinsel and fake snow? Huh? And also we should give grass the vote. It should have a say in whether it gets stepped on or not.
Actually, trees and plants communicate with one another so that they can protect themselves from disease and insects. I remember reading that a tree which gets infected with a disease sends out some type of signal to other trees and they begin to take necessary steps to lessen the effect or prevent it on themselves....chemical warfare I believe.
I don't know how true this info is, but I do remember reading about it in some scientivic journal or other........so..........
Remember, plants and trees are living things.....quite different than what we would consider "living"......the reason for pain is to alert the body to illness or injury so that you can do something about it. I guess it's the same with trees and plants. They need to know there is something wrong so that they can take action against it if possible. Weither or not it's a conscience thing...anything living needs to be able to protect itself so that it can continue on.
Of course.....I'm not about to run out and hug my trees anytime soon..or try to "commune" with them....lol. I'm much too practical for that ! :D
sumthin fishy
09-12-2006, 9:20 PM
Seriously, why would God or evolution or anything give a capacity for pain to something that gets constantly stepped on, munched on by insects and is constantly dying and regrowing anyway?
The same could be said for any living thing. Why do zebra feel pain if they are constantly being eaten by lions, shot by man, and are constantly giving birth to more zebras? I think EMG answered that pretty well.
zebras unlike grass can do something about it. And humans are the only animals for which giving birth is really painful. i'll accept this 'chemical warfare' stuff, but I think plants respond to things more like chemicals than like animals.
Rowangel
09-13-2006, 9:46 AM
And humans are the only animals for which giving birth is really painful.
ooo, I don't think I agree with that one. My mom grew up on a farm, animals can scream during birth too. Difference is animals just can't vocalize what hurts and why in anyway we can fully understand.
Giving birth may hurt animals to a degree, but nothing like it does for humans. This is due to the shape of the human pelvis needed in order to support humans walking upright; it means the baby has to turn 90 degrees during birth in order to move the head (which also causes its own problems due to human brain size), but this means the shoulders are in the wrong position. Other animals don't have this problem as they walk on four legs, and their pelvis is therefore shaped differently. That's also why birth in animals is so quick. However I'm sure that releasing seeds causes horrific pain for plants, poor things.:D