What a Plant Knows: Understanding The Natural World
An SPI Science-Based Story for Grades 7-12
SPI’s recording of plant biologist Daniel “Danny” Chamovitz is a game changer! After listening you’ll never look at the world around you the same way again.
In his recording Danny shares with SPI listeners an intriguing and scrupulous look at how plants experience the world--from the colors that they see to the schedules they keep. Highlighting the latest research in genetics and more, he takes us into the inner lives of plants and draws parallels with the human senses to reveal that we have much more in common with sunflowers and oak trees than we may realize.
Danny explains that plants know up from down, how they know when a neighbor has been infested by a group of hungry beetles, and whether they appreciate the Led Zeppelin you've been playing for them or if they're more partial to the melodic riffs of Bach.
Covering touch, sound, smell, sight, and even memory, Danny helps listeners understand that plants are aware of their surroundings and that they communicate with others in their species.
Danny was the first to discover that plants and animals share common DNA.
Danny studied at both Columbia University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his Ph.D. in Genetics. From 1993 to 1996 he carried out postdoctoral research at Yale University before accepting a faculty position at Tel Aviv University where he served as Chair of the Department of Plant Sciences. In 2002, Danny was a visiting scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He also served as the Dean of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University. In 2018, he was named the 7th President of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.
From his SPI recording:
Plants sense light. Not only do they sense light, they can differentiate between colors, and they remember what the last color they saw was. Plants sense lots of things. But plants don’t have a brain. How can they sense—not only sense - but seem to be making decisions? How can they integrate the information? How can they remember, if they don’t have a brain? Well, the obvious conclusion is you don’t need a brain to remember. The brain or the neural system is one amazing evolutionary adaptation for sensory integration, for information integration, and for life. But it’s only one. It’s not the only one.
SPI’s primary source stories foster critical thinking skills.
As part of his audio narrative Danny talks about food security and makes an impassioned argument for GMOs.
Prior to recording this track, Danny related a story to SPI off-mic. As he told it: He was asked to be a guest on a national radio program, however, when the station manager discovered that he was pro-GMO the program was cancelled in its entirety.
What was meant to be a small side-story is, in fact, quite significant and presents an opportunity for SPI to make clear the fact that it does not censor the thoughts or beliefs presented by those in its audio collection, nor does the organization shy away from controversial subjects about which people may have differing opinions. All of the stories in the 4-12 Learning Lab site reflect the perspectives and beliefs of those interviewed, not those of the interviewer or the interviewing organization. Instead, SPI encourages young people to listen to what is said, to reflect, question, and investigate - and then, come to their own well thought out conclusions.
More from his recording:
When you find out plants actually communicate with each other, that can really blow your mind. Plants respond to their environment, fine. Plants remember the weather, okay. But that plants communicate? What could be more human than communication? I should actually say, what could be more biological than communication, because plants do communicate. The best example is something that has been known for over 30 years or 40 years. When certain species of trees are attacked by insects, let’s say beetles, they give off a gas. It is a volatile chemical that they release into the air. Now we know it’s called methyl jasmonate, but back 30 or 40 years ago they didn’t know that. This gas that they give off is then absorbed by the leaves of neighboring trees. Once it’s absorbed, it’s used as a signal to tell the tree to start making chemicals that will help them defend themselves against insects. So from an anthropomorphic point of view, it’s almost as if one tree is telling the other tree, “Oy, watch out, you’re about to be attacked, save yourself.” Now that’s our interpretation of what’s happening. There is no screaming going on here. But the fact is that the information is being exchanged.
Danny’s recording can be found at 4-12 Learning Lab / Science/ Plant and Animal Biology.
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