Saru Posted June 23, 2013 #1 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Scientists have discovered evidence that plants are capable of complex mathematical calculations. In order to keep themselves going in the absence of sunlight, plants perform division equations throughout the night to ration their stores of starch until the moment the sun reappears. Read more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhen Posted June 23, 2013 #2 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Looks like Telegraph readers are fairly sophisticated; "Scientist makes a mathematical model of a natural process - Not much of a headline, non-story. Lets say "Scientists find proof plants are capable of complex arithmetic". It's a massive exaggeration but makes a headline." - jimtaylor "Imagine an elastic band with a pail of water hung on it. As the water evaporates the elastic band contracts and the pail rises. There is a pointer on the bucket and a scale..Golly. The elastic is doing complex arithmetic! Its dividing its own elastic constant by the weight of the bucket!" - itzman 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrooma Posted June 23, 2013 #3 Share Posted June 23, 2013 QUOTE- Migrating little stints arrive at their Arctic breeding grounds following a 5,000km journey with fat reserves so low that they could only survive another 14 hours, they wrote in the eLife journal. Similarly, during the four-month period in which they incubate eggs, male emperor penguins' fat levels reach a critically low level just at the point their partner is expected to return. . 'birds capable of complex mathematical equations' -claims guy applying for research grant..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy hair candy Posted June 23, 2013 #4 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Excellent points Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sundew Posted June 23, 2013 #5 Share Posted June 23, 2013 So thinking without brain cells. Insert your own Washington D.C. and/or Hollywood actor/actress jokes here. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 23, 2013 #6 Share Posted June 23, 2013 in a park in africa, gerraffes were dieing from unknown reasons. It turned out that there were to many in the park. The trees of a specific type all increased the amount of posion in their leaves. Thus the gerraffes were being posoined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted June 23, 2013 #7 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Plants do "mathematics" ? Not really, certainly not consciously. That's just Nature, like cell division, etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhen Posted June 23, 2013 #8 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Is math real? Do we discover mathematical "truths" or do we create them? [media=] [/media] 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrooma Posted June 23, 2013 #9 Share Posted June 23, 2013 Is math real? Do we discover mathematical "truths" or do we create them? . said the philosopher to the plant/little stint/emperor penguin. . 3.14 said the plant, but no-one except the penguin heard, and he wasn't telling..... :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeWitz Posted June 23, 2013 #10 Share Posted June 23, 2013 My brain is weak in math but my pancreas is excellent at complex computations to maintain my blood glucose level 24 hours a day in a range that allows me to work, play, eat, sleep and type these words. Thank you, pancreas. I'm glad you got the math brains! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrooma Posted June 23, 2013 #11 Share Posted June 23, 2013 i'm not too sure about this you know. I mean, we've got cabbages running most of the world's financial institutions, and they all seem to be pretty bloody crap at mathematics..... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeWitz Posted June 23, 2013 #12 Share Posted June 23, 2013 in a park in africa, gerraffes were dieing from unknown reasons. It turned out that there were to many in the park. The trees of a specific type all increased the amount of posion in their leaves. Thus the gerraffes were being posoined. Why didn't they just stretch their necks to reach the non-poisonous leaves of non-lethal trees, and pass on the attribute to their offspring? My buddy Ernie Lamarck says it works that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 23, 2013 #13 Share Posted June 23, 2013 I am sure that they didn't know they were being poisoned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhen Posted June 24, 2013 #14 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Why didn't they just stretch their necks to reach the non-poisonous leaves of non-lethal trees, and pass on the attribute to their offspring? My buddy Ernie Lamarck says it works that way. Your buddy was wrong, but that's a whole different topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 24, 2013 #15 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Plants do communicate with bothers of their kind. Say several of them get infected with bug larve. They will let others know, through chemical means and they will institute a defense against them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhen Posted June 24, 2013 #16 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Hi Daniel, yes, I believe that's right, but let's not equate that with talking. When I saw the sensational title of the news title and read the article, my first thought was great, now not only do plants talk and feel pain, now they can do complex math. I was anticipating some readers using that as ammunition; "since plants can do all these things, we can disregard vegetarians and moral philosophers who tell us that it's wrong to kill animals and eat their flesh". I'm glad to see UM readers saw through the sensational, anthropomorphic conclusions in that study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pallidin Posted June 24, 2013 #17 Share Posted June 24, 2013 (edited) When plants start going to school, driven by monkeys or pythons, I think my time on earth is done. Edited June 24, 2013 by pallidin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xanthurion2 Posted June 24, 2013 #18 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Interesting. So division is complex arithmetic now? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paperdyer Posted June 24, 2013 #19 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Based on this I'm sure a new group PEToP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants) will want us not to get plants becasue they have intelligence to do math. No meat, no plants, what will we eat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielost Posted June 24, 2013 #20 Share Posted June 24, 2013 Interesting. So division is complex arithmetic now? It is if you don't have a brain. I have already disregarded vegaterians. I figure if you don't want at babies, then you can only eat fruit.'. Fruit is the only thing produced by nature to be eaten. A fruit in this case is anything with a seed in or on it. If you eat grains or beans your eating baby plants. Also along with eating fruit you can't use the toilet, you have to outside. So you can spreed the seeds you eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Voodoo Posted June 25, 2013 #21 Share Posted June 25, 2013 danielost, I wonder what would vegaterians say on Mimosa Pudica?...Communication? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Voodoo Posted June 25, 2013 #22 Share Posted June 25, 2013 (edited) Edited June 25, 2013 by the L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Voodoo Posted June 25, 2013 #23 Share Posted June 25, 2013 (edited) [media=] [/media] Edited June 25, 2013 by the L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bad Voodoo Posted June 25, 2013 #24 Share Posted June 25, 2013 (edited) Plants are VERY much alive and they have sense of awareness. I read once that some plants hybernate if you kill any live organism in a room. Like ant. Plants become "quite" for period of time. Even when you break egg for breakfast. Edited June 25, 2013 by the L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfluder Posted June 25, 2013 #25 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Ummm..no they don't. This is a biochemical process, which may be incredibly precise, but plants are not using division to come to conclusions about the level of starch they should intake per unit of time. They are quickly adjusting to the levels of light they get, just like any plant that hopes to survive on Earth. That's a pretty big jump to understanding a base 10 number system and orders of operation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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