It’s a wild idea, but recent experiments suggest plants may have the ability to learn and make decisions. Are the claims true and if so, what does it mean for our understanding of consciousness and the human mind?
Listen to this episode of Infinitely Curious, the English-language program of ERT and Voice of Greece, and enter the mind of plants.
Learn to understand how they operate and why we are so interlinked with them. Listen to Neuroscientist Greg Gage how he hooks up the Mimosa Pudica (a plant whose leaves close when touched) and the Venus flytrap to an Electrocardiogram to show us how plants use electrical signals to convey information, prompt movement and even count.
Hear the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology Stefano Mancuso explain how plants process information, sleep, remember and signal to one another -showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware.
Find out from Suzanne Simard the below-ground fungal networks that connect trees, and facilitate underground inter-tree communication and interaction, helping them talk to each other.
Urban gardener Nick Cutsumpas tells us how he creates his own green spaces in the pursuit of environmental action and social justice.
Last but not least, botanist Hugh Wilson will tell us how he turned his little corner of the world in Hinewai in New Zealand from farmland to 1500 hectares of forest in 30 years and why forests are part of the solution for doing away with fossil fuels.