Distress Calls from Plants: New Study

In March 2023, researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel reported in a study that they were able to pick up sounds made by plants in distress. Read more about this development in this article. This topic is relevant for the science and technology segment of the UPSC syllabus.

Distress Calls from Plants

The researchers found that plants in distress (such as in need of water) make very distinct, high-pitched sounds in the ultrasonic range.

• Though this is the first time noise made by plants has been recorded, more than a century ago pioneer Indian scientist JC Bose demonstrated that plants can ‘feel’ pleasure and pain just like animals.

Jagadish Chandra Bose:

• Bose was the first Indian to make an influential impact on modern science much before Srinivasa Ramanujan, C V Raman, or Satyendra Nath Bose and lived between 1858 and 1937.
• Bose was a physicist-turned-biologist and made pioneering contributions in both fields.
• Jagadish Chandra Bose is particularly known for his work in the following fields.

• • His work on the wireless transmission of signals
  • Work on the physiology of plants     
  • One of the first contributors to solid-state physics    

• Sir Neville Mott who was a Nobel Prize winner in 1977 is said to have remarked that Bose was ahead of his time and that he had anticipated the p-type and n-type semiconductors.
• Bose also did immense research in microwaves and is said to be the first one to generate electromagnetic signals in the microwave range. 
• He published as many as 12 papers on radio waves in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and also published more papers in other prestigious journals. 
• Bose was the first one to come up with radio receivers, which enabled wireless telegraphy and Bose also lectured on his work in Europe in the presence of some of the leading scientists of the day.
• The reluctance of JC Bose to obtain a patent for his work cost him a Nobel prize and Marconi was awarded the Nobel prize in 1909 for the work which Bose accomplished earlier.

His study of plants:

• Bose was very talented at picking electric signals and creating sensitive instruments that can detect signals.
• Through his research, Bose made profound contributions to the communication systems in biology and committed to studies on the biology of movements, feelings and the nervous system.
• The simple experiments conducted by Bose revealed a high degree of similarity in the responses of plant and animal tissues to external stimuli which were later demonstrated by biophysicists, using highly sophisticated instruments.

Read more on the life and contributions of JC Bose in the linked article.

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