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Can plants hear?

Flora may be able to detect the sounds of flowing water or munching insects

Pseudoscientific claims that music helps plants grow have been made for decades, despite evidence that is shaky at best. Yet new research suggests some flora may be capable of sensing sounds, such as the gurgle of water through a pipe or the buzzing of insects.

In a recent study, Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues placed pea seedlings in pots shaped like an upside-down Y. One arm of each pot was placed in either a tray of water or a coiled plastic tube through which water flowed; the other arm had dry soil. The roots grew toward the arm of the pipe with the fluid, regardless of whether it was easily accessible or hidden inside the tubing. “They just knew the water was there, even if the only thing to detect was the sound of it flowing inside the pipe,” Gagliano says. Yet when the seedlings were given a choice between the water tube and some moistened soil, their roots favored the latter. She hypothesizes that these plants use sound waves to detect water at a distance but follow moisture gradients to home in on their target when it is closer.

The research, reported earlier this year in Oecologia, is not the first to suggest flora can detect and interpret sounds. A 2014 study showed the rock cress Arabidopsis can distinguish between caterpillar chewing sounds and wind vibrations – the plant produced more chemical toxins after “hearing” a recording of feeding insects. “We tend to underestimate plants because their responses are usually less visible to us. But leaves turn out to be extremely sensitive vibration detectors,” says lead study author Heidi M. Appel, an environmental scientist now at the University of Toledo.

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The photography exercise book by Bert Krages

Training your eye to shoot like a pro

A while ago I was asked if I’d like to have a look at Bert Krages’ book. My initial thought was that it would pretty much be a list of ‘try this’ exercises. Well in a way it is, in that you really need to go out and try the exercises, not just read about them. In much the same way that my piano playing won’t improve by just buying more books about playing the piano…

Try the technical exercises – a desk lamp and an egg really can teach you an enormous amount about the realities of lighting, shadows and reflected light. I’ve been a pro photographer since 2004 and taking the time to do some of the exercises has been of real benefit.

A well-written book that is packed with useful images to illustrate the matters at hand. It’s nice to see the author didn’t fall into the trap of only including ‘perfect’ photos – you will look at some and think ‘I could do better than that’ – good!

It’s a book for people who want to take more photos and increase their satisfaction from doing so. Definitely one to try if you feel you’re perhaps clinging to some of the technical aspects of photography as a bit of a safety blanket, to avoid the fluffy artsy stuff.

Book Author Info.

Bert Krages is a photographer and attorney who is the author of two previous photography books, Legal Handbook for Photographers and Heavenly Bodies: The Photographer’s Guide to Astrophotography.

TEXTO:

Anna had been depressed for much of her adult
life, seeking a range of treatments that might help her
condition. She took anti-depressants, underwent
psychotherapy and even experienced electroconvulsive
[5] therapy – which involves passing electricity through the
whole brain.
Treatments like these were only effective for short
periods, and her depression would soon return. Another
issue she faced was that she was morbidly obese,
[10] weighing 183kg. This resulted in severely limited
mobility which, naturally, exacerbated her depression,
putting in place a vicious circle of poor health.
Gastric bypass surgery helped her lose some
weight but not as much as expected from such a
[15] procedure, and it had little impact on her depression.
As a last resort treatment, psychiatrists took a drastic
decision to implant an electrical device in her brain, an
invasive therapy known as deep brain stimulation. It’s
a treatment that’s already frequently used to alleviate
[20] the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy.
Not only did this treatment significantly help her
depression, it had another astonishing outcome – she
lost more weight than she had with any previous
treatment, losing almost 50% more weight (2.8kg or
[25] 6.1lbs) per month than she had done after the gastric
bypass surgery. Thomas Munte, the neurologist who
treated Anna, says that while the initial goal was to treat
her depression, the weight loss was the “secondary
target” of the surgery. In her case, the two were
[30] seemingly linked.
That Anna successfully lost weight following the
treatment is opening up new discussions about how to
tackle what we know is a world-wide epidemic. It is
also revealing that in some rare cases, the brain can
[35] be “de-tuned” from debilitating behaviors, like addiction.

Drinking coffee could help you live longer

Coffee not only helps you feel full of beans, it might add years to your life as well, two major studies have shown. Scientists in Europe and the US have uncovered the clearest evidence yet that drinking coffee reduces the risk of death.

One study of more than half a million people from 10 European countries found that men who downed at least three cups of coffee a day were 18% less likely to die from any cause than non-coffee drinkers. Women drinking the same amount benefited less, but still experienced an 8% reduction in mortality over the period measured.

Similar results were reported by American scientists who conducted a separate investigation, recruiting 185855 participants from different ethnic backgrounds. Irrespective of ethnicity, people who drank two to three cups of coffee daily had an 18% reduced risk of death.

Each of the studies, both published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, showed no advantage from drinking either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Experts believe the antioxidant plant compounds in coffee rather than caffeine are responsible for the life-extending effect. Previous research has suggested that drinking coffee can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, and some cancers.

Dr Marc Gunter, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, who led the European study with colleagues from Imperial College London, said: “We found that higher coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from any cause and specifically for circulatory diseases and digestive diseases. Importantly, these results were similar across all of the 10 European countries, with variable coffee drinking habits and customs. Our study also offers important insights into the possible mechanisms for the beneficial health effects of coffee.”

Drinking coffee could help you live longer

Coffee not only helps you feel full of beans, it might add years to your life as well, two major studies have shown. Scientists in Europe and the US have uncovered the clearest evidence yet that drinking coffee reduces the risk of death.

One study of more than half a million people from 10 European countries found that men who downed at least three cups of coffee a day were 18% less likely to die from any cause than non-coffee drinkers. Women drinking the same amount benefited less, but still experienced an 8% reduction in mortality over the period measured.

Similar results were reported by American scientists who conducted a separate investigation, recruiting 185855 participants from different ethnic backgrounds. Irrespective of ethnicity, people who drank two to three cups of coffee daily had an 18% reduced risk of death.

Each of the studies, both published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, showed no advantage from drinking either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Experts believe the antioxidant plant compounds in coffee rather than caffeine are responsible for the life-extending effect. Previous research has suggested that drinking coffee can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, liver disease, and some cancers.

Dr Marc Gunter, from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, who led the European study with colleagues from Imperial College London, said: “We found that higher coffee consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from any cause and specifically for circulatory diseases and digestive diseases. Importantly, these results were similar across all of the 10 European countries, with variable coffee drinking habits and customs. Our study also offers important insights into the possible mechanisms for the beneficial health effects of coffee.”

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Xennials, the microgeneration between

Gen X and Millennials

We’re all tired of hearing about millennials, but there’s a new group who we’re about to be talking about a lot more. Defined as the generation born between 1982 and 2004, millennials are aged between 13 and 35. The generation before, Gen X, spanned another 20 years, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1981.

Enter Xennials, the new term being used to describe people born between 1977 and 1983. Like the pessimistic Gen Xers before them, this microgeneration is not as tech savvy as the millennials who are considered digital natives. “The idea is there’s this micro or in-between generation between the Gen X group – who we think of as the depressed flanneletteshirt-wearing, grunge-listening children that came after the Baby Boomers and the millennials – who get described as optimistic, tech savvy and maybe a little bit too sure of themselves and too confident,” says Dan Woodman, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Melbourne.

Woodman went on to explain that while millennials have always grown up with technology, Xennials had to make an adjustment to embrace it. “It was a particularly unique experience. You have a childhood, youth and adolescence free of having to worry about social media posts and mobile phones... We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you still watch the evening news or read the newspaper,” he noted.

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