ROBERT: That's a -- learning is something I didn't think plants could do. Earn PetSmart Treats loyalty points with every purchase and get members-only discounts. ROBERT: It's kind of -- it's shaped like MONICA GAGLIANO: Like the letter Y, but upside down. But we don't know. I mean, to say that a plant is choosing a direction, I don't know. It didn't seem to be learning anything. ROBERT: Oh. Radiolab is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. So then at one point, when you only play the bell for the dog, or you, you know, play the fan for the plant, we know now for the dogs, the dogs is expecting. I'm not making this up. LARRY UBELL: Good. So otherwise they can't photosynthesize. "I'm under attack!". And it was almost like, let's see how much I have to stretch it here before you forget. I mean, you're out there in the forest and you see all these trees, and you think they're individuals just like animals, right? If a plant doesn't have a brain what is choosing where to go? I think there is something like a nervous system in the forest, because it's the same sort of large network of nodes sending signals to one another. But when we look at the below ground structure, it looks so much like a brain physically, and now that we're starting to understand how it works, we're going, wow, there's so many parallels. [laughs]. This is Roy Halling, researcher specializing in fungi at the New York Botanical Garden. And what we found was that the trees that were the biggest and the oldest were the most highly connected. So we went back to Monica. And I've been in the construction industry ever since I'm about 16 years old. Is it, like -- is it a plant? These sensitive hairs he argues, would probably be able to feel that tiny difference. ROBERT: Well, so what's the end of the story? AATISH BHATIA: All right. But We did catch up with her a few weeks later. I think there is something like a nervous system in the forest, because it's the same sort of large network of nodes sending signals to one another. Not cannabis related specifically, but can shed some light on how our plants react to the environment which we can use to better the health of our ladies! And lignin is full of nitrogen, but also compounds like nitrogen is important in DNA, right? You got the plant to associate the fan with food. ROBERT: It turns that carbon into sugar, which it uses to make its trunk and its branches, anything thick you see on a tree is just basically air made into stuff. They have to -- have to edit in this together. JAD: This -- this actually happened to me. Reviews. How do you mean? The little threads just wrapping themselves around the tree roots. Ring, meat, eat. People speculated about this, but no one had actually proved it in nature in the woods until Suzanne shows up. ROBERT: What do you mean? Now that's a very, you know, animals do this experiment, but it got Monica thinking. And so we are under the impression or I would say the conviction that the brain is the center of the universe, and -- and if you have a brain and a nervous system you are good and you can do amazing stuff. It's like a bank? And they, you know, they push each other away so they can get to the sky. Are going to make me rethink my stance on plants. This is Ashley Harding from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. To remember? You know, one of those little jeweler's glasses? The glass is not broken. ROBERT: So there seemed to be, under the ground, this fungal freeway system connecting one tree to the next to the next to the next. They look just like mining tunnels. ROBERT: I don't think Monica knows the answer to that, but she does believe that, you know, that we humans MONICA GAGLIANO: We are a little obsessed with the brain. Ring, meat, eat. No. ROBERT: She made sure that the dirt didn't get wet, because she'd actually fastened the water pipe to the outside of the pot. JAD: So she's saying they remembered for almost a month? And so we, you know, we've identified these as kind of like hubs in the network. Well, I have one thing just out of curiosity As we were winding up with our home inspectors, Alvin and Larry Ubell, we thought maybe we should run this metaphor idea by them. Connecting your house to the main city water line that's in the middle of the street. We need to take a break first, but when we come back, the parade that I want you to join will come and swoop you up and carry you along in a flow of enthusiasm. JAD: So you couldn't replicate what she saw. Let me just back up for a second so that you can -- to set the scene for you. ROBERT: So that's what the tree gives the fungus. ROBERT: What's its job? Like trees of different species are supposed to fight each other for sunshine, right? If you look at a root under a microscope, what you see is all these thousands of feelers like hairs on your head looking for water. JENNIFER FRAZER: From a particular direction. And we were all like, "Oh, my goodness! Now, can you -- can you imagine what we did wrong? Would they stay in the tree, or would they go down to the roots? And every day that goes by, I have less of an issue from the day before. Yeah. And it can reach these little packets of minerals and mine them. MONICA GAGLIANO: Again, if you imagine that the pot, my experimental pot. MONICA GAGLIANO: Picasso! Because I have an appointment. [ASHLEY: Hi. Because the only reason why the experiment turned out to be 28 days is because I ran out of time. And then she waited a few more days and came back. So it wasn't touching the dirt at all. ROBERT: So light is -- if you shine light on a plant you're, like, feeding it? So that voice belongs to Aatish Bhatia, who is with Princeton University's Council on Science and Technology. So that's where these -- the scientists from Princeton come in: Peter, Sharon and Aatish. Each one an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce, an ounce. ROBERT: So we figured look, if it's this easy and this matter of fact, we should be able to do this ourselves and see it for ourselves. 0:00. I don't really need it all right now. He's got lots of questions about her research methods, but really his major complaint is -- is her language. And you don't see it anywhere. Now, you might think that the plant sends out roots in every direction. LARRY UBELL: Yeah, and I have done inspections where roots were coming up through the pipe into the house. MONICA GAGLIANO: Exactly, which is pretty amazing. MONICA GAGLIANO: The idea was to drop them again just to see, like, the difference between the first time you learn something and the next time. So they might remember even for a much longer time than 28 days. I thought -- I thought tree roots just sort of did -- like, I thought -- I always imagined tree roots were kind of like straws. No, I guess that I feel kind of good to say this. . Well, people have been measuring this in different forests and ecosystems around the world, and the estimate is anywhere from 20 to 80 percent will go into the ground. ], Our staff includes Simon Adler, Becca Bressler, Rachael Cusick ], Bethel Habte, Tracie Hunte, Matt Kielty ], Matt Kielly. She actually trained this story in a rather elaborate experimental setup to move away from the light and toward a light breeze against all of its instincts. And again. And it's more expensive. And I do that in my brain. And so the whole family and uncles and aunts and cousins, we all rush up there. ROBERT: But the drop was just shocking and sudden enough for the little plant to ROBERT: Do its reflex defense thing. And moved around, but always matched in the same way together. I'm sorry? If you get too wrapped up in your poetic metaphor, you're very likely to be misled and to over-interpret the data. That's what she says. Or even learn? ROBERT: A little while back, I had a rather boisterous conversation with these two guys. It's not leaking. They need light to grow. They learned something. We were so inconsistent, so clumsy, that the plants were smart to keep playing it safe and closing themselves up. ROBERT: She says it was like this moment where she realizes, "Oh, my God! ], With help from Alexandra Leigh Young, Jackson Roach and Charu Sinha. MONICA GAGLIANO: Not really. Fan first, light after. We dropped. It was done by radiolab, called "smarty plants". JAD: Are you bringing the plant parade again? There's not a leak in the glass. The plants have to keep pulling their leaves up and they just get tired. ], Dylan Keefe is our Director of Sound Design. My reaction was like, "Oh ****!" So he brought them some meat. But this one plays ROBERT: So she's got her plants in the pot, and we're going to now wait to see what happens. ROBERT: Had indeed turned and moved toward the fan, stretching up their little leaves as if they were sure that at any moment now light would arrive. Today, Robert drags Jad along ona parade for the surprising feats of brainless plants. MONICA GAGLIANO: Picasso, enough of that now. [laughs]. So maybe the root hairs, which are always found right at the growing tips of plant roots, maybe plant roots are like little ears. ROBERT: Absolutely not. But the Ubells have noticed that even if a tree is 10 or 20, 30 yards away from the water pipe, for some reason the tree roots creep with uncanny regularity straight toward the water pipe. Enough of that! It was like, "Oh, I might disturb my plants!" And then I needed to -- the difficulty I guess, of the experiment was to find something that will be quite irrelevant and really meant nothing to the plant to start with. Birds, please. And then I would cover them in plastic bags. Then we actually had to run four months of trials to make sure that, you know, that what we were seeing was not one pea doing it or two peas, but it was actually a majority. So no plants were actually hurt in this experiment. And I remember it was Sunday, because I started screaming in my lab. ROBERT: She says one of the weirdest parts of this though, is when sick trees give up their food, the food doesn't usually go to their kids or even to trees of the same species. ROBERT: They're sort of flea-sized and they spend lots of time munching leaves on the forest floor. Or even learn? Pretty much like the concept of Pavlov with his dog applied. These guys are actually doing it." And then I needed to -- the difficulty I guess, of the experiment was to find something that will be quite irrelevant and really meant nothing to the plant to start with. ROBERT: She thinks that they somehow remembered all those drops and it never hurt, so they didn't fold up any more. JAD: And is it as dramatic in the opposite direction? So maybe could you just describe it just briefly just what you did? So we've done experiments, and other people in different labs around the world, they've been able to figure out that if a tree's injured And those chemicals will then move through the network and warn neighboring trees or seedlings. Up and they spend lots of questions about her research methods, but one. Hurt in this experiment members-only discounts choosing a direction, I guess that I feel of., my experimental pot -- have to keep pulling their leaves up and just. Main city water line that 's where radiolab smarty plants -- the scientists from Princeton come in: Peter Sharon! 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