I wish Monica had her own youtube channel! Imagine how education would change if all teachers were like her.

how ironic ---- i am sure the plants are thinking of humans: brains without intelligence

The dynamics of this panel are so subtly wild. I love it.

A moderator that is good is worth SO much. Natalie is good. It is not difficult. Ask a question and keep quiet. Do not be a Narcissist.

I love how Monica was sounding like a student who decided to take a blow off class and took on a project and is accidentally stumbling upon discoveries in a field that wasn't her major but now has to stick with it and see where it all leads to

This is what You Tube was meant for freedom of information... Not a get rich quick scheme.

The under ground network between trees and plants is absolutely fascinating.... great video, I need more.

Lady with the scarf is brilliant. I love her energy!

I put this video on, specifically to make me fall asleep. But this is just too interesting for me to fall asleep.

WE NEED MORE OF THIS SCIENCE PLEASE!

Omg! ❤️ I am working on my PhD in Metaphysics and this video blew my mind -explaining all of US (humans) through all other living things…connected to all living things: Oneness. I’m going to write my Thesis on this! Thank you so much all of you scientists that were on the panel for your work!!!!!!!! I can’t wait until this is common knowledge! I can’t quit crying! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!❤️❤️

The convo around 41:14 is a lot like the convos in trauma-informed psychology circles of how children living in longterm toxic stress adapt to their environments. Even if they’ve been out of it for weeks, months, and years.

Monica is brilliant, creative and very charming. That's what we need in science. Watched the whole discussion. Absolutely brilliant. Gives me hope for the sometimes moribund state of modern science.

What I understood from this video is that "Intelligence comes from network (connection) of units capable of exchanging information independent of the way how they do it."

Such a soothing civilized conversation! All six of them were so full of their expertise knowledge and sophisticated sarcastic manner of expressing their findings in such a simple way! Every minute was worth listening! Hats off to all! Thanks for sharing!

One of the best discussions I have seen here. Very interesting and I think Natalie did a great job as moderator letting the conversation flow naturally and the participants leading into or allowing another to add their expertise to the discussion. It is also very refreshing to hear participants say, 'We dont know.' instead of filling in the gap with opinion.

Brilliant! Also, I must say that the moderator did a great job.... She obviously has no idea about the subjects being discussed, but was intelligent and respectful enough to let the experts chat amongst themselves.

My personal experience was when in my early 20's, I often visited a small now gone Victorian glasshouse in the company gardens Cape Town, South Africa. As I entered the tropical section of the hothouse, I found the noise level, for me to be quite deafening, as if the lush plants were literally singing/communicating to/with each other,certain sections more loudly than the others.. Quite extraordinary, no misters or sprayers were operating at the time. Moving on to the drier succulents section the absolute silence was palpable. At every visit the experience, with varying degrees, which seemed to correspond to the weather outside was exactly the same.

The intelligence is in cell membrane, no “brain” required. In the human womb, the body makes the brain, not the other way around, therefore the intelligence is in the whole body and the brain is just an organ.

I like that these scientists visibly love their work, and they are also a lot of fun! No one is taking themselves too seriously and the laid back vibe makes this a great combo of education and entertainment! I especially love Monica, I aspire to be like her :)

I'm WAY more used to encountering brains without intelligence.

I've thought much about this subject, and I have come to the realization that since plants have been around for approximately one Billion years before animals, we "animals" are elaborate Seed Carriers just another method of propagation!

45:52 - Research has been done into water being capable of memory. The water can form clusters a variety of ways, allowing for information to be encoded. I'm not suggesting that is the only way plants do it, but perhaps one of the ways.

Loved the charisma between the 3 scientists. It made an already interesting topic, more enjoyable to listen too.

What a delightful group of people, this is why you should follow your passions. Even if it isn't as academic as these people you'll enjoy talking about it and interacting with people who have had similar experiences.

This is the most mind blowing talk I’ve heard from World Science Fest and I’ve seen at least 30

Does this lady elaborate on how the Chili Plants knew what types of other plants were growing around them? Saying "They obviously knew" doesnt cut it for skeptics

47:38 is the most profound statement of the program...The concept that we as humans may be storing memory at the chemical level in parts of our bodies outside of our brains. Wow.

This was soooo fascinating , so many things I have thought but never heard talked about, so much information about our world . The moderator was great, asked intelligent questions and let people talk. Huge thanks to whoever uploaded this.

I like how they riffed to each other's 'niche' ... this is fun to watch ...

So memories stores at cellular level not in the brain itself. Very fascinating.

The look on the vegan scientists face at 1:20:36 when she contemplates that her Mom still thinks salami is not an animal is priceless!!!

In general I have a short attention span and don’t like watching movies or long documentaries because I become antsy. But the talks on the WSF channel just fly by so fast and always leaving wanting more. They are always so interesting. I wish they were longer so we could hear more from all the interesting people. Love The WSF.

I found Monica's experiment fascinating whereby plants were dropped and responses measured in both low and high light conditions . Monica mentioned allowing gaps of time of up to 28 days between drops to see if the plants remembered, which they did. I wonder what would happen if another plant that was not privy to the original drop experience was included during the down time between the 28 day day gaps in drops? Would the other plants prepare this new plant and influence it's reactions to its first time experiencing the drop?

I am truly humbled by Nature's grandeur. Thanks for this eye opening talk!

What a fluid and interesting conversation. It never ceases to amaze me how diverse and rich nature is, beaming with life, all sorts of organisms and problem solving mechanisms.

I'm glad to know it isn't just me. Sometimes on a fine day I will sit outside under a local tree, and it seems to provide a sort of wisdom. Then maybe I was just a bit stoned.

Probably the most inspiring panel discussion that I've seen in around five years of watching these. Amazing topics, and wonderful people; they really exemplify the collaboration that they are discussing among these networks

Thank you so much World science festival. It's amazing to see passionate people talk with esch about things they love. And let me tell you i loved all the puns

Monica is a superb presenter. Self-deprecating humour, very smart, articulate. Excellent.

20:26 You'd think that SLIME would be a good subject for wordplay, but it's SNOT

The description of the drop experience where the plants learn and adapt their behaviour was very interesting. It makes you wonder how those basic organisms do all that. I think we tend to think about brains like a computer where the memories must located in a particular place then when we apply the same logic to the plants we fail to see how this is possible. My personal theorie is that memory is in not stored anywhere in particular in our brain. For example you could make identical triangles with 3 rocks, 3 matches, 3 anything but the information that is the shape of the triangle remains exactly the same. What is important is the relationship between the parts rather than parts themselves. With this idea in mind we can now say for us in our brain the memory is in the relationship between the neurones and for the plant the memory is the relationship between their internal network. The mystery is no more like that. Well that's my idea anyway

Your introduction is amazing! Plants should be all over! I heard a lot of these incredible truths before. Some say, if you sing to flowers in your garden, they would grow( fresh and) well! Mind blowing!!! The opposite may be true! Yell at those plants, they may fade! Don't they have a life? Yes; they a actually 'live'. Thanks for uploading.

"science is at the forefront of ignorance". very well said!

Hi! Great panel. We've been telling you people this kind of thing for a very, very long time. It's so nice that science has finally started to catch on to what we have considered the obvious all along. Keep up the good work, and perhaps one day you will also hear what we hear. Perhaps, in the privacy of your work, some of you already do. Let us know if you'd like some help to find out more -- it's all alive out there :)

🎶 I heard it through the grape vine..🎵

"science is like being at the forefront of ignorance" :-). Great discussion about plants, fungi and slime mold exhibiting problem solving, learning and what might be called intelligence without brains. Made me want to go out and listen to fennel sprouting in my yard. And to think we're still at the forefront of today's human knowledge (surrounded by a fair amount of ignorance still) is both amazing and wonderful at the same time.

This was one of the most enjoyable and informative panel of researchers/scientists and moderator that I have heard, all so humble and willing to share and listen to one another, so that we, the audience can learn. So fascinating to me even though their topics are not my fields of discipline…their passion and curiosity so clearly fuels their research and discoveries. I see them all having retained the curiosity we all have as children which leads and drives us into discovery. I would like to suggest that these exact people meet again in 3 to 5 years and bring to us updates in their research. The group dynamics of this session was so positive and so outstanding that it well worth gathering these great minds together again with the sane modertor to follow their respective research. Thank you, thank you…I now look at the ground, grass, and dirt below my feet with fresh eyes, now aware of the teeming life beneath my feet.

I really enjoyed the talk, I've always liked my biology teachers, you are a special type of people. I appreciate the idea of the cool algorithms going on in nature.

Absolutely loved this...fascinating. This has given me more respect & adoration for the intelligence of all things.

This was wonderful except for the starlings. Birds have extremely sophisticated brains. These people don't seem to know that or care about all the research in this area. They also don't seem to know about reflexes: reflexes don't have to pass through the brain; getting to the spinal nerves is enough to execute the move, including collisions. All the rest of this was just AMAZING!

Wow, what a fantastic collection of people... I could have listened to them all for several hours more. Just shows, despite what we think of as being technological now, we still are just scratching the surface of how this global ecosystem developed and works...

I love this so much the interviewer lady has the clearest voice I’ve ever heard

I love this channel, this has by far been one of my favorites. I would especially like to thank the scientist, who I have now forgotten her name, for explaining her views on why she became a vegan. It was a very thoughtful and caring argument, thank you so much. There is still real goodness in this world, and this channel keeps reminding me not to give up... many thanks and please keep it coming.

One of my all-time favorite science talk videos - I rewatch it all the time, and always have new ideas.

Gosh, scientists are so awkward, I love it

Fascinating talk, I really enjoyed listening to all the various contributions. Thanks! I have commented some specific thoughts already, but more generally I find it interesting that most of the panel studied animal behaviour before going on to study plants; Mark Moffet said anthropomorphism, used smartly, was a good way to learn about nature; and here we have a great panel of people who are able to intelligently anthropomorphise human behaviour onto animals! Next step is to myceliomorphise mushroom intelligence and behaviour onto ourselves, so we can stop being the biggest parasite on the face of the earth. :)

I have no previous knowledge in any of these fields. This panel is highly educational, the participants interact well together & it held my attention for the duration. I wish there was more. I'll be showing this to those around me.

This talk is absolutely FASCINATING! Thank you so much for sharing it here. I’m so grateful for such fine content.

If you've ever taken magic mushrooms, you'd know within the hour how extremely intelligent they are.

This group of panelists are funny. I love their silly dad jokes and banter. Also, they indirectly confirmed the Happening can be reality.

thats so interesting how the plants who were in low light that then went to high light remained highly responsive and ready to react, not as relaxed as the plants who started off in the high light...just like a child going through trauma they can remain in a state of anxiety even into adulthood. Amazing transmitting slime mold memories between pieces of untrained slime molds...so fascinating....and we dont know where the memory is stored...hmmm...interesting...naomoi leonard is studying collective intelligence aka how to control the masses. lol

In the discussion on the birds moving as one, while I agree that synergy in their movement is amazing, one thing the panel didn't consider is how the viscosity of air plays in supporting that that interaction, ie at speed the energy needed to compress the air between them interacts with the birds desire to remain a certain distance apart. In a vacuum with rocket motors obviously it would be a lot harder to fly in formation. Talk to any fighter pilot, and they will tell you how planes interact in close proximity to each other. Their speeds are much greater as is their wing surface area, so the minimum distance is greater.

Growing up in NYC it always amazed me seeing sidewalk trees with branches stretching out to within maybe a couple of yards from the brick outside of a building. But in places where there was a house, with a wide lawn separating it from the sidewalk (just one in the neighborhood where I grew up), the sidewalk tree (same type) would expand it's branches magnificently. Where I live now in upstate New York, there is a mimosa tree on a property with a large open area. This mimosa tree spreads out into the open space like no mimosa tree I have ever seen before. It's huge... and awe-inspiring. But I've often wondered just HOW the trees know just how far they can extend their branches WITHOUT actually physically touching the nearest building. They must have senses we know nothing about. Also plants DO respond to love and care.

Wonderful talk! Sparked a couple of creative scenarios for me. Inspiring!

One of the coolest plants I ever saw had to be the walking plant growing in my yard in South Florida. It was a succulant tropical plant that had large elephant ear leaves. It would lean toward sunlight and after a while drop roots below itself at the new location. If it still did not get full sunlight all day, it would lean some more and drop down more roots. Over the course of several years it ended about four or five feet from where I planted it. Does that mean it had consciousness and could think, of course not, but it was still the coolest plant around.

Amazing topic! I wish that the camera controllers would leave the screen projections for much longer times, so we could appreciate the essential details. Are they really listening to the panelists? This has become a general trend in similar events. I hope this observation is helpful

Thank you for this lecture. It was an amazing mind-expanding thing. Keep it up!

We have an inbuilt bias towards intelligence cos we define what intelligence is .

The brain is the motherboard / harddrive that interfaces the physical body with Consciousness. Intelligence directs the brain / body, but is separate from both. Ancient knowledge that is slowly but surely being accepted scientifically, the more advanced that paradigm of comprehending through effects rather than causes becomes.

I have recently been really into the idea of intelligence arising from connections between things in general, and I was delighted to see them touch on that here!! our consciousness arises from neuronal connections, but it =/= those neurons. I have no trouble seeing how connections in a mycorrhizal network could similarly lead to some sort of consciousness, but I also figure it would be really difficult for us to comprehend

Super best of exchange of ideas, knowledge, observations, research et all. Please need more of such

i have just started the video and paused it to give my experience with a particular plant that well, made me humiliated and at my own doing. The plant did what it wanted to do, not what i expected it do sans my own education. This plant was a wisteria vine. My wife planted it so that the plant could be trained to grow as a tree which is entirely possible if the plant has nothing to attach itself to like another tree or fence. I had semi retired to work at home which gave me plenty of time to observe many forms in nature, i was amazed at what i was learning from insects but, that plant literally made me feel stupid for a moment. We all know practically any plant will adjust its self for optimum sunlight, not this one. I watched this plant daily steer itself away from the track of the sun in the sky and begin to reach for the chain link fence that was 12 feet away. ( the plant was only 2 foot tall) Remember that this plant is a climbing plant yet, i have seen them free standing as a tree and will get quite large. After about a month of observance, not one branch or the main trunk ever leaned towards the sun, that is the point at which i called that plant stupid for starving itself for sunlight. I immediately reflected on that thought and realized exactly how that plant seemingly knew that it had a fence near by to climb on which it continually reached for even though the fence was far from its reach. i will not explain the whole process here because that takes the fun out of learning, something we should never wane from regardless of our age.The reason for that statement is , formal education only takes one so far, only science continually asks questions however, sometimes when the answer is supposedly found, we erroneously think that there are no more questions to ask. For instance, Dr. Massaro had discovered that water can and does react to thought, emotion, and differing genres of music in explicit ways. It was his research that led me to how that plant knew that an easier way to grow and spread was just 12 feet away, rather than doing it the hard way by its self mimicking a tree. Dr. Masaro died around this same time, before the realization came to him as it did me. That realization that i had was directly related to water and consciousness yet just a bit deeper. Water is the perfect example, almost. what is the majority of water made up of ? The number one Element, Hydrogen. Hydrogen is special in one way, one proton, one electron. the proton of course is positively charged and the electron is negatively charged. It is the most simple element and can readily combine with other elements because there is only one electron, one particle of negative shielding, think of it like a coaxial cable with the center conductor being the transmission coming and going and the outer grounded shield being the negative electron. I will submit that the proton of the hydrogen atom is fully capable of releasing information, receiving information and storing information but, in a very simple form, Binary. either on or off, one Byte of information. Now, when many of these atoms come together you begin to form a small computer. Now try to imagine an infinite number of these atoms together, like an ocean. Now multiply that number by a trillion to the trillionth power and you may be getting close to the number of hydrogen atoms just in one large star. Then then multiply that by all the stars in the known universe. Indeed you can ask the universe for things and receive an answer. It is the same principle when we pray but, there is a key as mentioned earlier. That key is; Emotion and i have proven this to myself numerous times. When asking for information or attempting to do more serious things like self healing with the mind; If emotion is absent or in a negative state, absolutely will happen, as with water the same. When the emotions are heightened, especially in a positive manner repetitively, then and only then is a difference seen. This is what has stumped scientist ever since noticing an experiment observed has differing results than one that is not observed. Mostly changed through anxiety or excitement, both negative as a feeling or emotion. If they specifically controlled their own emotion and others that may be near an experiment, indeed they would figure out that emotion has more effect than ever thought of before. Do you think that you could not do this ? Most of us have experienced this in our lives, for instance, you walk into a room with two people in it, you immediately know that those two people were arguing just prior to your arrival with out any thought of it, then the thought hits you and you may ask them," Is this a bad time ? " So , how did you know before actually asking ? Back to that simple molecule of water of which the human body is mostly comprised of. It was the same way that it happened that i was humiliated by a plant pointing towards my own ignorance. Maybe the ancient civilizations that worshiped the sun were far more closer to the truth than we have been, in this day and age. When we let our mind control all, the heart is left out in the cold to turn to stone. When this process is reversed; WORLDS CAN CHANGE !

Fascinating! Thank you that was great, learnt quite a bit. Amazing info.

If you want to really HEAR the sounds of plants do this: Find a smooth bark tree like Aspen. During Summer, hug the tree with your whole body. Hold it with your knees and body, arms and place your ear flat against the tree. Hold your breath, close your eyes and listen..... You can clearly hear the sap running up and down the tree from the roots to the leaves. It sounds like water in pipes in the walls. Also very cool while hugging the tree, put your face against the tree and look straight up to the top of the tree. See the top swaying and then slowly move your eyes down the trunk, and you can start to see the trunk moving all the way down to the ground! You can feel the tree moving through your contact with the tree. When you look at the trees at eye level, you don't see the tree moving at ground level. But now you will see and feel it! It's SOOOO AMAZING to expierience!

If you have ever worked in a greenhouse it is crystal clear plants react to it's environment. They send signals to the near by plants and react to changes in the environment.

That was an EXCELLENT selection of guests. This was a riviting show for me. textbooks are almost irrelevant now, but books are still cool, don't get me wrong, but until they can make one that has digital pages that are live then they're good for collections for me.

Wonderful talk! And as others have commented, Monica was particularly fascinating, and in part because she is so very charming. But, I am left with one trivial unanswered question: how do Mark's tree-climbing philodendrons that act like snakes in very slow motion get their nutrients? And one non-trivial question: is there any research going on into whether there are any animals that can communicate with plants?

Monica is my new favorite scientist

This is the most mind blowing talk i've heard from World Science Fest and i've seen at least 30

The study of learning by plants leads to the question of the psychology of plants, for instance can plants learn a conditioned response? In the classical Pavlovian experiment, dogs heard a bell, then were given food, making them salivate. After a number of trials hearing the bell was enough to make the dogs salivate. The next step is to take naive plants, make a sudden noise, touch a leaf, turn the lights off and on, or whatever they might be able to sense, then after a short pause, drop the plants. Then while the plants are still responding to being dropped, present the stimulus, but omit the drop, and see if the plants respond. Or present a stimulus, then do something else that makes the plants close all of their leaves, then before the plants become conditioned to the lack of danger, just present the stimulus. There are a lot of variations on conditioned response experiments, but generally treat the plants as though they were animals, and see how they respond. Maze experiments might take a while. Locating the areas of memory storage is hard enough for animals, but similar techniques might be tried for plants.

I’m impressed with the production quality! Well done!

This is what the world needs a lot more of right here , the reason i decided to watch this video ,yup for knowledge , if more people would get educated on all topics and or a range of topics weather they are interested or not i think the world would be a better place very well executed seminar , even a surprise element of how people of all walks of life can enjoy others with no screaming, yelling or talking over each other for more camera time or panel members being enemies with one another , well done and thank you for your knowledge and your time ✌

Chilli and Slime Mould are flirting outrageously! They definitely went out later, leaving Mushrooms behind!

oh i could tell you why the ocean's near the shore. i could think of things i never thought before. and then i'd sit, and think some more.

... the most interesting program that I've seen in many a long day! Thanks for posting :0)

Let me start by saying these 3 individuals are a breath of fresh air!!!! In the past few decades (maybe even half a century) something very disturbing has been going on in the world of “scientific discovery”! In many areas of scientific study what you find is dogma and not science at all!!! Individuals are more concerned with what they are “expected to be concluding” than they are with what the data actually demonstrates!!! These 3 have given me hope that things are changing and maybe the next few decades will return the awe inspiring feeling of a new scientific discovery and a better understanding of the amazing world around us!!!! I absolutely loved every minute of this talk!!!! Cheers

I don't know if this gets mentioned, but Luther Burbank was by far the most amazing plant breeder of all time and he believed in talking to his plants. I mean, nobody else even comes close to the amount of strains he created

I'm impressed by her "No brainer" quip even though it's obvious English is not her 1st language. I also find her very attractive in an unconventional sense.

Someone with a very subtle (or maybe not all THAT subtle) sense of humor decided to have everyone sit in Eero Saarinen's classic "tulip chairs"!

Finding something nice and then relaxing there. Finding the optimum network to connect multiple points. What life is all about.

I am just a guy that is in love with science and it's great to see that the're content makers and commentors out that that share this love. Let's act more "reciproce parasitarily".

Great chemistry amongst all those involved. Loved the fluidity of their interactions.

Love the content you guys make : ) Thank you

that's incredible! thank you so much for sharing that information, so interesting! this is my new fav youtube channel :)

“Reciprocal parasitism” sounds like “cooperation”.

I LOVE this because I have been fascinated by plants lately (I used to be primarily interested in animals/ fauna) and it’s gotten me to a point where I’ve begin wondering if there can be life so different from our understanding that we don’t consider it alive at all, and perhaps vice versa. Plants and fungi are already so different from how we understand that many do not believe that one can make argument to not eat plants if another makes an argument to not eat animals (typically with the argument that animals are living beings so shouldn’t be eaten). Perhaps things beyond life we understand as living is also alive, just in a different way. Rocks, water, perhaps even the sun! Maybe the entire universe is really just an organism and those analogies from school held more fact than we ever would have guessed. Existence is truly fantastic!!!

I almost didn't watch this. So glad I did now.

A lovely group of people talking about interesting field of study. Thank you for the upload.

Hmm, so corn roots "speak", interesting. As children on the farm we knew that some roots grow so quickly producing sound as they push the dirt out of the way to make room for themselves.