According to a new study published in the journal ‘Cell’, plants emit ultrasonic sound waves that can be heard by other creatures when they are under stress, similar to humans. The study refers to these sounds as ‘airborne sounds.’ The frequency of the noise is too high for humans to hear but can be heard by insects, mammals, and potentially other plants. The sound emitted by the plants is different depending on their mood, according to researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel who conducted the study. They said that plants emit sounds when under stress and each type of stress is associated with a specific identifiable sound.
The team placed tobacco and tomato plants in small boxes and attached an ultrasonic microphone at a 10 centimeter gap for their experiment. The plants made noises when stressed, such as inflicting pain or not providing water, which were picked up only by the microphone. The sounds detected were in the frequency range between 20 and 250 kilohertz, which is too high for human adults to hear. Special AI algorithms analyzed these recordings, differentiating between plants and the types of sounds they were emitting.
While imperceptible to the human ear, the sounds emitted by plants could probably be heard by various animals such as bats, mice, and insects. According to Science Daily, the more stressed the plants were, the more sounds they emitted. ‘Unstressed plants emitted less than one sound per hour, on average. While the stressed plants – both dehydrated and injured – emitted dozens of sounds every hour,’ researcher Lilach Hadany said. When the sounds were pitched down and sped up, it sounded like ‘very short clicks, a bit like popcorn,’ according to Hadany.
Post Your Comments