• Last year, a team of scientists presented evidence that spruce trees in Italy’s Dolomite mountains synchronized their bioelectrical activity in anticipation of a partial solar eclipse-a potentially exciting new insight into the complexities of plant communication. • Thefindingsnaturally generated media interest and eveninspired a documentary. • But the claims drew sharp criticism from other researchers in the field, withsome questioningwhether the paper should even have been published. • Those initial misgivings are outlined in more detail ina new critiquepublished in the journal Trends in Plant Science. • For the original paper, Alessandro Chiolerio, a physicist at the Italian Institute of Technology, collaborated with plant ecologist Monica Gagliano of Southern Cross University and several others conducting field work in the Costa Bocche forest in the Dolomites. • They essentiallycreated an EKGfor trees, attaching electrodes to three spruce trees (ranging in age from 20 to 70 years) and five tree stumps in the forest.
Article Summaries:
- Last year, a team of scientists presented evidence that spruce trees in Italy’s Dolomite mountains synchronized their bioelectrical activity in anticipation of a partial solar eclipse-a potentially exciting new insight into the complexities of plant communication. The findings naturally generated media interest and even inspired a documentary. But the claims drew sharp criticism from other researchers in the field, with some questioning whether the paper should even have been published. Those initial misgivings are outlined in more detail in a new critique published in the journal Trends in Pl
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