Bean Brains

I have written several times about how science is progressively breaking down what once were considered to be insurmountable barriers between humans and other species. From manual skills to cognition, we are increasingly recognizing that other critters have capabilities that we once claimed were exclusively ours. A few examples are (1) the creation and use of sophisticated tools, (2) the ability to show intention and to plan ahead, (3) the use of complex communication, and (4) the capacity to perceive what might be going on in the mind of another critter.

Many people want to grant some of these powers to only our fellow primates the great apes, but dogs, elephants, and porpoises—among others—also exhibit them. In fact, science is extending some of these capabilities down to insects... and even bacteria! But surely, some skeptics would say, we must stop short of plants. At best they might possess some rudimentary form of nervous system, but are they able to communicate, let alone display intent? Come on! Well, trees can communicate quite sophisticatedly and their roots even suggest some kind of simple cognition—as the tree acquires knowledge and uses it to its advantage.

OK, so some fascinating experiments have been done with noble trees, but surely everyday garden vegetables can't do any of this, right? Wrong. Recent experiments by Canadian and Italian researchers suggest that bean plants may exhibit signs of sentience... or even intent! Their test was to see if the tendrils of bean plants randomly sweep their vicinity and blindly latch on to a stake to crawl up, or instead may intently seek and locate stakes.

They placed a bunch of baby bean pots—some with a nearby stake, and others with no available stakes. Those plants near a stake measurably sent out their tendrils—non-randomly—in quite a controlled and predictable manner, while their stakeless companions' tendrils floundered randomly around. It appeared to be, according to the scientists, as if it were an anticipatory, goal-directed process on the part of the tendrils.

These experiments certainly did not unambiguously demonstrate the existence of bean brains, but something fascinating was happening. Time to once again reconsider those mental barriers we erect between ourselves and the rest of life. Might a bean enjoy watching TV?