The Hidden World of Electrostatic Ecology | Quanta Magazine
I’m suddenly aware of the choruses that might be vibrating through all the plants we walk past. I think about the vibrations that we ourselves are making with every step—the seismic surface waves that ripple out from each footfall. Although we hear the crunch of twigs underfoot and the soft squelches as shoes meet mud, we don’t detect the tremors o
... See moreEd Yong • An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
This phenomenon in the insect world is known as stigmergy : a mechanism of indirect coordination, where each action leaves a “trace” that makes it easier for a succeeding action to occur.
banality of the algorithm
Look at them, the bugs. Humans have used everything in their power to extinguish them: every kind of poison, aerial sprays, introducing and cultivating their natural predators, searching for and destroying their eggs, using genetic modification to sterilize them, burning with fire, drowning with water. Every family has bug spray, every desk has a f
... See moreCixin Liu • The Three-Body Problem
In the symbiotic community of the forest, not only trees but also shrubs and grasses—and possibly all plant species—exchange information this way. However, when we step into farm fields, the vegetation becomes very quiet. Thanks to selective breeding, our cultivated plants have, for the most part, lost their ability to communicate above or below gr
... See morePeter Wohlleben • The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from A Secret World (The Mysteries of Nature Book 1)
For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe, extending from atoms to animals, from people to planets.