nice video here lumber was the number one industry and how much county and now it's around these forests now carry ten times the typical number of trees they carry plucking things to death forests are rotting away the communities are decaying away used to have ten mills churches schools people lived in work their children got jobs and what happened the green movement what is mankind basic plants belong to another you know a silent and seemingly simple world they make food from sunshine which in turn feeds the animal kingdom but one of plants we're keeping something from us what if they have what if they are intelligent scientists are asking these very questions do they perceive their environment do they have a memory could they have a nervous system to these men and women the great divide between the plant and animal world is not that great  the country was devastated waterholes had dried up and food became scarce only the tough and widely spread acacia provided any sign of hope to large herbivores such as the koodoo these beautiful and robust animals could nibble around the trees defense of spikes plucking it small green leaves death by starvation seemed averted the hard times could be survived but then something strange began to happen large numbers of healthy coups suddenly drop dead thousands of the landscape the deaths continued for months with no clues as to why the game reserves and war an important source of income to their owners and the tourist industry the cost was high for both animals so then we started making a survey and what we found is that there's a direct relationship between the number of on the right unit of size and the number of more so mor it was clear that predators did not kill them there were no obvious marks on their bodies finding the cause of death would need further investigation than when i arrived with a fully equipped mobile lab and a team of students to help them carry out a series of content digest their food in a way similar to cows needing the natural fermentation process to help break down plant matter what could that possibly be as the research continued they found something even stranger all the dead produce had unusually high doses of tannen in their bodies tendons are molecules that some plants use as a chemical defense to fight off parasites and leaf eating insects plants normally only produce small quantities of tannin and large herbivores can just flush this low toxin out of their system but the tunnel levels were far too high for the cooties to handle resulting in the slowing down of the fermentation process and the animals ability to digest its food with fatal consequences the dead leave town and had to come from plants as it only occurs naturally in them but which ones and how or why would any plant produce enough talent to kill animals on such a massive scale we shouldn't be too surprised to hear that plants kill animals unwary creatures can find themselves in an upside down world where what they normally eat eat carnivorous plants have evolved elaborate traps some with sticky fingers others have snapping jaws or slippery slides to catch prey this is how they've adapted to living in poor soil and common for nutritional they've even pushed the limits of refinement by growing their sexual organs far from their stomachs in order to spare pollinating insects is a specialist in carnivorous plants his collection in southwest france is unique in europe has plants are the exception to the rule in general the question of who is superior is simply answered and the line between the two worlds make their own food using sunlight through a process called while the animal world feeds on that we don't just classify plants by the way they make food but also by movement plants or fix his animals run than spending all winter with your feet in cold water only from the sun's rays and carbon dioxide well you couldn't and the reason is that you don't have the right genetic equipment you don't have enough gene only fleeting moment of freedom are a seedlings falling to the ground or floating through the yeah they've learned and mastered some important rules of survival adaptation and generally consider intelligence as a combination of things the perception of our environment and the ability to react to it having a memory being able to communicate interact socially worldwide a small group of scientists are at the forefront of this controversial branch of science the university of bonn in germany is a leader in the research of plant intelligence here they're exploring one of the fundamental qualities for intelligence the ability to perceive the environment professor volkmann conducts his experiments using simple techniques to unlock the secrets of plant perception and intelligence stick the b plans outer surface is covered with sensors that send a signal to the cells below the stimulated cells grow less rapidly than the outer ones causing it to twist around whatever it touches this is what allows the people to grow in all directions stretching out feeling the world around it grabbing hold the foundations for the rest of the plant to fall since their environment this is true of growing pea plants as it is of their flesh eating carnivorous plants are a little more complex to ensure the plant captures something edible the insect must first activate to find hairs inside the trap before it closed another fast moving plant is the sensitive water pressure against the cell walls keeps its leaves when it's pinched or stroked the water pressure drops and the plant quickly sa s exact reason why is not known but the sudden movement from a touch could be a defense mechanism frightening insects that land on it fast moving plants are uncommon we mostly see them as static but this is only because we look at them through human time what are the animals that live the longest i think it's he was well ahead of his time using electricity to stimulate plants he launched pioneering research into plant growth and plant reaction to electromagnetic wa the results were spectacular in their experiments they managed to anesthetize plants with chloroform stimulate them with candles as in the famous experiments with frogs legs to submit leaves to electrical pulses to get a is a great problem for two reasons firstly because we don't know how it works if secondly and this is perhaps worse we don't know what it's for i find this very curious a plant that makes the dancing plat seems to break all the rules in the early seventy's at the beginning of the hippie movement a crazy idea took root some people claim that music had a beneficial effect on plants  because science is about and supporting evidence so back on the crime scene van hoven was searching for both the pressure was on the number of dead was climbing he had to solve this mystery van hoven and his team of science detectives had t the plan was to see if a plant could sense the presence of a dense number of animals for the purpose of the experiment they became a gang of ravenous coups we then started looking at the d of the same trees we used acacias several species of occasions and it took the leaves extract of the drought turned out to be the killer but another mystery soon emerged even the acacias untouched by the cuckoo's had an increased concentration of ten and in  about hovan thought there might be something in the air first we pulled off the leaves and opened up all the little pieces of the branches so we put the bag over and left it there for about an hour then we took the bag off and now we got the air in ranchers in the van are now more respectful of the occasion making sure that their properties are not overpopulated with cases like the acacia have scientists now talking about plants having social  skills is another example of trees acting as a community they can perceive the space around them from another species tries to take root in their territory the oaks launch a chemical attack killing the young intruders we see forests as places of peace and calm yet they have a surprisingly active and dynamic social life plants are stimulated by the outside world their metabolism changes and this information is communicated through chemistry infections so if you got damage by eating or infections by plant viruses you break down plant issues and the plants react on that they immediately produce some kind of antibodies and they st rethinking against that it's in the human body you will find the same thing the chemistry that plants use to communicate is complex japan is at the forefront of this research the japanese people and people in general have an insatiable curiosity for plants and for all life around us this is particularly true in japan where the feeling that we are part of nature is very strong on japan season locking the secrets of the natural world as a source of innovation and prosperity for the future the laboratory of physiology it's a whole cool university is well equipped to study the structural biochemistry of plants they hope to find out how plants function at the molecular level so far they have a it's common to see these scientists taking their plants out for a morning stroll moving their price specimen from one artificial location to another this room is called artificial climate reproduction room where we create day and night in a twenty four hour cycle here we had three plants on which we experimented with things like movement  leaves remain open so we can actually see that the chemical substance controls the process of falling asleep they found the key compound that the plant uses to tell itself that it's time to sleep by using the same compound in a concentrated form they can speed up the plant's reaction and in the end we can't draw any conclusions experiment was inconclusive as to whether the planet died as a result of hygrometer dysfunction because it's biological clock was disturbed we still don't really we accept these abilities and plans then we have to ask if plants have another essential criteria for intelligence like memory being able to retain and recall an event and learn from it if we take the case of the dancing plant then there is little doubt that plants have memory what you would like it i don't but then train it to dance day after day and you'll be surprised to find that the day after day it will dance a little better to the point where it becomes an exceptional ballerina and it will stay that way this plant is capable of something that sports people would call training and that is based on memory  in germany professor volkmann has found that p c dealings have the capacity for memory here we have to be blunt and we like to investigate if they have a memory and how long these memories lasting professor goldman puts to seedlings in a horizontal position is no longer up but sideways if the plants were left in this position they would work out where is and start growing in a new direction the root system of some algae works in a similar way filaments responsible for keeping the plant in balance parent so the effect can be clearly seen under the microscope the trap granules are called stuff the lights and they are made up of minerals and being heavier tell the plant which weighs down