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DODDER video. In fast motion, Dodder resembles an alien attack. https://youtu.be/tZpjKemWalk View in LinkedIn

FEDERATION OF PLANT ORGANS. "Each organ has some extra information derived from the overall integrative state of the plant. This extra information is available from the summed activities of all members of the federation of organs, but such exotic information is rarely complex. Some extra specific information might also be available to certain cells from chemical signals emanating from non‐adjacent cells." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/93/4/345.full View in LinkedIn

FAMOUS DODDER. "Plants intelligently optimise energy gain whilst minimising resource outlay. The clearest example of predictive modeling behavior can be found in a parasitical non-photosynthetic plant, Dodder. However numerous decisions are made on first contact. Many suitable hosts are rejected within a few hours of the first touch contact, indicating choice. Dodder does not parasitize itself indicating self-recognition." Is it following chemical cues? http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-005-0014-9 View in LinkedIn

THE PARAMETERS. “Termites can interpret this field because they act essentially as mobile φ-transducers. In the steady regime of the nest, (low- to null φ), termites will carry out their activities unperturbed. A threshold change of φ, however, elicits a marked shift of the swarm’s behavior. In response to a pulse of CO2, for example, termites immediately stop what they are doing and begin to move about vigorously. They do not move about randomly, however. Some termites will rush toward the source of the perturbation. Others, called tocsins (“bell-ringers”) run away from the source and agitate other termites that may not have experienced the pulse directly. Eventually, a large wave of termites runs toward the perturbation source, consisting of termites that have experienced the perturbation directly as well as those…

ASSUMPTIONS. “In a DC field of, say, oxygen partial pressure (PO2), one can predict with some reliability, r(PO2), what the actual PO2 at a particular location in the mound might be, irrespective of time. Indeed, that is the very nature of a DC field: it contains within it no dimension of time. What is mapped in an AC perturbation field, in contrast, is the likelihood of a particular time-dependent change of PO2, that is dPO2/dt. For sake of brevity, let us call this φ (= dP/dt). Any location within a transient perturbation field is characterized by some probability distribution, r(φ). Within the mound, r(φ) is broad at the periphery, and tends toward peaked and skewed to low frequency in the center.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-016-9256-5 View in LinkedIn

THE ANALOGY. “These are very steady values: to use an electrical analogy, the nest environment maintains a “DC” difference in oxygen, CO2 and water vapor partial pressures with the outside environment, analogous to the steady DC voltage that exists across the poles of a battery. It is these DC potential energy differences that ultimately drive the exchange of respiratory gases and water vapor upon which the colony’s survival depends. On their own, however, these DC differences cannot support a high enough exchange rate, so the colony exploits wind energy to enhance the flux. The mound is the physiological interface for wind to do this work.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-016-9256-5 View in LinkedIn

HUMIDITY CONTROL. “The fungus combs also act as high-capacity dampers for water vapor, holding nest humidity to about 80 % in the face of short-term fluctuations in environmental moisture.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-016-9256-5 View in LinkedIn