Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and informative

Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by mcswell on Saturday April 01, 2023 @03:52PM (#35403491)

I am astounded that no one has mentioned "The Sound Machine" by Roald Dahl (1949), in which a scientist invents a machine that makes ultrasonic sounds audible to humans. He discovers that plants scream when cut. You can read it at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1949/09/17/the-sound-mach...

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by Runeite51 on Saturday April 01, 2023 @09:15PM (#35406059)

That was a cool read. It took me on a long journey to find references to it... seems like there's actually some truth to it.

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by mathstuf on Saturday April 01, 2023 @11:59PM (#35407042)

I think the BFG could also hear the screams of trees as they were being chopped down.

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by codetrotter on Sunday April 02, 2023 @03:31AM (#35408118)

Sources online agree with you.

> The BFG could hear the tread of a ladybird's footsteps as she walks across a leaf, the whispering of ants as they carry around in the soil talking to one another, and the sudden shrill cry of pain a tree gives out when a woodman cuts into it with an axe.

https://www.icsestudyguide.com/2020/10/class-5-english-liter...

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by papandada on Sunday April 02, 2023 @12:39AM (#35407221)

I wonder if this is the source of a Jack Handey joke: "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason."

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by aarondia on Sunday April 02, 2023 @10:56AM (#35411134)

This reminds me of an Upton Sinclair quote: “was one to believe that there was nowhere a god of hogs, to whine this hog personality was precious. To whome these hog squeals and agonies had meaning?”

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Re:Sounds emitted by plants under stress are airborne and in... by irony123 on Monday April 03, 2023 @09:43AM (#35423437)

https://youtu.be/QDiUvLl3zpg was also an episode of Tales of the Unexpected

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