Lionel

• Król E., Dziubińska H., and Trębacz K. (2010) What do plants need action potentials for? (Open Acess)
  

A very nice text on the question, nice to read and very complete. History, roles, pathways of transmissions, measure. 26 p.

• Writing a report

• Writing a report

• Check for the result of the plant root experiment. The root has stopped to grow before entering the channel. Thinking about what to do now.
• Reading an article about plant-microbe interaction
  

Goffin et al (2010) Understanding the physiology of Lactobacillus plantarum at zero growth (open access). In situations of low substrate availability, Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria (which often grows on plants) syhthetize plant hormones to 'tell' the plant to produce certain nutrients they need. Furthermore, L. plantarum also adapts its own metabolism to make use of those vegetal nutients.

• short research discussion with Nik & Maja

• Making pictures and a libarynth page about the plant root experiment.

• Finding a technical solution to connect the glass pipes to the plexiglas plate, in a watertight way. The experimental device is ready for a first test. A seed of cress is inserted in the 'input'.

• Buying some material and testing different systems to ensure the watertightness of the fluidics device for the plant root experiment.
• Browsing through the non-scientific web about 'communication with plants'.

• Reading the book of abstracts from the 1st symposium on Plant Neurobiology (pdf file freely downloadable). An nice collection of scientific stories about plant communication.

(Symposium on EEG & Art, iMAL)

(arrival Kiran)

• bending of tiny glasspipes with heat, for the plant root experiment

• Grooving of the plexiglas plate at timelab, Gent

• buying transparent polymer plates
• .dxf files for the patterns of the 'microfluidics' channels.

• Short research meeting with Maja and Nik
  
• Fist draft for a 'root-on-a-chip' design
  

• Analyse of the 20 first results a Google search about “communication avec les plantes”
  

° To see what is associated with that concept in the web-based popular culture.
° Identifying the main ideas that come repeatedly.

• Update of the page about DIY biology
  

(Weekly meeting with FoAM's members)

• Some information about Arduino
  
• Update of the page about plant neurobiology
  

Meeting with Meredith L. Patterson

• Create a libarynth page with links about DIY biology
  

• Order seeds of Mimosa pudica (on www.graines.be)
  
• Freely downloadable publications about ant-plant mutualism, on the webpage of the biologist Martin Heil
  
• Wikipedia search: Myrmecophily

• Rapid research about interactions beween plants and animals/microbes/plants.
  
• Prospective thoughts about possible (or less possible) experiments.
  

(Platform Kanal summer lab in FoAM's studio)

• Visit at the VUB library to identify interesting reference books about plant physiology:
  

° Biology of Plants, 7th edition (2005), P. Raven, R. Evert, S. Eichhorn - W. H. Freeman & co Publishers
Very general and pedagogic, lot of pictures. Botany, histology, a bit of molecular biology. Reader-friendly, nice to browse randomly (essays, topics, etc.). But: ugly hardcover, and 7th edition seems to be the last one.
° Plant physiology, 4th edition (2006), L. Taiz & E. Zeiger - Sinauer Associates, Inc., Publishers
More experiment-oriented. A lot about plant development and metabolic pathways. Graphs, molecular structures. 5th edition released in 2010.
° Biochemistry & Molecular Biology of Plants (2009), B. Buchanan, W. Gruissem, R. Jones - American Society of Plant Physiologists
Very good and exhaustive reference book. Very molecular-, protein- and biochemistry-oriented. Big: 1367 pages!

• Web search about the use of plants action potentials in artistic installations:

° Ivan Henrique - 'Jurema Action Plant'
° Grégory Lasserre & Anaïs met den Ancxt - 'Phonolium'

• Visit at iMAL

• Further reading of previously mentioned articles and books
  

(General meeting at FoAM)

• Futher investigation about 'plant neurobiology'
  

° Struik et al (2008) Plant neurobiology and green plant intelligence: science, metaphors and nonsense
An intelligent, precise and critical reflection about the subject, written by researchers that are not part of the 'Baluska & Mancuso friend's group'.
° Koziolek et al (2003) Transient knockout of photosynthesis mediated by electrical signals
In this paper, the authors relate an experiment to measure electrical signals and other parameters in Mimosa pudica

• About the measurements of action potentials in plants: Webpage by A.G. Volkov about the electrochemistry of plant life.
  

• There is a journal for Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions. Beyond a one-year embargo, new articles are in Open Access (Delayed open access journal).

• New libarynth page about plant neurobiology

• New libarynth page with a list of some Open Access Journals

• Read the article of Peter W. Barlow (2008)

• Wikipedia search about: convergent evolution, exaptation, morphogen, metamerism

• Search in the scientific literature about “plant neurobiology”
  

° Peter W. Barlow (2008) Reflections on ‘plant neurobiology’ [review article]
° Eric Davies (2004) New functions for electrical signals in plants [commentary]

• Short research meeting with Nik & Maja
  

• Libarynth research diary

• T. McKenna, Archaic Revival (1991, book), p 219-225
  

° Central idea: plants as inspirational model for solving global problems. Phytomimicry in industry, politics, personal life.
° According to McKenna, the “lessons” of plants are:
- societal/politics: feminization of culture
- personal: inwardness, cooperation (symbiosis)
- ecology: phytoremediation, biodiversity
- industry: recycling, H2-economy, photovoltaic, nanotech
° McKenna hopes a change of paradigm. Idea of the “rebirth of the [vegetal] Goddess”. Spiritual or symbolic idea of the mother-earth, Gaia, etc.
° Suggests that the use of psychedelic plants opens channels of direct communication with this Gaia.
° McKenna speaks about “planetary purpose”. Intentionality. (link to be made with Naturalism and Intelligent Design)

• Wikipedia search about:
  

New Age Gaian, James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, Noepaganism, Pseudoscience, Falsifiability, Biopunk

• Some books found in the library:
  

° Nature, technology and the sacred, Bronislaw Szerszynski, 2005. About the idea of the “disenchantment of the world”, from a philosphy of science point of view.
° Cosmicomics, Italo Calvino, 1965. Short stories. Science-like narratives, universe as a cosmic joke.
° Psychedelic reimagined, Thomas Lyttle, ed., 1999. Collection of articles about psychedelic substances and practices.

• Start meeting with Nik & Maja

• Research starting points:
  

° Reach a broad spectrum going from science < —- > pseudo-science
° Special attention to stories. Stories made to justify some logical shortcuts in speudo-scientific demonstrations, stories on the side of classical research, etc.
° Think of experiment to test some pseudo-scientific claims (plants grow faster if you speak to them). Those experiments are not meant to be realized.
° Make an overview of the research in the field of plant-plant communication. Neurobotany, sensory ecology, chemical communication between plants, etc.
° Speculative science: what do we need to build a translator to interfer with those signals?

• Literature starting points:
  

° Experiments of George Lawrence (~1950). Onion attached to a telescope, and other strange experiments.
° HPI paper on the Lybarinth
° Sci-fi writer K. Schröder. Idea of thalience, switched subjectivity. Idea that the value of a model is not only determined by the fact it is true or not, but also by its ability to generate other models and ideas (“heuristicity”).
° T. McKenna, Archaic Revival, Chapter about plan/plant/planet. Phytomimicry and techno-gaianism.
° P. Stamets, Mycelium Running, global considerations about mycelium as nature's internet.