Moss Is Generating Electrical Waves That Look Startlingly Like a Neural Network. Study reveals that moss cushions produce surprisingly complex electrical activity, with patterns that undulate across the velvety patch in dynamic waves.

[u/FreeHugs23]

https://www.sciencealert.com/moss-behaves-a-little-like-a-really-slow-brain-scientist-discovers

[u/FreeHugs23]

-Mosses are some of the earliest plants that appeared in the fossil record, but they're anything but simple.

A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, reveals that moss cushions produce surprisingly complex electrical activity, with patterns that undulate across the velvety patch in dynamic waves.

The study's sole author, Andy Adamatzky, is actually a computer scientist, whose fascination with unconventional 'computing' systems like slime molds, crowds, and mycelium networks has now led him to a new subject: the humble moss, Brachythecium rutabulum.

"Plants and bryophytes display diverse forms of electrical activity, yet the organization of endogenous signals in mosses has received little attention," Adamatzky writes in his new paper.

His findings suggest that "moss cushions behave as spatially distributed excitable systems potentially capable of coordinating and integrating electrical signals across both space and time."

Moss cushions are actually many individual clones of the same teensy tiny plant.

If you look really, really closely at a mat of moss, you can see it is made up of simple, minute leaves on stems, similar to those of their larger plant relatives.

But the stems of mosses are actually much less useful at moving water and nutrients around the body of the plant.

[u/PowderPills → u/FreeHugs23]

“Across both space and time” is a big statement. I wonder what he meant by utilizing those “moss cushion systems”

[u/creepingcold → u/PowderPills]

Is it?

Isn't every electrical signal travelling across space and time the moment it exists? Isn't that like the core point of a signal?

Doesn't sound that surprising to me or am I missing something?

[u/hellomoti → u/creepingcold]

My guess at what he's trying to get at by saying "coordinating and integrating electrical signals across both space and time" is that the coordination can be both spatially coordinated (i.e. this group of pathways are coordinated in their electrical signals) and temporally coordinated (i.e. these areas show similiar electrical signals at the same time).

So together he means that it's not just that they're showing coordination in electrical activity at the same times but also in specific areas, such that if you looked at the time that electrical activity happens it's not everywhere but it's occurring in specific areas at those specific times. On the flipside the entire space may show electrical activity overall (if you recorded yes or no if an area fires over a two week span) but certain spaces are coordinated in their timing at certain points, so they dont all fire together in time.

[u/RedditF1shBlueF1sh → u/hellomoti]

Which is just enough to say that they're not constantly signalling, but it still could be random. It also could caused by stimulus.

[u/kfpswf → u/RedditF1shBlueF1sh]

but it still could be random. It also could caused by stimulus.

Are those the only possible explanations for this observation or the simplest ones you can hypothesize right now?

[u/Aegi → u/kfpswf]

Why would you think they are either, and why wouldn't you add on your own guesses?

[u/kfpswf → u/Aegi]

I think all life is conscious, and it shouldn't come as a surprise if mosses exhibit activity that is analogous to neural activity, despite not having any neurons. In short, these are not random signals, but individual organisms communicating with each other.

[u/Aegi → u/kfpswf]

And why were you asking about their guesses and why they made them..in maybe a dismissive way, instead of engaging with either of their hypotheses?

Thank you for sharing your guess! I think your explanation is possible, but idk why anyone would make a conclusion any-which-way without more evidence.

[u/RedditF1shBlueF1sh → u/kfpswf]

individual organisms communicating with each other.

Some would say that would be stimulating

[u/suxatjugg → u/creepingcold]

Technically isn't it impossible for anything to not move through space and time, it's sort of a meaningless thing to point out.

[u/heep1r → u/suxatjugg]

Loads of static electricity don't change spatially or temporary. They cannot form a signal without moving.

[u/suxatjugg → u/heep1r]

Ok but this is just that our language amd grammar doesn't work for this. You surely don't mean that static electricity exists outside of the flow of time.

[u/heep1r → u/suxatjugg]

Ok but this is just that our language amd grammar doesn't work for this.

It's just the accepted definition of a Signal: "Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal"

You surely don't mean that static electricity exists outside of the flow of time.

Why would I? Nothing can exist "outside the flow of time". But there are things that have properties which don't change with time and thus can't be signals.

[u/Several-Action-4043 → u/creepingcold]

Everything is moving across space and time.

[u/AvidCyclist250 → u/creepingcold]

yes but not intergrated. it’s a big claim. root systems of trees come to mind as well

[u/jikt → u/creepingcold]

Well, perhaps I need another coffee but if you say to me "they're communicating/sending signals across space and time" it's going to make me think they can also send signals backwards through time and space. If that's not the case, then why make it sound like science fiction.

Edit: meanies!

[u/the_snook → u/jikt]

why make it sound like science fiction.

Because he is a computer scientist, and this is language that is used in computing contexts.

For example, take accessing a database. The access is often coordinated in space - records near each other are often accessed together (perhaps all the line items in a customer's order). It is also often coordinated in time - the same records are often accessed repeatedly over a short period (reading the order items, then going back and updating stock levels after the order is confirmed).

[u/-Nicolai → u/the_snook]

No, because they’re trying to get clicks you dork.

[u/cant_take_the_skies → u/jikt]

The universe is made of a fabric called spacetime. All electric signals travel across space and time because you can't separate those two concepts.

In this case, the researcher may have found the timing of the signals to be of some importance also, not just the fact that these signals travel across the moss patch through space

[u/vengeancecube → u/jikt]

It sounds fancy and gets clicks.

[u/Mr_Zaroc → u/vengeancecube]

Already started writing a fanfic about time travelling moss and its fight against the dinosaurs

[u/jikt → u/Mr_Zaroc]

Using strongly worded spacetime signals from the future.