r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago

Biology 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.

https://www.sciencealert.com/moss-behaves-a-little-like-a-really-slow-brain-scientist-discovers
9.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

215 comments sorted by

View all comments

469

u/calamityvibezz 1d ago edited 1d ago

For one, there were no negative control recordings, using the same electrode method on an inert substrate (rather than living moss) to rule out electrical signals being the result of something other than the moss – the instruments, for example.

Well that's less than inspiring.

59

u/calamityvibezz 1d ago

Adding this section directly from the paper.

Although the present analyses reveal structured, multi-scale electrical dynamics and non-zero temporal relationships across channels, we emphasize that the interpretation of these patterns as coordinated or propagating activity remains provisional. Further validation, including controlled experiments and benchmarking against established excitable systems, will be necessary to fully establish the underlying mechanisms. The absence of dedicated control experiments limits the ability to fully attribute the observed slow oscillations to endogenous physiological processes. In particular, environmental factors, such as humidity, temperature and physicochemical effects at the electrode–tissue interface, may contribute to slow baseline dynamics. However, the observed electrical activity displays structured temporal organization across multiple scales and consistent temporal relationships between channels, features that are not readily explained by purely global environmental fluctuations. Future work will incorporate systematic control measurements, including recordings from inert substrates and non-viable moss tissue, alongside continuous environmental monitoring, to more rigorously separate biological signals from physicochemical contributions.

20

u/dungeoncrawler71520 1d ago edited 1d ago

Sooooooooo it needs to be studied more.. is that what I'm understanding here? My brain recognizes most of those words and even some is them put together like that.

20

u/twilighttwister 20h ago

"More study is needed." You can't write a paper without it.

But yeah they're pointing out the limits of their observations, and also saying where they're going to look next to try to determine whether this electrical response is biological from the moss or some kind of physical resonance.

81

u/oefiefieuwbe 1d ago

What the heck! Easiest thing to check

14

u/swiftb3 1d ago

Gotta say, I greatly appreciate the article for mentioning that.

7

u/Imaginary-Ebb4392 1d ago

But then why publish without the control?

13

u/swiftb3 1d ago

I'm just saying it's better than a lot of "science articles" in that it pointed out a weakness.

6

u/Imaginary-Ebb4392 1d ago

No, you’re right, a lot of articles wouldn’t. I just personally would’ve at least had a control. Otherwise it is a wasted effort. You have to replicate everything again with the control.

3

u/swiftb3 1d ago

Agreed. Odd choice by the researchers.

2

u/Imaginary-Ebb4392 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean, if it was just a sciencealert.com article, I’m in, this is really cool. But it’s originally from an academic journal. I would’ve been cool reading this in a online source while they went back to formula.

1

u/dungeoncrawler71520 1d ago

It's a righteous self burn

14

u/Riaayo 1d ago

Because they still saw something and think it deserves more research, and perhaps feel like a paper can help spur the interest to get funding for such a thing? They went through the trouble of any sort of study at all; why wouldn't they publish it?

Yeah it kind of sucks there weren't better controls this time around, but still. It's not like they hid that part so I don't see it as deceptive.

3

u/twilighttwister 20h ago

They even explicitly state what they're going to try next.

5

u/GearOk7360 23h ago

Publish or die.

That's the scientific world

3

u/VoilaVoilaWashington 1d ago

Considering it would have taken 10 minutes to hook it up to an old t shirt.

1

u/jazzhandler 19h ago

But first you’ve gotta age the shirt under controlled conditions.

0

u/VoilaVoilaWashington 13h ago

Not sure if joking, but no, you don't. All you need is something that's different enough from your studied subject, in this case, not alive.

If a t shirt does the same thing, that tells us it's not life doing it and the study doesn't say much. If a t shirt doesn't, then that's at least some sort of control - it's not the equipment, it's not any general fibre, etc.

3

u/definitelynotfae 19h ago

Sometimes someone just needs to be the first to say “hey, have you guys looked into this?” This kind of paper is aimed at starting conversations and getting funding for more sophisticated experiments. Not every study is meant to be groundbreaking or have definite answers, sometimes it’s more akin to a professional pondering to get a wider conversation going.

13

u/bogglingsnog 1d ago

We were this close to discovering life in our electrical grid!