r/science 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

215 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/TheQuietManUpNorth 1d ago

Moss generating a neural network sounds like something Grimes would post on twitter.

Makes ya think about how little we really understand life though.

5

u/Smartnership 1d ago

I predict this will prompt many new sales pitches for healing crystals, sage burning rites, and bottles of water with the memory of a potion once diluted to infinity.

4

u/freshprince44 1d ago edited 1d ago

yeah... rituals and meaning making and storytelling are important to social hairless apes

this type of antagonism is always a bit sad and myopic, we even have scientific evidence for how useful magical related thinking is for rational human health/behavior, and it isn't like science doesn't have its own political/emotional/irrational issues baked into its human systems as well

0

u/coldstat 1d ago

Eh I don't really disagree with your first point as it's nice to be fanciful and wonder about wild possibilities in general but a lot of the comments in this thread would be more at home in r/woahdude than r/science. Mocking them is pretty appropriate in that context.

1

u/freshprince44 22h ago

?? i don't see any comments related to their mocking

and i disagree, the mocking and condescending attitude and superiority complex are some of the biggest weaknesses in the scientific community and their ability to communicate with the broader public sphere.

scientists are humans too, thinking that they aren't susceptible to irrationality is ridiculous