This month's episode of Brain Science is an intriguing interview with Dr. Paco Calvo from the Minimal Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Mercia in Spain. We talk with him about his new book Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Intelligence.

We discuss the scientific evidence for plant intelligence while acknowledging that intelligence and consciousness are different phenomena. It is interesting to think of plants as demonstrating embodied cognition in contrast to the "intelligence" demonstrated by computer software. We also consider the pioneering work of Charles Darwin, who actually studied plant behavior before the invention of time lapse photography.

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Links and References:

• Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence  by Paco Calvo

• Paco Calvo (University of Mercia, Spain)

• Gagliano, M., Vyazovskiy, V. V., Borbély, A. A., Grimonprez, M., & Depczynski, M. (2016). Learning by Association in Plants. Scientific reports, 6, 38427. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38427

• The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants, by Charles Darwin (1875)

• The Power of Movement in Plants, by Charles Darwin (1880)

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