I am talking about this book titled The Secret Life of Plants jointly written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. The book has been written quite lucidly in a narratory fashion which seems to suggest that the authors seem to have the least qualms with the contents that they write about. Or perhaps one would wish to look at it from the point of them distancing from passing any judgement over the facts presented in the book.

To start off, those who have studied science would readily acknowledge the name of Jagdish Chandra Bose. Famously known for his research on energy waves and very recently being credited by the IEEE for having made the first transistor (over Marconi). In the biology context however, he’s known for his experiments showing the reaction of plants towards stimuli using galvanometers.

The book start out precisely where our textbooks left us. It traces early research undertaken by Cleve Backster and Marcel Vogel and their focus on the sentience theory which works about plants being able to sense human emotions (a la Bose’s work). Now while some part of it can still be accepted, a lot many sentences seem to be not worded in a manner that makes it scientifically unambiguous. The authors need to ascertain the meaning of words such as think, feel, pretend in a scientific context so as to dispel certain very straightforward questions that shall be put to them even if they presented their data to a undegraduate class.

Vogel’s work on Philodendrons particularly is eye-catching. While both Backster and Vogel display the ability of plants to act as lie detectors (in experiments which once again are not without their cast of doubts), Vogel goes on to proclaim a bond between human emotions and plant responses. His work claims that having volunteers meditate on plants and imagining themselves entering and exiting the plant elicits potential differences which are characteristic of the person. More so there are also statements such as ” humans can transfer energy to plants which can be electrically measured”.

The ultimate nail in making me stop reading this book would be the description of the plant listening to ghost stories with delight and also perking up from its basal potential at the mention of the word ‘sex’. What follows is the incomprehensible link to the ‘orgone theory‘ and odes to American Indian tales of them having intercourse in open fields to stimulate plant growth and increase fertility of the fields.

There are many more pages of such pseudo-scientific babble. I am completely unsure about what else to call it and hence I shall err (if that is what it shall turn out to be) by disbelieving in it. There are a few very direct observation one can make.

1. Why is it that most of the observations depend on potential difference measurements. It’s common sense that plant cells have a difference in potential across their membrane. Any disturbance in such differences would manifest in unusual (or deviations) from the basal potential.

2. No controls for any of the experiments have been described. This is perhaps the greatest flaw one can look for. I’m only a Masters student and I realise the importance of controls. This has however been left out without remorse in the book. Whether done due the authors’ attempt at making it more layman friendly or due to its complete absence, I do not know.

Now I know that the way I’ve described the book, you’d wonder why I read so far in the first place. The book somehow appeals in the sense that since I hadn’t read much about it, I thought somewhere down the chapter there would be an accurate description of the experiments and analysis of the results. However, the psychobabble that the book so openly leans on (especially quoting ancient rituals, yogic principles etc) makes you squirm in your seats if you believe in doing proper hypothesis and not phenomena based scientific research.

I even looked towards the bibliography trying to find papers published in journals that didn’t have the word ‘paranormal’, ‘parapsychology’ and suchlike words in it. Not finding much luck, I decided to ditch the book right at chapter 2.

So that’s it from me. This book could totally feature on ‘How not to write a book on science’ but I wouldn’t disown you for reading more than I did and telling me cooler stuff that plants can do (apart from sense what you’re feeling while being on separate continents).

I believe that I am quite late in starting this blog but I intend to discuss old stuff and new. From topics of genetics and molecular biology to evolutionary development and neuroscience. I shall without doubt at most of the times be inadept at even speaking about such topics but I guess that’s the only way to better oneself, by making mistakes and learning from them.

This blog shall help me do two things… it shall help me express myself better when it comes to scientific discussion as well as develop a criticism that is important for the pursuit of science.

Till next time!