Plants that glow in the dark?

ikester7579 · #1 30th January 2003, 04:25 AM

Was surfing the web and ran across this.
Researchers at Stanford University surprised scientific colleagues several years ago when they proved that plants were not . . . well, vegetative. We think of plants as things that sit and grow, not as living things that can react to their environment. Now researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, have shown that plants not only react to the environment, they react with the same immediacy as animals.
The Edinburgh researchers knew that plants react to a breeze or other wind movement by adding calcium to their cell walls. Plant cell walls typically have calcium in them. The calcium acts as an internal skeleton, giving strength to the plant. When stressed by wind currents, plants strengthen themselves by adding more calcium to their cell walls.
Researchers used a novel method to study how quickly plants react. They added to the plants jellyfish genes that bind to calcium and glow blue as the calcium level increases. Then they squirted the plants with puffs of air. The increased blue glow showed that plants react almost immediately to air movement by adding calcium to their cells. The researchers have been contacted by private companies that want to find out whether this technique can be used to develop glow-in-the-dark flowers or glowing grass to plant around airport runways.

When God created plants He gave them abilities that seem surprising to those who think that they are a simple form of life.

ikester7579 · #2 30th January 2003, 04:33 AM

What color is the scarlet gilia? Well, that depends on where and when it's blooming. Despite its name, the scarlet gilia can be red, pink, and even white. 
Near sea level, the flowers remain red all season. This is because the flower is pollinated throughout the summer by hummingbirds who are drawn to the red flowers. However, at higher elevations, the hummingbirds leave as summer moves into AugusL As they leave, the plants change their red flowers to pink and later, white flowers.
The higher elevation plants change over to white flowers because they have a new pollinator. As the hummingbird population decreases, hawkmoths take over. During this transition, the flower produces pink blossoms as it invites both of its pollinators. Once the hummingbirds are gone, the hawkmoth takes over. The hawkmoths pollinate at night so they prefer white flowers because they are easier to see in the dark. Scientists were amazed by the fact that the color changes take place exactly when pollination shifts from hummingbird to moth. As one startled scientist put it, these plants cannot be considered passive in their environment.
Who taught the scarlet gilia when and how to change the color of its flowers? Who taught it that hummingbirds will be attracted to red flowers? Or that hawkmoths will be attracted to white flowers? The scarlet gilia may be clever, but only our all-wise Creator could have given this knowledge and ability to the plant.

Arikay · #3 30th January 2003, 04:57 AM

Plants will also grow towards light and around other trees to get this light. their roots will grow towards water. They will also grow towards gravity.
-High school biology

Originally posted by ikester7579
Was surfing the web and ran across this.
Researchers at Stanford University surprised scientific colleagues several years ago when they proved that plants were not . . . well, vegetative. We think of plants as things that sit and grow, not as living things that can react to their environment. Now researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, have shown that plants not only react to the environment, they react with the same immediacy as animals.
The Edinburgh researchers knew that plants react to a breeze or other wind movement by adding calcium to their cell walls. Plant cell walls typically have calcium in them. The calcium acts as an internal skeleton, giving strength to the plant. When stressed by wind currents, plants strengthen themselves by adding more calcium to their cell walls.
Researchers used a novel method to study how quickly plants react. They added to the plants jellyfish genes that bind to calcium and glow blue as the calcium level increases. Then they squirted the plants with puffs of air. The increased blue glow showed that plants react almost immediately to air movement by adding calcium to their cells. The researchers have been contacted by private companies that want to find out whether this technique can be used to develop glow-in-the-dark flowers or glowing grass to plant around airport runways.

When God created plants He gave them abilities that seem surprising to those who think that they are a simple form of life.

chickenman · #4 30th January 2003, 04:58 AM

Researchers at Stanford University surprised scientific colleagues several years ago when they proved that plants were not . . . well, vegetative. We think of plants as things that sit and grow, not as living things that can react to their environment. Now researchers at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, have shown that plants not only react to the environment, they react with the same immediacy as animals.
The Edinburgh researchers knew that plants react to a breeze or other wind movement by adding calcium to their cell walls. Plant cell walls typically have calcium in them. The calcium acts as an internal skeleton, giving strength to the plant. When stressed by wind currents, plants strengthen themselves by adding more calcium to their cell walls.
Researchers used a novel method to study how quickly plants react. They added to the plants jellyfish genes that bind to calcium and glow blue as the calcium level increases. Then they squirted the plants with puffs of air. The increased blue glow showed that plants react almost immediately to air movement by adding calcium to their cells. The researchers have been contacted by private companies that want to find out whether this technique can be used to develop glow-in-the-dark flowers or glowing grass to plant around airport runways.

When God created plants He gave them abilities that seem surprising to those who think that they are a simple form of life.

this is no great suprise to "evolutionists" I don't think any of them think plants are as simple as you suggest.

What color is the scarlet gilia? Well, that depends on where and when it's blooming. Despite its name, the scarlet gilia can be red, pink, and even white. 
Near sea level, the flowers remain red all season. This is because the flower is pollinated throughout the summer by hummingbirds who are drawn to the red flowers. However, at higher elevations, the hummingbirds leave as summer moves into AugusL As they leave, the plants change their red flowers to pink and later, white flowers.
The higher elevation plants change over to white flowers because they have a new pollinator. As the hummingbird population decreases, hawkmoths take over. During this transition, the flower produces pink blossoms as it invites both of its pollinators. Once the hummingbirds are gone, the hawkmoth takes over. The hawkmoths pollinate at night so they prefer white flowers because they are easier to see in the dark. Scientists were amazed by the fact that the color changes take place exactly when pollination shifts from hummingbird to moth. As one startled scientist put it, these plants cannot be considered passive in their environment.
Who taught the scarlet gilia when and how to change the color of its flowers? Who taught it that hummingbirds will be attracted to red flowers? Or that hawkmoths will be attracted to white flowers? The scarlet gilia may be clever, but only our all-wise Creator could have given this knowledge and ability to the plant.

no, not only your all-wise creator

evolution would be perfectly capable of such a simple trick. You seem to think the plant has some innate intelligence that makes it "choose" which colour to be. Far from it, natural selection selected mutants that changed colour seasonally because it provides clear fitness advantages

stray bullet · #5 30th January 2003, 06:10 AM

Amoebas have no problem going up to food and engulfing it, with no brain.

Starfish, which have no brains, can hunt shelled animals. They move around the ocean floor, go up to clams, pull open their shells and put one of their stomachs insides, digesting the muscle alive.

I don't really know if that proves anything.

ikester7579 · #6 31st January 2003, 03:56 AM

Originally posted by stray bullet
Amoebas have no problem going up to food and engulfing it, with no brain.

Starfish, which have no brains, can hunt shelled animals. They move around the ocean floor, go up to clams, pull open their shells and put one of their stomachs insides, digesting the muscle alive.

I don't really know if that proves anything.

 

It proves somethings that science can't explain. That brains are not always needed. To be able to think and perform what is needed to survive in a hostile world and give all that was needed to survive has to be a design. Natural selection? Na! Someone has to select, and I don't see anything natural about it.

Arikay · #7 31st January 2003, 04:06 AM

Well, no it doesnt.

It proves that a brain is not needed to make basic life selections. That a nerve system (for much more complex animals) can function well enough for a brain for the creature to survive. Its not too hard to explain.

How does this not prove natural selection?

Natural selection, or survival of the fittest says that the fittest animal will survive and propogate its genes. A plant that can protect itself from the wind is more likly to survive. These protection features are propogated to the other plants it creates. same way with a basic life form. The life form that is the smartest, lives. Which explains rather nicely why things would start out without brains, and slowly develop them, as the level of average inteligence (among many many other things) increases, the more developed a creature must be, to be above and beyond this average.

Originally posted by ikester7579
 

It proves somethings that science can't explain. That brains are not always needed. To be able to think and perform what is needed to survive in a hostile world and give all that was needed to survive has to be a design. Natural selection? Na! Someone has to select, and I don't see anything natural about it.