La Nacion, one of the leading newspapers in Argentina, published , and Roc铆o was one of the plant biologists interviewed for the piece. She was asked, are plants intelligent?听 And here's what she said (in Spanish and then translated into English):
鈥溌縎i las plantas son inteligentes? Pero por supuesto. El tema para m铆 es cu谩nto m谩s inteligentes son que nosotros. Imaginate ser una planta: est谩s en un sitio casi inm贸vil, el alimento tiene que venir hacia vos y deb茅s elaborar estrategias para aprovechar el que haya. Incluso si est谩s en un sitio ideal, con nutrientes, luz y agua, y necesit谩s ir hacia tus compa帽eros para la reproducci贸n, o atraer un polinizador. Es m谩s, abandon谩s a la progenie cuando reci茅n empieza a crecer. Las plantas tienen mucho desaf铆os y aun as铆 existen desde hace m谩s de mil millones de a帽os. Se originaron en oc茅anos y despu茅s pasaron a medios terrestres, hace 500 millones de a帽os. Cambiaron la atm贸sfera y las condiciones de suelo y ah铆 siguen.鈥�
"Are plants intelligent? But of course. The question for me is how much more intelligent they are than us. Imagine being a plant: you're stuck in one spot, immobile, food has to come to you, and you've got to figure out strategies to take advantage of what you've got. And even if you're in a perfect spot, with nutrients, light and water, you've still got to connect with your fellow plants to reproduce, or attract pollinators. And more than this, you leave your offspring by themselves soon after they are born. Plants have many challenges and they've still existed for over a billion years. They originated in the ocean, and then they came onto land 500 million years ago. They changed the atmosphere and the soil and they're still here."
Brava,听Roc铆o, for a wonderful piece of scicomm!
听