We are searching the universe for any kind of life we can find. It's likely that the first signs of alien life we detect will be from plants. Here on Earth, plants provide the oxygen that we breathe, so if we find an oxygen-rich atmosphere on a distant world, that oxygen will come from alien plants.

But what do we really know about plants? Recent research has raised some provocative questions. For example, can plants smell? Can they hear? Do plants know where they are? Do plants remember? Scientist and author Daniel Chamovitz considers these questions in his recent book, "What a Plant Knows."

Observatory Night Talk from February 4, 2014 at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

свернуть