The Intelligence of Plants

The basis of intelligence is information: the way it is acquired, stored, processed, and acted upon. Usually, people think only animals—and maybe only humans—can be intelligent. This course will explore the possibility that plants are also intelligent—a topic about which botanists are still divided. We will discuss the biological mechanisms involved, the environmental situations that plants react to, and the evolutionary adaptiveness of plant behavior. By the end of the course, we may all view plants with a little more respect. 

Required Readings: Zoe Schlanger, The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth, ISBN 978-0063073869. 

Barbara Snapp received her PhD in biology from Cornell University where her research focused on the ecological adaptiveness of behavior. Her passion is teaching science, especially teaching broad survey courses where she can interweave scientific themes with culture and history in order to build multidimensional understanding.