Can Plants Feel Pain? & More! Ask A Scientist #1

Ask A Scientist is the new video feature from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester.

In this first episode, we ask Dr. Thomas Nuhse all about plants! To submit your questions for future episodes, please follow our Facebook page for updates!

You may also be interested in a Life Sciences UG course at The University of Manchester. Please see our website for more details

[Christa-tljb]

Thank you for scientifically confirming that plants don’t feel pain. Now I can cut down the half dead Alberta spruce trees in my yard without feeling guilty. I left them there half dead for years feeling guilty that I would cause them pain if I cut them down.

[harjapvirk]

wow amazing answers and well spoken sir thanks for the video!!!

[Doug_Fany]

02:57 (about pain) I know they don't have brain, at least not a "brain" like ours, but what makes the electrical signal and what processes it?

[marujitadiaz]

4:40 — 6:45 It isn't any "allergic response" but a type IV (delayed type) hypersensitivity reaction. It isn't an IgE-mediated reaction but a cell-mediated (T-cell mediated) reaction.

[zorubark]

People say cephalopods are very alien but plants are very alien too, they are life with a diffent cell than us, no brain, stays in the same place all the time and yet succeds and evolves deffenses and attacks, so cool

[AnishaFoodFlavours]

Wao.... Nice sir. Very informative. Stay connected😊

[thecoffeetable]

I read somewhere that plants have consciousness and they store memories for some time.... how do they do that when they don't have brain?
Regards #Ashishchandrana

[commoncitizen]

Thanks for confirming that plants do feel pain but they can't express it like other animals.

[JAPTHECAT]

He mention a little bit disco now I am imagining plants disco dancing 🕺

[isabelle]

I am not an expert, but maybe you don't need a brain to feel pain? Maybe a plant has a brain but we don't think it is because it does not work the same way.

[Metacognition]

So would cutting a leaf be similar to when we cut hair? We are aware and feel it being cut but don’t feel pain and don’t care?

[legitretarded]

I apologise for the extremely late question but I have a question I just want to ask a lot. Is it possible that there exists a nervous system in plants that is entirely different from those of humans and animals but exists. As in how we humans have responses, sense, reactions, thoughts and memories due to our nervous system and the nerve impulses could there be a similar in function but different in composition nervous system for plants ? And what of one that may involve 'voluntary' reactions if it may exist.If this is unlikely to exist then are you implying that plants reaction to stimuli (like in the case of a Venus fly trap, mimosa, the wall nut trees anti competition response etc) function not as a system but a direct impulse between receptor to effector organs (don't know if it's the right word) in a involuntary manner. If humans entire stimulus, sense and nervous system is based on transfer via electrochemical nerve impulse then is it also the same for the plants? (Electrochemical cell impulses?)

And lastly in an episode of mythbusters when testing a polygraph machine with leaves the plant responds to
1) physical stimulus
2) mental thought. (Basically he thinks of burning the plant and it reacts)
What are your thoughts and opinions on this ^

[dalaojirenwu]

Just because they dont fell pain，so you have that power to kill them？

[taqiraza]

specialized fibers — which are located in skin, muscles, joints, and some organs — transmit pain signals from the periphery to the brain, where the message of pain is ultimately perceived. The brain itself does not feel pain because there are no nociceptors located in brain tissue itself.

[weirdguy]

Well, I'm gonna paraphrase you a bit here you said, "Plants don't feel pain the same way we humans and other animals do". Basically saying they don't feel pain or perhaps don't have a brain to express it than intensely.

Plants do have nerves however I don't know if that feels pain...

My question is, does pain include loss of carbon dioxide eg. When someone's choking etc. Do they not feel pain in that sense too? Are plants able to suffocate?

[greyskullacademy]

Cool. I don’t have to feel bad about eating them.

[JohnTheOGmp]

I don't want to look at the recent comments

[d.]

"BuT PlAnTs FeeL PaIn ToO!!!!"

[LB-uoxy]

Other more current researchers have shown that plants do indeed feel pain, especially during draughts and when they are on fire or when trees are cut.

[aritrakumardas]

Plant have feelings was demonstrated by Jagadish Chandra Bose in London