Scientists study what effect human emotions have on plants скачать в хорошем качестве

Scientists study what effect human emotions have on plants

(18 Apr 2018) LEADIN: What effect do human feelings have on plants? Will a plant grow differently if it is surrounded by human happiness as opposed to human fear? These are among questions being addressed in "The Florence Experiment" - a project that combines art and science in the Italian city of Florence. STORYLINE: In the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi, in the heart of Florence, two intertwined slides, 20-metres high, take tourists and visitors whizzing from the top of the building to the bottom. While this historical palace, dating back to the 15th century, has housed a lot of exhibitions, this project is unique. The slides are part of a project called "The Florence Experiment", resulting from the work of the German artist Carsten Höller and Stefano Mancuso, professor of Plant Physiology at the University of Florence. The main purpose is to investigate how plants respond to the visitors' experience. People have to wear a belt with a bean plant in it while they go down the slide. An assistant helps them, giving them a mat to sit on as they go down. When they arrive at the bottom of the slide, they hand the plant over to a researcher, who analyses it. "The Florence Experiment is basically two experiments that we do in order to look at the possibility of plants can respond to human emotions. And I don't think that that has ever been done before, at least not on this scale and with this kind of experiment so it's both, you know, scientifically correct and artistically challenging and I want these two units to be there present next to each other," Carsten Höller says. One of Höller's most famous works is "The Double Club", a bar and restaurant in London opened in 2008 and closed in 2009, which created a dialogue between Congolese and Western culture. Before being an artist, Carsten Höller was a scientist, trained in phytopathology (the study of plant disease). "Many of my works are, what I call, Double Clubs, because we also have been doing night clubs and you know other works that are composed out of two or more different entities that are present at the same time in the same space but they are not necessarily making one; there's no fusion really and the same it's also too here in some way, there's a scientific part and there's an artistic part but there's not that the two form one unity, they're standing next to each other with the same amount of, how can I say, presence," Höller explains. A laboratory has been set up in the "Strozzina", the basement of Palazzo Strozzi. Visitors hand the plant over to a researcher and fill out a questionnaire, explaining how they felt during the way down the slide (for example, whether they enjoyed it or they were afraid). A scientist then puts a label on the plant, containing information such as the age and the genre of the person who carried it and the emotions they felt. Prof. Stefano Mancuso, founder of the science of Plant Neurobiology, explains how the researchers determine the response of the plants. "Visitors, who participate in this experiment, take the plant, they carry it down to the Strozzina laboratory, where researchers analyse first of all the photosynthesis - which is the engine, the heartbeat of plants - and then they analyze the VOCs (Volatile organic compounds), that are messages sent by the plants." Researchers use an instrument, called Licor 6800, to analyse different photosynthetic parameters from the leaves and the gas exchanged to measure the plants' response to the experience. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...