<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Plants are able to "remember" and "react" to information contained in light, according to researchers.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">Plants, scientists say, transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf in a very similar way to our own nervous systems.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">These "electro-chemical signals" are carried by cells that act as "nerves" of the plants.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">In their experiment, the scientists showed that light shone on to one leaf caused the whole plant to respond.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">And the response, which took the form of light-induced chemical reactions in the leaves, continued in the dark.</div>
<div id="_mcePaste" style="position: absolute; left: -10000px; top: 0px; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden;">This showed, they said, that the plant "remembered" the information encoded in light.</div>
<em>Plants are able to "remember" and "react" to information contained in light, according to researchers.</em>

Plants, scientists say, transmit information about light intensity and quality from leaf to leaf in a very similar way to our own nervous systems...

In their experiment, the scientists showed that light shone on to one leaf caused the whole plant to respond.

And the response, which took the form of light-induced chemical reactions in the leaves, continued in the dark.

This showed, they said, that the plant "remembered" the information encoded in light...

He said that plants used information encrypted in the light to immunise themselves against seasonal pathogens.

"Every day or week of the season has… a characteristic light quality," Professor Karpinski explained.

"So the plants perform a sort of biological light computation, using information contained in the light to immunise themselves against diseases that are prevalent during that season."

<em>Full story at </em><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10598926" target="_blank"><em>BBC </em></a>