Nature Science

THE SELF-REALIZATIONS OF PLANTS & ANIMALS NOW

In the beginning, there was self. Each organism had only itself upon which to rely. Evolution produced the sense of “other.” The science of self is one that continues to unfold, as researchers present new findings for both plants and animals. We’re sharing both today.

Many animals seem to be intrigued by mirrors, but very few species are capable of seeing a reflection and recognizing themselves. This type of self awareness requires an intellect that most simply don’t posses.

While many more highly evolved great apes and chimpanzees have demonstrated a sense of self, recently, scientists have discovered that some lesser monkeys can develop this sense -- they can learn to recognize themselves. They can learn what “self” means.

In a study published this past week, in Current Biology, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that rhesus monkeys are capable of learning about “self” by training with mirrors -- in just 2 to 5 weeks!

Five of the seven trained monkeys learned to touch their own faces when a laser pointed to their faces in the mirror. They further investigated their own hands after touching their faces, smelling them, to try to determine if the laser light dot imparted a scent on their fingers.

After gaining this knowledge from the mirror, the monkeys began to make rapid advances in their understanding of themselves, using the mirrors to investigate their own bodies in unprompted ways. They began to explore parts of their anatomy that they normally wouldn’t see.

“Our findings suggest that the monkey brain has the basic ‘hardware’ [for mirror self-recognition], but they need appropriate training to acquire the ‘software’ to achieve self-recognition,” Neng Gong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences explained in the press release.

These findings have potential implications for Alzheimer’s treatment research. For example, it is possible that people who have lost their abilities to recognize themselves in the mirror might be trained to do so once again.

Overturning previous findings, new studies, similar to those conducted with the rhesus monkeys, showed that elephants can also be trained to recognize themselves in mirrors.

Joshua Plotnik of Mahidol University in Thailand Reiss, and renowned animal behavior expert Frans de Waal of Emory University recently teamed up to redo earlier experiments with elephant self-recognition. In their new experiments, the researchers allowing the elephants to not just look in mirrors but use all their senses to identify themselves.

They found that one out of 3 elephants had learned to recognize itself. This highly evolved level of cognition raises the question about whether or not we should be keeping elephants and monkeys in cages at zoos.

And it is inspiring a new look at how we give sanctuary to these beautiful animals so that they can best retain their healthy sense of self.

Flowers used to all be self-reliant. Self-pollination evolved roughly a million years ago or more. As they evolved, flowers began to develop sexually. Now only about 10-15% of all flowering plants fertilize themselves. And now, we are learning more about some of them.

A new self-pollination process was recently discovered in the Paphiopedilum parishii, also known as the slipper orchid. The anther changes from a solid to liquid and can reach the stigma without a pollinating agent. Scientists think that this unique reproductive process is a possible adaptation due to the scarcity of insects in the ecosystem of this particular orchid variety.

Other self-pollinating flowers, like the tree-living orchid Holcoglossum amesianum, the Chinese herb Caulokaempferia coenobialis, and the Arabidopsis thaliana, have different types of self-pollination mechanisms that are each uniquely fascinating. Who knows how many more are yet to be discovered?

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