Key Information
About the content
Can we say that plants have senses? You will learn how plants sense their environment and how scientists study plant senses. You will be exposed to both classic and modern experiments in plant biology, and may even start to question what defines us as humans.
Syllabus
Why we study plants, plant influence on evolution of the Earth.
Week 2 - What a Plant Sees:
Over view of human vision, plant responses to light, Darwin and phototropism, phytochrome and flowering and modern research.
Week 3 - What a Plant Smells:
Over view of human olfaction, Introduction to the plant cell and membranes, ethylene and fruit ripening, Cuscuta and plants smelling plants, Baldwin's experiments and plant olfactory communication.
Week 4 - What a Plant Feels:
Over view of human physical sensory mechanisms, Venus fly trap, plant responses to shaking, Do plants hear?
Week 5 - How a Plant Knows Where it is:
Overview human proprioception, Early experiments in gravitropism, root structure and the gravi-sensing mechanism, phototropism and discovery of auxin, gravitropism in space.
Week 6 - What a Plant Remembers:
Overview of the human memory, electrical memory and Venus Fly trap, epigenetics and long-term memory.
Week 7 - The Aware Plant:
Theoretical discussion on the definition of memory and consciousness and a quick examination of "intelligence".
Instructors
- Daniel Chamovitz - Director, Manna Center for Plant Biosciences
Content Designer
Platform
Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
Coursera works with top universities and organizations to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in many subjects, including: physics, engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, digital marketing, data science, and other subjects.
Es un curso excelente impartido por un profesor que es excepcionalmente profesional y que se nota que ama las plantas, excelente curso acerca de las plantas.
Es un curso excelente impartido por un profesor que es excepcionalmente profesional y que se nota que ama las plantas, excelente curso acerca de las plantas.
I really enjoyed this and learnt a lot. I'm a zoologist currently studying botanical illustration, so this course was a great way to brush up on my botany. I read Prof Chamovitz' book a couple of years ago and liked his style, and this course is similar - very engaging but thorough. Some of the tests, especially the last one, are quite tough but I think that is a good thing, you have to pay attention to the material if you want to pass.
A very en-lighting course. It highlights the complexity of plant life, shows the common origin of life at cellular level, makes through provoking but scientific comparison between human senses and plant environment awareness. I also bought the book "What a plant knows" (in french), I strongly recommend it as a companion of this course.
Very educational! Some conclusions of some experiments I could recollect as detailed as was necessary for the final test. Learned a lot!! Thanks!
The content was extensive, but very brief,unintelligible parts were quizzed. It was often hard to understand my Professor.