This morning, my six-year-old came into our bedroom and started reading a story from a book. She followed each word on the page, slowly forming full sentences. Sometimes she stumbled and asked for help with some "funny words," but by the end of the book, she had told us a story about a bear in the snow.
Verbal communication is one of the many reasons why humans have become so successful as a species. From warning each other of danger to communicating complex information, our ability to speak has been crucial.
But it's not just humans and other animals who developed sophisticated communication. A lot of people think of plants as passive but they have their way of interacting with each other. The idea has been around for a while, even inspiring Hollywood movies like Avatar.
But recent science is showing plant communication systems may be more complex than we imagined. These communication networks are sensitive and in balance. Imagine how disrupted our world would be if global network systems suddenly broke down. The recent CrowdStrike IT outages are just one example of how delicate these systems are and how important communication is – and that's the case for plants too.
Read more on The Conversation.