Soil electrification and harvest

In order to increase the productivity of agricultural plants, mankind has long turned to the soil. The fact that electricity can increase the fertility of the upper arable layer of the earth, that is, enhance its ability to form a large crop, has long been proven by the experiments of scientists and practitioners. But how to do it better, how to link the electrification of the soil with the existing technologies for its cultivation? These are the problems that have not been fully resolved even now. At the same time, we must not forget that the soil is a biological object. And with inept intervention in this established organism, especially with such a powerful tool as electricity, it is possible to cause irreparable damage to it.

When electrifying the soil, they see, first of all, a way of influencing the root system of plants. To date, a lot of data has been accumulated showing that a weak electric current passed through the soil stimulates growth processes in plants. But is this the result of a direct action of electricity on the root system, and through it on the whole plant, or is it the result of physical and chemical changes in the soil? A certain step towards understanding the problem was taken in due time by Leningrad scientists.

The experiments they carried out were very sophisticated, because they had to find out a deeply hidden truth. They took small polyethylene tubes with holes, into which corn seedlings were planted. The tubes were filled with a nutrient solution with a complete set of chemical elements necessary for seedlings. And through it, with the help of chemically inert platinum electrodes, a constant electric current of 5-7 μA / sq. was passed. see. The volume of the solution in the chambers was maintained at the same level by adding distilled water. Air, which the roots badly need, was systematically supplied (in the form of bubbles) from a special gas chamber. The composition of the nutrient solution was continuously monitored by sensors of one or another element - ion-selective electrodes. And according to the registered changes, they concluded what and in what quantity was absorbed by the roots. All other channels for the leakage of chemical elements were blocked. In parallel, a control variant worked, in which everything was absolutely the same, with the exception of one thing - no electric current was passed through the solution. And what?

Less than 3 hours have passed since the beginning of the experiment, and the difference between the control and electric options has already come to light. In the latter, the nutrients were more actively absorbed by the roots. But, perhaps, it's not the roots, but the ions, which, under the influence of an external current, began to move faster in the solution? To answer this question, in one of the experiments, the biopotentials of seedlings were measured and growth hormones were included in the "work" at a certain time. Why? Yes, because without any additional electrical stimulation they change the activity of absorption of ions by roots and the bioelectrical characteristics of plants.

At the end of the experiment, the authors made the following conclusions: “The passage of a weak electric current through the nutrient solution, in which the root system of corn seedlings is immersed, has a stimulating effect on the absorption of potassium ions and nitrate nitrogen from the nutrient solution by plants.” So, after all, electricity stimulates the activity of the root system? But how, through what mechanisms? To be completely convincing in the root effect of electricity, another experiment was set up, in which there was also a nutrient solution, there were roots, now of cucumbers, and biopotentials were also measured. And in this experiment, the work of the root system improved with electrical stimulation. However, it is still far from unraveling the ways of its action, although it is already known that the electric current has both direct and indirect effects on the plant, the degree of influence of which is determined by a number of factors.

In the meantime, research on the effectiveness of soil electrification expanded and deepened. Today, they are usually carried out in greenhouses or in the conditions of vegetation experiments. This is understandable, since this is the only way to avoid mistakes that are involuntarily made when experiments were carried out in the field, in which it is impossible to establish control over each individual factor.

Very detailed experiments with the electrification of the soil were carried out in Leningrad by the scientist V. A. Shustov. In slightly podzolic loamy soil, he added 30% humus and 10% sand, and through this mass perpendicular to the root system between two steel or carbon electrodes (the latter showed themselves better) passed an industrial frequency current with a density of 0.5 mA / sq. see Radish harvest increased by 40-50%. But a direct current of the same density reduced the collection of these root crops compared to the control. And only a decrease in its density to 0.01-0.13 mA / sq. cm caused the increase in yield to the level obtained with the use of alternating current. What is the reason?

Using labeled phosphorus, it was found that an alternating current above the indicated parameters has a beneficial effect on the absorption of this important electrical element by plants. There was also a positive effect of direct current. With its density of 0.01 mA / sq. cm, a crop was obtained approximately equal to that obtained with the use of alternating current with a density of 0.5 mA / sq. see By the way, of the four tested AC frequencies (25, 50, 100 and 200 Hz), the frequency of 50 Hz turned out to be the best. If the plants were covered with grounded screening grids, then the yield of vegetable crops was significantly reduced.

The Armenian Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture used electricity to stimulate tobacco plants. We studied a wide range of current densities transmitted in the cross section of the root layer. For alternating current, it was 0.1; 0.5; 1.0; 1.6; 2.0; 2.5; 3.2 and 4.0 a / sq. m, for permanent - 0.005; 0.01; 0.03; 0.05; 0.075; 0.1; 0.125 and 0.15 a/sq. m. As a nutrient substrate, a mixture consisting of 50% black soil, 25% humus and 25% sand was used. Current densities of 2.5 a/sq.m. turned out to be the most optimal. m for variable and 0.1 a / sq. m for a constant with a continuous supply of electricity for one and a half months. At the same time, the yield of dry mass of tobacco in the first case exceeded the control by 20%, and in the second - by 36%.

Or the tomatoes. The experimenters created a constant electric field in their root zone. Plants developed much faster than controls, especially in the budding phase. They had a larger leaf surface area, the activity of the peroxidase enzyme increased, and respiration increased. As a result, the yield increase was 52%, and this happened mainly due to an increase in the size of the fruits and their number per plant.

The direct current passed through the soil also has a beneficial effect on fruit trees. This was noticed by I. V. Michurin and successfully applied by his closest assistant I. S. Gorshkov, who devoted an entire chapter to this issue in his book “Articles on Fruit Growing” (Moscow, Ed. Sel'sk. lit., 1958). In this case, fruit trees go through the childhood (scientists say "juvenile") stage of development faster, their cold resistance and resistance to other adverse environmental factors increase, as a result, productivity increases. In order not to be unfounded, I will give a specific example. When a constant current was passed through the soil on which young coniferous and deciduous trees grew continuously during the daylight period, a number of remarkable phenomena occurred in their lives. In June-July, the experimental trees were characterized by more intense photosynthesis, which was the result of stimulating the growth of soil biological activity with electricity, increasing the speed of movement of soil ions, and better absorption by their root systems of plants. Moreover, the current flowing in the soil created a large potential difference between the plants and the atmosphere. And this, as already mentioned, is a factor in itself favorable for trees, especially young ones. In the next experiment, carried out under a film cover, with continuous transmission of direct current, the phytomass of annual seedlings of pine and larch increased by 40-42%. If this growth rate were to be maintained for several years, then it is not difficult to imagine what a huge benefit it would turn out to be.

An interesting experiment on the influence of an electric field between plants and the atmosphere was carried out by scientists from the Institute of Plant Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They found that photosynthesis goes faster, the greater the potential difference between plants and the atmosphere. So, for example, if you hold a negative electrode near the plant and gradually increase the voltage (500, 1000, 1500, 2500 V), then the intensity of photosynthesis will increase. If the potentials of the plant and the atmosphere are close, then the plant ceases to absorb carbon dioxide.

It should be noted that a lot of experiments on soil electrification have been carried out, both here and abroad. It has been established that this effect changes the movement of various types of soil moisture, promotes the reproduction of a number of substances that are difficult for plants to digest, and provokes a wide variety of chemical reactions, which in turn change the reaction of the soil solution. When the electric impact on the soil with weak currents, microorganisms develop better in it. The parameters of the electric current, which are optimal for various soils, have also been determined: from 0.02 to 0.6 mA/sq. cm for direct current and from 0.25 to 0.5 mA / sq. see for alternating current. However, in practice, the current of these parameters, even on similar soils, may not give an increase in yield. This is due to the variety of factors that arise when electricity interacts with the soil and the plants cultivated on it. In the soil belonging to the same classification category, in each specific case, there may be completely different concentrations of hydrogen, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, and other elements, there may be dissimilar aeration conditions, and, consequently, the passage of its own redox processes and etc. Finally, we should not forget about the constantly changing parameters of atmospheric electricity and terrestrial magnetism. Much also depends on the electrodes used and the method of electric exposure (constant, short-term, etc.). In short, it is necessary in each case to try and select, try and select ...

Due to these and a number of other reasons, the electrification of the soil, although it contributes to an increase in the yield of agricultural plants, and often quite significant, has not yet acquired wide practical application. Realizing this, scientists are looking for new approaches to this problem. So, it is proposed to treat the soil with an electric discharge to fix nitrogen in it - one of the main "dishes" for plants. To do this, a high-voltage low-power continuous arc discharge of alternating current is created in the soil and in the atmosphere. And where it "works", part of the atmospheric nitrogen passes into nitrate forms, which are assimilated by plants. However, this happens, of course, in a small area of ​​​​the field and is quite expensive.

More effective is another way to increase the amount of assimilable forms of nitrogen in the soil. It consists in the use of a brush electric discharge created directly in the arable layer. A brush discharge is a form of gas discharge that occurs at atmospheric pressure on a metal tip to which a high potential is applied. The magnitude of the potential depends on the position of the other electrode and on the radius of curvature of the tip. But in any case, it should be measured in ten kilovolts. Then, at the tip of the point, a brush-like beam of intermittent and rapidly mixing electrical sparks appears. Such a discharge causes the formation of a large number of channels in the soil, into which a significant amount of energy passes and, as laboratory and field experiments have shown, it contributes to an increase in the forms of nitrogen absorbed by plants in the soil and, as a result, an increase in yield.

Even more effective is the use of the electro-hydraulic effect in tillage, which consists in creating an electric discharge (electric lightning) in water. If a portion of soil is placed in a vessel with water and an electric discharge is made in this vessel, then soil particles will be crushed, releasing a large amount of elements necessary for plants and binding atmospheric nitrogen. This effect of electricity on the properties of the soil and on water has a very beneficial effect on the growth of plants and their productivity. Considering the great prospect of this method of electrifying the soil, I will try to talk about it in more detail in a separate article.

Another way of electrifying the soil is very curious - without an external current source. This direction is being developed by Kirovohrad researcher IP Ivanko. He considers soil moisture as a kind of electrolyte, which is under the influence of the Earth's electromagnetic field. At the metal-electrolyte interface, in this case, a metal-soil solution, a galvanic-electric effect occurs. In particular, when a steel wire is in the soil, cathode and anode zones are formed on its surface as a result of redox reactions, and the metal gradually dissolves. As a result, a potential difference arises at the interphase boundaries, reaching 40-50 mV. It is also formed between two wires laid in the soil. If the wires are, for example, at a distance of 4 m, then the potential difference is 20-40 mV, but it varies greatly depending on the moisture and temperature of the soil, its mechanical composition, the amount of fertilizer and other factors.

The author called the electromotive force between two wires in the soil "agro-EMF", he managed not only to measure it, but also to explain the general patterns by which it is formed. It is characteristic that at certain periods, as a rule, when the phases of the moon change and the weather changes, the galvanometer needle, with which the current that occurs between the wires is measured, changes position sharply - the changes accompanying such phenomena in the state of the Earth's electromagnetic field, which are transmitted to the soil "electrolyte" .

Based on these ideas, the author proposed to create electrolyzable agronomic fields. For this purpose, a special tractor unit distributes a steel wire with a diameter of 2.5 mm coiled from a drum along the bottom of the slot to a depth of 37 cm. soil surface. After 12 m across the width of the field, the operation is repeated. Note that the wire placed in this way does not interfere with conventional agricultural work. Well, if necessary, steel wires can be easily removed from the soil using the unwinding and winding unit for measuring wire.

Experiments have established that with this method, an "agro-emf" of 23-35 mV is induced on the electrodes. Since the electrodes have different polarities, a closed electrical circuit arises between them through moist soil, through which a direct current flows with a density of 4 to 6 μA / sq. see anode. Passing through the soil solution as through an electrolyte, this current supports the processes of electrophoresis and electrolysis in the fertile layer, due to which the soil chemicals necessary for plants pass from hard-to-digest to easily digestible forms. In addition, under the influence of electric current, all plant residues, weed seeds, dead animal organisms humify faster, which leads to an increase in soil fertility.

As can be seen, in this variant, the electrization of the soil occurs without an artificial source of energy, only as a result of the action of the electromagnetic forces of our planet.

Meanwhile, due to this “gratuitous” energy, a very high increase in grain yield was obtained in experiments - up to 7 centners per hectare. Considering the simplicity, accessibility and good efficiency of the proposed electrification technology, amateur gardeners who are interested in this technology can read about it in more detail in the article by I.P. 7 for 1985. When introducing this technology, the author advises to place the wires in the direction from north to south, and the agricultural plants cultivated above them from west to east.

With this article, I tried to interest amateur gardeners in the use of various plants in the process of cultivating, in addition to the well-known technologies for soil care, electrical technology. The relative simplicity of most methods of soil electrification, accessible to persons who have received knowledge in physics, even in the scope of the secondary school program, makes it possible to use and test them in almost every garden plot when growing vegetables, fruits and berries, flower-decorative, medicinal and other plants. I also experimented with electrifying the soil with direct current in the 60s of the last century when growing seedlings and seedlings of fruit and berry crops. In most experiments, growth stimulation was observed, sometimes very significant, especially when growing cherry and plum seedlings. So, dear amateur gardeners, try to test some way of electrifying the soil in the coming season on any crop. What if everything works out well for you, and all this may turn out to be one of the gold mines?

V. N. Shalamov

Our Earth and other planets have both magnetic and electric fields. The fact that the Earth has an electric field was known about 150 years ago. The electric charge of the planets in the solar system is created by the Sun due to the effects of electrostatic induction and ionization of the matter of the planets. The magnetic field is formed due to the axial rotation of the charged planets. The average magnetic field of the Earth and planets depends on the average surface density of the negative electric charge, the angular velocity of the axial rotation and the radius of the planet. Therefore, the Earth (and other planets), by analogy with the passage of light through a lens, should be considered as an electric lens, and not a source of an electric field.

This means that the Earth is connected with the Sun with the help of an electrical force, the Sun itself is connected with the center of the Galaxy with the help of a magnetic force, and the center of the Galaxy is connected with the central cluster of galaxies with the help of an electric force.

Our planet is electrically like a spherical capacitor charged to about 300,000 volts. The inner sphere - the surface of the Earth - is negatively charged, the outer sphere - the ionosphere - is positively charged. Earth's atmosphere serves as an insulator.

Ionic and convective capacitor leakage currents constantly flow through the atmosphere, which reach many thousands of amperes. But, despite this, the potential difference between the capacitor plates does not decrease.

This means that in nature there is a generator (G), which constantly replenishes the leakage of charges from the capacitor plates. Such a generator is the Earth's magnetic field, which rotates together with our planet in the flow of the solar wind.

As in any charged capacitor, there is an electric field in the earth's capacitor. The intensity of this field is distributed very unevenly along the height: it is maximum at the Earth's surface and is approximately 150 V/m. With height, it decreases approximately according to the exponential law and at a height of 10 km is about 3% of the value at the Earth's surface.

Thus, almost the entire electric field is concentrated in the lower layer of the atmosphere, near the surface of the Earth. The Earth's electric field strength vector E is generally directed downward. The electric field of the Earth, like any electric field, acts on charges with a certain force F, which pushes positive charges down to the ground, and negative charges up into the clouds.

All this can be seen in natural phenomena. Hurricanes, tropical storms and many cyclones constantly rage on Earth. For example, the rise of air during a hurricane occurs mainly due to the difference in air density at the periphery of the hurricane and in its center - the thermal tower, but not only. Part of the lifting force (about one third) is provided by the Earth's electric field, according to Coulomb's law.

The ocean during a storm is a huge field strewn with points and ribs, on which negative charges and the intensity of the Earth's electric field are concentrated. Evaporating water molecules under such conditions easily capture negative charges and carry them away with them. And the Earth's electric field, in full accordance with Coulomb's law, moves these charges upward, adding lift to the air.

Thus, the global electrical generator of the Earth spends part of its power on strengthening atmospheric vortices on the planet - hurricanes, storms, cyclones, etc. In addition, such power consumption does not affect the magnitude of the Earth's electric field in any way.

The electric field of the Earth is subject to fluctuations: it is stronger in winter than in summer, it reaches a maximum daily at 19 hours GMT, and also depends on the state of the weather. But these fluctuations do not exceed 30% of its average value. In some rare cases, under certain weather conditions, the strength of this field can increase several times.

During a thunderstorm, the electric field varies widely and can reverse direction, but this occurs over a small area, directly below the thunderstorm cell, and for a short time.

Stanislav Nikolaevich Slavin

Starting this work with quotes from Vladimir Soloukhin's book "Grass", your obedient servant pursued at least two goals. Firstly, to hide behind the opinion of a famous prose writer: "They say, I'm not the only one like that, an amateur, I'm not taking on my own business." Secondly, once again to remind about the existence of a good book, the author of which, in my opinion, still did not finish the job. Perhaps, however, through no fault of their own.

According to rumors that have come down to me, the publication in 1972 of certain chapters of this book in the magazine Science and Life, revered by many, caused such a scandal in certain circles on Staraya Square that the editors were forced to stop publishing. The judgments expressed by Soloukhin about plants did not really fit in with the generally accepted Michurin doctrine at that time, the main thesis of which people of the older and middle generation probably remember to this day: "There is nothing to expect favors from nature ..."

Now, it seems, willy-nilly, we are forced to turn our faces back to nature, to realize that man is not at all the navel of the Earth, the king of nature, but only one and.) of her creations. And if he wants to survive, to coexist with nature and further, then he must learn to understand its language, to comply with its laws.

And here it turns out that we do not know very, very much about the life of animals, birds, insects, even plants that exist next to us. There is much more intelligence in nature than we are accustomed to believe. Everything is so closely interconnected with everything that sometimes it is worth thinking seven times before taking a single step.

The consciousness of this slowly matured in me, but it seems that I would have been going to sit down at the typewriter for a long time if amazing things had not begun to happen around me. Then a message caught my eye that the old, already a quarter of a century old, experiments of Indian scientists who established that plants perceive music, received an unexpected commercial continuation today: now pineapples are grown on plantations to music, and this actually improves the taste and quality of fruits . Then suddenly, one after another, books began to appear, about which our general reader knows only by hearsay, and even then not everyone. What, for example, have you heard about Maeterlinck's The Mind of Flowers or Tompkins and Byrd's The Secret Life of Plants?...

But, as they say, one of my acquaintances finished me off. A completely positive person, a candidate of agricultural sciences, and suddenly, as if it were quite ordinary, he tells me that every spring he calculates the position of the stars according to the astrological calendar in order to guess exactly on which day to plant potatoes on his plot.

Well, how does it help? I asked with a certain degree of malice.

Do you want to believe. like it or not, but the harvest, all other things being equal, compliance with the rules of agricultural technology, timely watering, etc., is 10-15 percent higher than that of the neighbors.

“Well, since the farmers believe that plants, like people, look at the stars,” I said to myself, “then you, it’s true, God himself ordered to publish everything that has accumulated over the past years on this interesting, although far from to the end of the clarified problem. Lay out what you have accumulated, and then let the reader figure out what's what ... "

Where does the harvest begin? To begin with, my interlocutor offered to conduct a small experiment. He took a handful of seeds and scattered them on a metal plate.

This will be our negative grounded capacitor plate, he explained. - Now we bring the same plate closer to it, but positively charged ...

And I saw a small miracle: the seeds, as if on command, rose and froze, like soldiers in the ranks.

There is a similar capacitor in nature, - continued my interlocutor. Its lower lining is the earth's surface, the upper one is the ionosphere, a layer of positively charged particles located at an altitude of about 100 kilometers. The influence of the electromagnetic field created by it on the living organisms of the Earth is very complex and diverse ...

Thus began our conversation with the head of one of the laboratories of the Institute of Agricultural Engineers, then a candidate, and now, as I heard, a doctor of technical sciences, V.I. Tarushkin.

Vladimir Ivanovich and his colleagues are engaged in dielectric separators. What is a separator you, of course, know. This is a device that separates, for example, cream from skim milk.

In crop production, separators separate the husks from the grains, and the grains themselves are sorted by weight, size, etc. But what about electricity? And here's the thing.

Recall the experience described at the beginning. It is no coincidence that the seeds obey the commands of the electric field in the capacitor. Every grain is a seed of wheat; rye, another field, garden crop is like a tiny magnet.

The work, the principle of operation of our separators, is based on this property of seeds, - Vladimir Ivanovich continued the story. - Inside each of them there is a drum on which the winding is laid - layers of electrical wires. And when a voltage is connected to the wire, an electromagnetic field is formed around the drum.

Seeds are poured onto the drum from the bunker in a stream. They pour and, under the action of an electric field, seem to stick, magnetize to the surface of the drum. Yes, so strong that they remain on the drum even when it rotates.

The most electrified and light seeds are brushed off. Other seeds, heavier ones, themselves come off the surface of the drum as soon as the part of it to which they stuck is below ...

Thus, the seeds are divided into separate species, fractions. Moreover, this division depends on the strength of the applied electric field and can be adjusted at the request of a person. In this way, it is possible to adjust the electric separator to separate, say, "live", germinating seeds from non-germinating ones, and even increase the germinating energy of the embryos.

What does it give? As practice has shown, such sorting before sowing provides an increase in yield by 15-20 percent. And seeds that do not germinate can be used for livestock feed or for grinding for bread.

Dielectric separators are of great help in the fight against weeds, which are very well adapted to living together with useful plants. For example, a tiny grain of dodder is indistinguishable from a carrot seed, and ambrosia skillfully disguises itself as a radish. However, the electric field easily distinguishes a fake, separates a useful plant from a harmful one.

New machines can even work with seeds that are not suitable for other methods of technical sorting, - said Tarushkin in parting. - Not so long ago, for example, they sent us the smallest seeds, two thousand pieces of which weigh only one gram. Previously, they were sorted by hand, but our separators coped with sorting without much difficulty.

And what has been done is, in fact, just the beginning...

The influence of the Earth's natural capacitor - electromagnetic fields affects not only seeds, but also sprouts.

Day after day, they pull their stems up into the positively charged ionosphere, and their roots burrow deeper into the negatively charged earth. Molecules of nutrients, having turned into cations and anions in plant juices, obeying the laws of electrolytic dissociation, go in opposite directions: some down to the roots, others up to the leaves. A stream of negative ions flows from the top of the plant to the ionosphere. Plants neutralize atmospheric charges and thus accumulate them.

A few years ago, Doctor of Biological Sciences Z.I. Zhurbitsky and inventor I.A. Ostryakov set themselves the task of finding out how electricity affects one of the main processes in plant life, photosynthesis. For this purpose, for example, they set up such experiments. They charged the air with electricity and passed the air flow under a glass cap where the plants stood. It turned out that in such air the processes of absorption of carbon dioxide are accelerated by 2-3 times.

The plants themselves were subjected to electrification. Moreover, those who have been under a negative electric field, as it turned out, grow faster than usual. For a month they overtake their counterparts by several centimeters.

Moreover, accelerated development continues even after the removal of the potential.

The accumulated facts make it possible to draw some conclusions, Igor Alekseevich Ostryakov told me. - By creating a positive field around the above-ground part of the plant, we improve photosynthesis, the plant will accumulate green mass more intensively. Negative ions have a beneficial effect on the development of the root system.

Thus, among other things, it becomes possible to selectively influence plants in the process of their growth and development, depending on what exactly - "tops" or "roots *" we need ...

As a specialist who worked at that time in the Soyuzvodproekt production association, Ostryakov was also interested in electric fields from this point of view. Nutrients from the soil can penetrate into plants only in the form of aqueous solutions. It would seem, what difference does it make for a plant where to get moisture from - from a rain cloud or from a sprinkler? No, the experiments have irrefutably shown that rain that has passed in time is much more effective than timely watering.

Scientists began to understand how a raindrop differs from a tap. And they found out: in a thundercloud, droplets acquire an electric charge when rubbing against air. Mostly positive, sometimes negative. It is this charge of the drop that serves as an additional plant growth stimulator. The tap water has no such charge.

Moreover, in order for the water vapor in the cloud to turn into a drop, it needs a condensation core - some insignificant speck of dust raised by the wind from the surface of the earth. Around it, water molecules begin to accumulate, turning from vapor into liquid. Studies have shown that such dust particles very often contain the smallest grains of copper, molybdenum, gold and other trace elements that have a beneficial effect on plants.

"Well, if that's the case, why couldn't the artificial rain be made into a semblance of natural rain?" Ostryakov reasoned.

And he achieved his goal by obtaining an author's certificate for an electrohydroaeronizer - a device that creates electric charges on water droplets. In essence, this device is an electric inductor, which is installed on the sprinkler pipe of the sprinkler system behind the drop formation zone in such a way that not a jet of water, but a swarm of individual drops, flies through its frame.

A dispenser was also designed that allows adding microelements to the water flow. It's set up like this. A piece of pipe made of electrically insulating material cuts into the hose that supplies water to the sprinkler. And in the pipe there are molybdenum, copper, zinc electrodes ... In a word, from the material which microelement is needed for feeding. When current is applied, ions begin to move from one electrode to another. At the same time, some of them are washed off with water and enter the soil. The number of ions can be adjusted by changing the voltage on the electrodes.

If it is necessary to saturate the soil with trace elements of boron, iodine and other substances that do not conduct electric current, another type of dispenser comes into action. A cube of concrete is lowered into a pipe with running water, divided inside into compartments, in which the necessary microelements are placed. The compartment covers serve as electrodes. When voltage is applied to them, trace elements pass through the pores in the concrete and are carried away by water into the soil.

Potato detector. In the hassle and worries imperceptibly passed the summer. It's time to harvest. But even a person cannot always distinguish a potato covered with wet autumn soil from the same black clod of earth. What can we say about potato harvesters rowing everything from the field?

And if you sort immediately on the field? A lot of engineers broke their heads over this problem. What kind of detectors have not been tried mechanical, television, ultrasonic ... They even tried to put a gamma installation on the combine. Gamma rays pierced through the earthy clods and tubers, like an x-ray, and the receiver standing opposite the sensor determined "what is what."

But gamma rays are harmful to human health, special precautions must be taken when working with them. In addition, as it turned out, for error-free detection, it is necessary that all tubers and clods be approximately the same diameter. Therefore, the specialists of the Ryazan Radio Engineering Institute - the senior lecturer A.D. Kasatkin and the then graduate student, and now the engineer Sergey Reshetnikov - took a different path.

They looked at the potato tuber from the point of view of physics. It is known that the capacitance of a capacitor depends on the permeability of the material placed between its plates. As the permittivity changes, so does the capacitance. This physical principle was the basis of detection, since the experiment revealed:

the dielectric constant of a potato tuber is much different from the dielectric constant of an earthen clod.

But finding the right physical principle is just the beginning. It was also necessary to find out at what frequencies the detector would operate in the optimal mode, develop a schematic diagram of the device, check the correctness of the idea on a laboratory layout ...

It turned out to be very difficult to create a sensitive capacitive sensor, Sergei Reshetnikov said. - We went through several options and eventually settled on this design. The sensor consists of two spring plates located relative to each other at a certain angle. Potatoes mixed with clods of earth fall into this peculiar funnel. As soon as a potato or lump touches the capacitor plates, the control system generates a signal, the value of which depends on the dielectric constant of the object inside the sensor. The executive body - the damper - deviates in one direction or another, sorting ...

The work at one time was awarded an award at the All-Union Review of the Scientific and Technical Society of Students. However, something is not yet visible in potato harvesters equipped with such sensors. But they are made in the same place, in Ryazan ...

However, we will leave the complaints about Russian sluggishness until another time. The current conversation is about the secrets of plants. We'll talk about them further.

Plants in a chest. A visitor could easily get lost in 18th-century Paris. There were practically no street names, only a few houses had their own names carved on the gables... It was even easier to get lost in the science of that time. The phlogiston theory was a stumbling block in the way of the development of chemistry and physics. Medicine did not know even such a simple device as a stethoscope; if the doctor listened to the patient, he did this by putting his ear to his chest. In biology, all living organisms were simply called fish, animals, trees, herbs...

Nevertheless, science has already made a huge step in comparison with past centuries: scientists in their research have ceased to be content with only conclusions, they have begun to take into account experimental data. It was the experiment that served as the basis for the discovery that I want to tell you about.

Jean-Jacques de Mairan was an astronomer. But, as befits a true scientist, he was also an observant person. And therefore, in the summer of 1729, he drew attention to the behavior of the heliotrope, a houseplant that stood in his office. As it turned out, the heliotrope has a special sensitivity to light; he not only turned his leaves after the daylight, but with the sunset his leaves drooped, fell. The plant, as it were, fell asleep until the next morning, in order to spread its leaves only with the first sunbeam. But the most interesting thing is not that. De Maran noticed that the heliotrope does its "gymnastics" even when the windows of the room are drawn with thick curtains. The scientist set up a special experiment, locking the plant in the basement, and made sure that the heliotrope continues to fall asleep and wake up at a strictly defined time, even in complete darkness.

De Maran told his friends about the remarkable phenomenon and ... did not continue the experiments further. After all, he was an astronomer, and researching the nature of the aurora bore him more than the strange behavior of a houseplant.

However, the seed of curiosity had already been thrown into the soil of scientific curiosity. Sooner or later it had to germinate. Indeed, 30 years later, in the same place, in Paris, a man appeared who confirmed de Maran's discovery and continued his experiments.

The man's name was Henry-Louis Duhamel. His scientific interests lay in the fields of medicine and agriculture. And therefore, having learned about the experiments of de Maran, he became interested in them much more than the author himself.

To begin with, Duhamel reproduced de Marant's experiments with the greatest possible care. To do this, he took some heliotropes, found an old wine cellar, the entrance to which led through another dark cellar, and left the plants there. Moreover, he even locked some heliotropes in a large, leather-lined chest and covered them with several blankets on top to stabilize the temperature ... All was in vain: the heliotropes maintained their rhythm in this case too. And Duhamel wrote with a clear conscience: "These experiments allow us to conclude that the movement of plant leaves does not depend on either light or heat ..."

Then from what? Duhamel could not answer this question. Hundreds of other researchers from many countries of the world did not answer it, although their ranks included Carl Linnaeus, Charles Darwin, and many other leading natural scientists.

Only in the second half of the 20th century, thousands of accumulated facts finally made it possible to come to the conclusion: all life on Earth, even single-celled microbes and algae, has its own biological clock!

These clocks are set in motion by the change of day and night, daily fluctuations in temperature and pressure, changes in the magnetic field, and other factors.

Sometimes one ray of light is enough for the "hands" of the biological clock to be transferred to a certain position and then go on their own, without going astray for quite a long time.

But how is the clock of a living cell arranged?

What is the basis of their "mechanism"?

"Chronos" Eret. To find out the principle underlying the action of living clocks, the American biologist Charles Ehret tried to imagine their possible form. “Of course, a mechanical alarm clock with arrows and gears,” Ehret reasoned, “is pointless to look for inside a living cell. But people don’t always recognize and recognize time with the help of mechanical watches? ..”

The researcher began to collect information about all time meters ever used by mankind. He studied solar and water clocks, sand and atomic clocks... In his collection there was even a place for clocks in which time was determined by specks of white mold that grew over a certain time on a pink nutrient broth.

Of course, such an approach could take Eret infinitely far from his goal. But he was lucky. Once Eret drew attention to the clock of King Alfred, who lived in the 9th century. Judging by the description made by one of the king's contemporaries, this watch consisted of two spirally intertwined pieces of rope soaked in a mixture of beeswax and candle tallow. When set on fire, the pieces burned at a constant rate of three inches an hour, so that by measuring the length of the remainder, one could determine quite accurately how much time had elapsed since such clocks were started.

Double helix... There is something surprisingly familiar in this image! Eret strained his memory not in vain. He finally remembered: "Well, of course! The DNA molecule has the shape of a double helix ..."

However, what followed from that? Does the commonality of the form determine the commonness of the essence? A spiral of ropes burns out in a few hours, while the DNA spiral continues to copy itself throughout the life of the cell...

And yet, Eret ns brushed aside the random thought. He began to look for a living mechanism on which he could test his assumptions. In the end, he chose the infusorian shoe - the smallest and simplest cell of animal origin, in which biorhythms were found. "Usually ciliates in the daytime behave more actively than at night. If I succeed, by acting on the DNA molecule, to move the hands of the biological clock of the ciliates, it can be considered proven that the DNA molecule is also used as a bioclock mechanism ..."

Having reasoned in this way, Eret used as a tool that translated the arrows, light launches with different wavelengths: ultraviolet, blue, red ... Ultraviolet radiation was especially effective - after the irradiation session, the rhythm of life of the ciliates changed noticeably.

Thus, it could be considered proven: the DNA molecule is used as an internal clock mechanism. But how does the mechanism work? In response to this question, Eret developed a most complex theory, the essence of which boils down to this.

The basis of the time reference is very long (up to 1 m long!) DNA molecules, which the American scientist called "chronons". In the normal state, these molecules are coiled into a tight spiral, taking up very little space. In those places where the strands of the helix diverge slightly, messenger RNA is built, which eventually reaches the full length of a single strand of DNA. At the same time, a number of interrelated reactions take place, the ratio of the rates of which can be considered as the work of the "mechanism" of the clock. Such, as Ehret says, is the skeleton of the process, "in which all details that are not absolutely necessary are omitted."

Pulsating tubes. Please note that the American scientist considers chemical reactions to be the basis of the cycle, its foundation. But what exactly?

To answer this question, let's move from the year 1967, when Eret conducted his research, to another ten years ago. And let's look into the laboratory of the Soviet scientist B.P. Belousov. On his desktop one could see a tripod with ordinary laboratory test tubes. But their content was special. The liquid in the test tubes periodically changed color.

Just now it was red and now it turned blue, then blushed again ...

Belousov reported on a new type of pulsating chemical reactions discovered by him at one of the symposiums of biochemists. The report was listened to with interest, but no one paid attention to the fact that the initial components in cyclic reactions were organic substances, very similar in composition to the substances of a living cell.

Only two decades later, after the death of Belousov, his work was appreciated by another Russian scientist A.M. Zhabotinsky.

He, together with his colleagues, developed a detailed recipe for reactions of this class and in 1970 reported on the main results of his research at one of the international congresses.

Further, in the early 1970s, the work of Soviet scientists was subjected to a thorough analysis by foreign experts. Thus, the Americans R. Field, E. Koros and R. Knowes found that among the many factors that determine the mode of interaction of substances in pulsating reactions, three main ones can be distinguished: hydrobromic acid concentration, bromide ion concentration and oxidation of metal ions of the catalyst. All three factors were combined into a new concept, which American biologists called the Oregon oscillator, or orsgonator, after their place of work. It is the oregonator that many scientists consider responsible both for the existence of the entire periodic cycle as a whole, and for its intensity, the rate of process oscillations and other parameters.

Indian scientists, who worked under the guidance of A. Winfrey, after some time found that the processes occurring during such reactions are very similar to the processes in nerve cells. Moreover, the same R. Field, in collaboration with the mathematician V. Tray, managed to mathematically prove the similarity of the oregonator processes and the phenomena occurring in the recently discovered nerve membrane. Regardless of them, our compatriots F.V. Gulko and A.A. Petrov obtained similar results using a combined analog-digital computer.

But after all, such a nerve membrane is a shell of a nerve cell. And in the membrane there are "channels" - very large protein molecules that are quite similar to the DNA molecules that are in the nucleus of the same cell. And if the processes in the membrane have a biochemical basis - and this has been established quite confidently today - then why should the processes occurring in the nucleus have any other basis?

Thus, as if the chemical basis of biorhythms begins to be drawn quite clearly. Today there is no doubt that the material basis of biological clocks, their "gears" are biochemical processes. But in what order does one "gear" cling to another? How exactly does the chain of biochemical processes proceed in all their completeness and complexity? .. This remains to be thoroughly understood - this is how one of the leading specialists in our country in this field, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Biomedical Problems B, commented in a conversation with me on the state of affairs in biorhythmology .S.Alyakrinsky.

And although in the chemistry of biorhythmology there is indeed still a lot of obscurity, the first experiments on the practical use of such chemical clocks have already been carried out. So, say, a few years ago, chemical engineer E.N. Moskalyanova, while studying chemical reactions in solutions that contain one of the amino acids necessary for a person - tryptophan, discovered another type of pulsating reactions: the liquid changed its color depending on the time of day.

The reaction with dye additives proceeds most intensively at a temperature of about 36°C. When heated above 40 °, the colors begin to fade, the tryptophan molecules are destroyed. The reaction also stops when the solution is cooled to 0°C. In a word, a direct analogy arises with the temperature regime of the chemical clock of our body.

Moskalyanova herself conducted more than 16 thousand experiments. Test tubes with solutions were sent by her for testing to many scientific institutions of the country. And now, when a huge amount of factual material has been collected, it has become clear: indeed, solutions containing tryptophan and xanthhydrol dye are capable of changing their color over time. Thus, in principle, it became possible to create a completely new watch that does not need either hands or a mechanism ...

Living batteries. "Everyone knows how popularizers like to emphasize the role of chance in the history of great discoveries. Columbus sailed to explore the western sea route to India and, imagine, quite by accident ... Newton is sitting in his garden, and suddenly an apple falls by chance ..."

So they write in their book, the title of which is placed in the title of this chapter, S.G. Galaktionov and V.M. Yurin. And they further argue that the history of the discovery of electricity in living organisms is no exception. Many works emphasize that it was discovered quite by accident: Luigi Galvani, an anatomy professor at the University of Bologna, touched the cold railing of the balcony with the prepared frog muscle and found that it was twitching. Why?

The curious professor scratched his head a lot trying to answer this question, until he finally came to the conclusion that the muscle contracted because a small electric current was spontaneously induced in the railing. It is he, like a nerve impulse, that gives the command to the muscle to contract.

And it was truly a brilliant discovery. After all, do not forget: it was only 1786 in the yard, and only a couple of decades had passed after Gausen expressed his guess that the principle acting in the nerve was electricity. Yes, and electricity itself remained for many still a mystery with seven seals.

In the meantime, a start has been made.

And since the time of Galvani, so-called damage currents have become known to electrophysiologists. If, for example, a muscle preparation is cut across the fibers and the electrodes of a galvanometer, a device for measuring weak currents and voltages, are brought to the cut and to the longitudinal undamaged surface, then it will record a potential difference of about 0.1 volts. By analogy, they began to measure the damage currents in plants. Sections of leaves, stems, and fruits were always negatively charged with respect to normal tissue.

An interesting experiment in this area was carried out in 1912 by Beitner and Loeb. They cut an ordinary apple in half and took out the core from it. When, instead of the core, an electrode was placed inside the apple, and the second was attached to the peel, the galvanometer again showed the presence of voltage - the apple worked like a living battery.

Subsequently, it turned out that a certain potential difference was also found between different parts of an undamaged plant. So, say, the central vein of a leaf of chestnut, tobacco, pumpkin and some other crops has a positive potential in relation to the green flesh of the leaf.

Then, after the currents of destruction, it was the turn of the opening of the currents of action. The classic way to demonstrate them was found by the same Galvani.

Two neuromuscular preparations of a long-suffering frog are stacked so that the nerve of the other lies on the muscle tissue of one. By stimulating the first muscle with cold, electricity, or some chemical substance, you can see how the second muscle begins to contract distinctly.

Of course, they tried to find something similar in plants. Indeed, currents of action were discovered in experiments with petioles of mimosa leaves, a plant known to be capable of performing mechanical movements under the influence of external stimuli. Moreover, the most interesting results were obtained by Burdon-Sanders, who studied the action currents in the closing leaves of an insectivorous plant - the Venus flytrap. It turned out that at the moment of folding the leaf, exactly the same currents of action are formed in its tissues as in the muscle.

And finally, it turned out that the electrical potentials in plants can increase sharply at certain points in time, say, when certain tissues die. When the Indian researcher Bose connected the outer and inner parts of a green pea and heated it to 60 ° C, the galvanometer registered an electric potential of 0.5 volts.

Bos himself commented on this fact with the following consideration: “If 500 pairs of halves of peas are collected in a certain order in a series, then the final electrical voltage can be 500 volts, which is quite enough to kill an unsuspecting victim in the electric chair. It’s good that the cook doesn’t know about the danger that threatens him when he prepares this special dish, and, fortunately for him, the peas do not join in an ordered series.

The battery is a cell. Understandably, the researchers were interested in the question of what is the minimum size of a living battery. For this, some began to scrape out more and more cavities inside the apple, others - to crumble peas into ever smaller pieces, until it became clear: in order to get to the end of this "crushing ladder", it would be necessary to conduct research at the cellular level.

The cell membrane resembles a kind of shell, consisting of cellulose.

Its molecules, which are long polymer chains, fold into bundles, forming filamentous strands - micelles. Micelles, in turn, form fibrous structures - fibrils. And from their interlacing, the basis of the cell membrane is formed.

Free cavities between fibrils can be partially or completely filled with lignin, amylopectin, hemicellulose, and some other substances. In other words, as the German chemist Freudsnberg once put it, "the cell membrane resembles reinforced concrete", in which micellar strands play the role of reinforcement, and lignin and other fillers are a kind of concrete.

However, there are significant differences here as well. "Concrete" fills only part of the voids between the fibrils. The rest of the space is filled with the "living substance" of the cell - the protoplast. Its mucous substance - protoplasm - contains small and complexly organized inclusions responsible for the most important processes of life. For example, chloroplasts are responsible for photosynthesis, mitochondria are responsible for respiration, and the nucleus is responsible for division and reproduction. Moreover, usually a layer of protoplasm with all these inclusions is adjacent to the cell wall, and inside the protoplast, a vacuole, a drop of an aqueous solution of various salts and organic substances, occupies a larger or smaller volume. And sometimes there can be several vacuoles in a cell.

Different parts of the cell are separated from each other by the thinnest films of membranes. The thickness of each membrane is only a few molecules, but it should be noted that these molecules are quite large, and therefore the thickness of the membrane can reach 75-100 angstroms. (The value seems to be really large; however, let's not forget that the angstrom itself is only 10 "cm.)

However, one way or another, three molecular layers can be distinguished in the structure of the membrane: two outer ones are formed by protein molecules and an inner one, consisting of a fat-like substance - lipids. This layering gives the membrane selectivity; To put it very simply, different substances seep through the membrane at different speeds. And this makes it possible for the cell to choose from the environmental harm the most necessary substances for it, to accumulate them inside.

Yes, there are substances! As shown, for example, by experiments conducted in one of the laboratories of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology under the guidance of Professor E.M. Trukhan, membranes are capable of separating even electric charges. They allow, say, electrons to pass to one side, while protons cannot penetrate the membrane.

How complex and subtle the work that scientists have to do can be judged by this fact. Although we said that the membrane consists of rather large molecules, its thickness, as a rule, does not exceed 10 "cm, one millionth of a centimeter. And it cannot be made thicker otherwise the efficiency of charge separation drops sharply.

And one more difficulty. In an ordinary green leaf, chloroplasts, fragments containing chlorophyll, are also responsible for the transfer of electric charges. And these substances are unstable, quickly becoming unusable.

Green leaves in nature live on the strength of 3-4 months, - one of the laboratory staff, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences V.B. Kireev, told me. - Of course, it is pointless to create on this basis an industrial plant that would generate electricity according to the green leaf patent. Therefore, it is necessary either to find ways to make natural substances more resistant and durable, or, preferably, to find synthetic substitutes for them. We are currently working on this...

And recently the first success has come: artificial analogues of natural membranes have been created. The base was zinc oxide. That is, the most ordinary, well-known whitewash ...

Gold miners. Explaining the origin of electrical potentials in plants, one cannot stop only at stating the fact: "Plant electricity" is the result of an uneven (even if very uneven!) Distribution of ions between different parts of the cell and the environment. The question immediately arises: "Why does such unevenness arise?"

It is known, for example, that for a potential difference of 0.15 volts to occur between an algae cell and the water in which it lives, it is necessary that the concentration of potassium in the vacuole be about 1000 times higher than in the "outboard" water. But the process of diffusion is also known to science, that is, the spontaneous desire of any substance to be evenly distributed over the entire available volume. Why doesn't this happen in plants?

In search of an answer to this question, we will have to touch upon one of the central problems in modern biophysics - the problem of active transport of ions through biological membranes.

Let's start again by listing some well-known facts. Almost always, the content of certain salts in the plant itself is higher than in the soil or (in the case of algae) in the environment. For example, the nitella algae is able to accumulate potassium at concentrations thousands of times higher than in nature.

Moreover, many plants accumulate not only potassium. It turned out, for example, that in the alga Kadophora fracta, the content of zinc was 6000, cadmium - 16,000, cesium - 35,000 and yttrium - almost 120,000 times higher than in nature.

This fact, by the way, led some researchers to the idea of ​​a new method of gold mining. Here is how, for example, Gr. Adamov in his book "The Secret of Two Oceans" - a once-popular fantasy adventure novel written in 1939.

The newest submarine "Pioneer" is crossing two oceans, stopping from time to time for purely scientific purposes. During one stop, a group of explorers walk along the seabed. And so...

“Suddenly, the zoologist stopped, released Pavlik’s hand and, running aside, picked up something from the bottom. Pavlik saw that the scientist was examining a large black intricately curled shell, thrusting the metal finger of the suit between its flaps.

How heavy ... - the zoologist muttered. - Like a piece of iron... How strange...

What is it, Arsen Davidovich?

Pavlik! the zoologist suddenly exclaimed, with an effort opening the doors and intently examining the gelatinous body enclosed between them. - Pavlik, this is a new species of the laminabranchial class. Completely unknown to science...

Interest in the mysterious mollusk inflamed even more when the zoologist announced that, while studying the structure of the body and the chemical composition, he found a huge amount of dissolved gold in his blood, due to which the weight of the mollusk turned out to be unusual.

In this case, the science fiction writer did not invent anything special. Indeed, the idea of ​​using various living organisms to extract gold from sea water at some point owned many minds. Legends spread about corals and shells accumulating gold by almost tons.

These legends were based, however, on actual facts. Back in 1895, Leversidge, after analyzing the gold content in seaweed ash, found that it was quite high - 1 g per 1 ton of ash. On the eve of the First World War, several projects were proposed to establish underwater plantations on which "gold-bearing" algae would be grown. None of them, however, was carried out.

Realizing that it is quite expensive to carry out any work in the oceans, botanists of gold diggers spread to land. In the 1930s, a group of professor B. Nemets in Czechoslovakia carried out research on the ashes of various varieties of corn. So, the results of the analysis showed that the Indians do not in vain consider this plant to be golden - there was quite a lot of noble metal in its ashes: again, 1 g per 1 ton of ash.

However, its content in the ashes of pine cones was even greater, up to 11 g per 1 ton of ash.

Cell robots. However, the "gold rush" soon subsided, since no one managed to either force the plants to accumulate gold in a higher concentration, or develop a cheap enough way to extract it even from the ashes. But plants continue to be used as a kind of indicators in geological exploration. Even today, geologists sometimes focus on certain types of plants. It is known, for example, that some species of quinoa grow only on soils rich in salt. And geologists use this circumstance to explore both salt deposits and oil reserves, often occurring under salt layers. A similar phytogeochemical method is used to search for deposits of cobalt, sulfides, uranium ores, nickel, cobalt, chromium and ... all the same gold.

And here, apparently, it's time to remember those membrane pumps that our famous scientist S.M. Martirosov once called the biorobots of the cell. It is thanks to them that certain substances are selectively pumped through the membrane.

Those who are seriously interested in the principles of operation of membrane pumps, I refer directly to Martirosov's book "Bionopumps - cell robots?", where many subtleties are set out in 140 pages in sufficient detail, with formulas and diagrams. We're trying to get by with the bare minimum here.

"A biological pump is a molecular mechanism localized in a membrane and capable of transporting substances using the energy released during the breakdown of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or utilizing any other form of energy," writes Martirosov. And further: "To date, the opinion has arisen that only ion pumps exist in nature. And since they are well studied, we can carefully analyze their participation in the life of cells."

By various tricks and roundabout ways - don't forget, scientists have to deal with a microscopic object 10 "cm thick, scientists managed to establish that membrane pumps not only have the ability to exchange sodium ions of the cell for potassium ions of the external environment, but also serve as a source of electric current.

This is because the sodium pump typically exchanges two sodium ions for two potassium ions. Thus, one ion, as it were, turns out to be superfluous, an excess positive charge is constantly taken out of the cell, which leads to the generation of an electric current.

Well, where does the diaphragm pump itself draw energy for its work? In an attempt to answer this question in 1966, the English biochemist Peter Mitchel put forward a hypothesis, one of the provisions of which was that the absorption of light by a living cell inevitably leads to the fact that an electric current arises in it.

The Englishman's hypothesis was developed by RAS Corresponding Member V.P. Skulachev, Professors E.N. Kondratiev, N.S. Egorov and other scientists. Membranes began to be compared with storage capacitors. It was clarified that there are special proteins in the membrane that disassemble salt molecules into their component parts, positively and negatively charged ions, and they eventually end up on different sides. This is how the electrical potential accumulates, which even managed to be measured - it is almost a quarter of a volt.

Moreover, the principle of the potential measurement itself is interesting. Scientists working under the guidance of V.P. Skulachev created optical measuring equipment. The fact is that they managed to find dyes that, when placed in an electric field, change their absorption spectrum. Moreover, some of these dyes, such as chlorophyll, are permanently present in plant cells. So, by measuring the change in its spectrum, the researchers managed to determine the magnitude of the electric field.

It is said that these outwardly insignificant facts may soon be followed by grandiose practical consequences. Having understood properly the properties of the membrane, the mechanism of operation of its pumps, scientists and engineers will someday create its artificial counterparts. And those, in turn, will become the basis of a new type of power plant - biological.

In some place where there is always a lot of sun - for example, in the steppe or desert - people will spread an openwork thin film on hundreds of supports, which can cover an area even tens of square kilometers. And the usual transformers and power transmission towers will be installed nearby. And there will be another technical miracle based on the patents of nature. The "network for catching sunlight" will regularly provide electricity, not requiring for its operation either giant dams, like a hydroelectric power station, or the consumption of coal, gas and other fuels, like a thermal power plant. One sun will be enough, which, as you know, shines for us so far for free ...

Legends of cannibal plants. "Do not be afraid. The cannibal tree, the" missing link "between the plant and animal world, does not exist, the South African writer Lawrence Green considers it necessary to immediately warn his reader. - And yet, there may be a grain of truth in the undying legend of the sinister tree ..."

We will talk further about what the writer had in mind when speaking about the "grain of truth". But first, let's talk about the legends themselves.

"... And then large leaves slowly began to rise. Heavy, like the arrows of cranes, they rose up and closed on the victim with the power of a hydraulic press and with the ruthlessness of an instrument of torture. A moment later, watching how these huge leaves pressed each other more tightly to a friend, I saw streams of treacle liquid flowing down the tree, mixed with the blood of the victim.At the sight of this, the crowd of savages around me screamed piercingly, surrounded the tree from all sides, began to hug it, and each with a cup, leaves, hands or tongue - took enough liquid to go mad and go berserk..."

And to this he did not hesitate to add that the tree looked like a pineapple eight feet high. That it was dark brown in color, and its wood looked as hard as iron. That eight leaves hung from the top of the cone to the ground, like open doors hanging on hinges. Moreover, each leaf ended in a point, and the surface was dotted with large curved spikes.

In general, Lihe did not limit his imagination and ended the chilling description of a human sacrifice to a man-eating plant with the remark that the leaves of the tree retained their vertical position for ten days.

And when they descended again, at the foot was a cleanly gnawed skull.

This shameless lie nevertheless gave rise to a whole literary trend. For nearly half a century, what passions have not been seen in the pages of various publications! Even the well-known English writer Herbert Wells, who described a similar incident in his story "The Blossoming of a Strange Orchid", could not resist the temptation.

Do you remember what happened to a certain Mr. Wetherburne, who, on the occasion, bought the root of an unknown tropical orchid and grew it in his greenhouse? One day the orchid bloomed, and Weatherburn ran to look at this miracle. And for some reason I lingered in the greenhouse. When at half past five, according to the once and for all routine, the owner did not come to the table to drink the traditional cup of tea, the housekeeper went to find out what could delay him.

“He was lying at the foot of a strange orchid. The tentacle-like air roots no longer hung freely in the air. Having approached, they formed, as it were, a ball of gray rope, the ends of which tightly covered his chin, neck and arms.

At first she didn't understand. But then I saw a thin trickle of blood under one of the predatory tentacles..."

The brave woman immediately entered into a fight with a terrible plant. She broke the glass of the greenhouse to get rid of the intoxicating aroma that reigned in the air, and then began to drag the body of the owner.

"The pot with the terrible orchid fell to the floor. With grim tenacity, the plant still clung to its prey. Overworking, she dragged the body along with the orchid to the exit. Then it occurred to her to tear off the attached roots one at a time, and in a minute Weatherburn was free. He was pale as a sheet, blood flowed from numerous wounds ... "

This is the terrible story that the writer's pen depicted. With a science fiction writer, however, the demand is small - he didn’t assure anyone that his story was based on documentary facts.

But others held on to the last ...

And what is surprising: even serious scientists believed their "documentary evidence". In any case, some of them made attempts to find predatory plants on our planet. And I must say that their efforts in the end ... were crowned with success! Hunter plants have indeed been found.

Swamp hunters. Fortunately for you and me, such plants do not feed on human victims and not even animals, but only insects.

Nowadays, textbooks of botany often mention the Venus flytrap, a plant found in the swamps of North Carolina in the United States. Its leaf ends in a thickened round plate, the edges of which are seated with sharp teeth. And the very surface of the leaf blade is dotted with sensitive bristles. So if an insect just sits on a leaf that smells so attractive, and the halves equipped with teeth collapse like a real trap.

A sundew leaf, an insectivorous plant growing in the peat bogs of Russia, looks like a head massage brush, only tiny in size. Setae crowned with spherical swellings protrude over the entire surface of the leaf blade. At the tip of each such bristle, a drop of liquid stands out, like a dewdrop. (Hence, by the way, the name.) These bristles are painted bright red, and the droplets themselves exude a sweet aroma ...

In general, a rare insect will resist the temptation to examine a leaf for nectar.

Well, then events develop according to this scenario. The goofy fly immediately sticks to the sticky juice with its paws, and the bristles begin to bend inside the leaf, additionally holding the prey. If this is not enough, the leaf blade itself also folds, as if wrapping the insect.

The leaf then begins to secrete formic acid and digestive enzymes. Under the action of acid, the insect soon ceases to flutter, and then its tissues are transferred to a soluble state with the help of enzymes and absorbed by the leaf surface.

In a word, nature has worked hard, inventing fishing gear for insectivorous plants. So, you see, the suppliers of exotics had something to describe the details tickling the nerves of the reader. Replaced the insect with a human sacrifice and roll page after page...

However, this is not about hacks, but about the fishing gear itself, invented by nature. Some of them are single-acting - the leaf of the aquatic plant Aldrovand, for example, immediately dies off after the capture and digestion of the prey.

Others are reusable. And, say, another aquatic plant, utricularia, uses such a trick in its trap. The trap itself is a bag with a narrow inlet that closes with a special valve. The inner surface of the sac is lined with glands, a kind of pumps - formations that can intensively suck water out of the cavity. What happens as soon as the prey - a small crustacean or an insect - touches at least one of the hairs at the inlet. The valve opens, the flow of water rushes into the cavity, dragging the prey along with it. The valve then closes, the water is sucked out, you can start eating...

In recent years, scientists have found that the number of insect hunters in the plant world is much larger than previously thought. Studies have shown that even well-known potatoes, tomatoes and tobacco can be attributed to this class. All these plants have on their leaves microscopic hairs with droplets of glue that can not only hold insects, but also produce enzymes to digest organic matter of animal origin.

Entomologist J. Barber, who studies mosquitoes at the University of New Orleans (USA), found that mosquito larvae often stick to the sticky surface of shepherd's purse seeds.

The seed produces some kind of sticky substance that attracts larvae. Well, then everything happens according to a well-established technology: the seed secretes enzymes, and the resulting top dressing is then used for better development of the sprouts.

Even a pineapple fell under suspicion of carnivory. Rainwater often accumulates at the base of its leaves, and small aquatic organisms reproduce there - ciliates, rotifers, insect larvae ... Some researchers believe that part of this living creature goes to feed the plant.

Three lines of defense. After scientists understand some phenomenon, the question usually arises: what to do with the knowledge gained? You can, of course, recommend: in those places where there are a lot of mosquitoes, plant plantations of sundew and shepherd's purse. You can act more cunningly: by genetic engineering, inoculate cultivated plants or develop the skills they already have in self-control of agricultural pests. For example, the Colorado potato beetle attacked a potato bush. And that yum-yum - and there is no bug. Pesticides are not needed, unnecessary troubles, and an increase in yield as a result of additional top dressing is guaranteed. And you can go even further: to develop the protective abilities of all cultivated plants without exception. Moreover, they will be able to defend themselves not only against visible, but also against invisible Enemies.

So, the same potatoes, tomatoes and other representatives of the nightshade family, in addition to physical weapons, so to speak, are capable of using chemical and biological weapons against pests. In response, for example, to infection with a fungus, plants immediately form two phytoalexins from the terpenoid class: rishetin and lyubin. The first was discovered by Japanese researchers and named after the Risheri potato variety, in which this compound was first discovered. Well, the second - lyubimin - was first found by domestic researchers from the laboratory of Metlitsky in the tubers of the Lyubimets variety.

Hence, of course, the name.

It turns out that the defense mechanism does not always work. To start the process of formation of phytoalexins, the plant needs an external push. Such an impetus can be the treatment of a potato plantation with microdoses of copper - the main remedy for late blight today. But it is even better if the plants, of necessity, will launch their own defense mechanisms.

Therefore, scientists are currently searching, trying to create such microsensors that would work as quickly as the hairs on the leaf of a Venus flytrap work.

Of course, in this case, the matter is greatly complicated by the fact that research has to be carried out at the genetic-molecular level. But in the yard, after all, the end of the 20th century, researchers can already operate with individual atoms. So there is real hope: at the beginning of the next century, agricultural workers will forget about pesticides and pests in much the same way that legends about man-eating plants gradually began to forget at the beginning of our century.

The hydraulics are working. So, we have figured out that there are a lot of adherents of animal food in the plant world - several dozen, or even hundreds of species. Well, what is the mechanism that activates their traps? How can plants move at all, raising and lowering their leaves like a heliotrope, turning inflorescences after the luminary like a sunflower, or relentlessly scattering their creeping shoots in all directions like blackberries or hops.

“Already from the very first steps, he had to solve an additional task compared to, say, closely growing dandelions or nettles,” Vladimir Soloukhin writes about hops. grow, that is, create a rosette of leaves, and drive out a tubular stem.Moisture is given to it, the sun is given to it, and a place under the sun is also given.Stay in this place and grow yourself, enjoy life.

Hops are another matter. Barely leaning out of the ground, he must constantly look around and fumble around himself, looking for something to grab onto, on which to lean on a reliable earthly support. ”And further:“ The natural desire of every sprout to grow upward prevails here too. But already after fifty centimeters, a fat, heavy shoot clings to the ground. It turns out that it does not grow vertically or horizontally, but along a curve, along an arc.

This elastic arc can persist for some time, but if the shoot exceeds a meter in length and still does not find something to grab onto, then it willy-nilly will have to lie down on the ground and crawl along it. Only the growing, seeking part of him will still and always be directed upwards. Hop, crawling along the ground, grabs oncoming grasses, but they turn out to be rather weak for him, and he crawls, crouching, farther and farther, rummaging in front of him with a sensitive tip.

What would you do in the dark if you had to go ahead and find the doorknob?

Obviously, you would begin to make a rotational, groping movement with your hand extended forward. Growing hops do the same. Its rough, as if immediately sticking tip all the time, moving forward or upward, performs a uniform rotational movement in a clockwise direction. And if a tree, a telegraph pole, a drainpipe, a pole deliberately placed on the way, any vertical pointing to the sky, gets in the way, the hop quickly, within one day, takes off to the very top, and its growing end again fumbles around itself in empty space .. ."

Practitioners, however, argue that very often the hop seems to feel where the support is placed for it, and most of the stems go in that direction.

And when one of Soloukhin’s stems didn’t intentionally overwhelm the twine stretched from the ground to the roof of the house, so he, the poor fellow, crawled through the yard, and the lawn, and the garbage dump in search of support, resembling a man overcoming a bog and already almost sucked in by it.

His body gets bogged down in mud and water, but he does his best to keep his head above the water.

“I would say here,” the writer concludes his story, “who else this hop reminded me of, if there was no danger of switching from innocent notes about grass to the field of a psychological novel.”

The writer was afraid of the involuntary associations that arose in him, but the scientists, as we will see a little later, are not. But first, let's think about this question: "What is the force that drives hops and other plants to grow, makes them bend in one direction or another?"

Of course, in the world of plants there are no steel springs or other elastic elements to snap their "traps" with their help. Therefore, most often plants use hydraulics in such cases. Hydraulic pumps and drives generally do most of the work in the plant. It is with their help, for example, that moisture rises from underground to the very top, sometimes overcoming drops of many tens of meters - a result that not every designer of conventional pumps can achieve. Moreover, unlike mechanical natural pumps, they operate completely silently and very economically.

Plants also use hydraulics to carry out their own movement. Remember at least the same "habit" of an ordinary sunflower to turn its basket after the movement of the luminary. Provides such movement, again, a drive based on hydraulics.

Well, how, I wonder, does it work?

It turns out that Charles Darwin tried to answer this question. He showed that each tendril of a plant possesses the energy of independent movement. According to the scientist's formulation, "plants receive and manifest this energy only when it gives them some advantage."

This idea was tried to develop by a talented Viennese biologist with a Gallic surname Raoul Francais. He showed that the worm-like roots, constantly moving down into the soil, know exactly where to go due to small hollow chambers in which a ball of starch can hang, indicating the direction of gravity.

If the ground is dry, the roots turn towards the wet soil, developing enough energy to drill through the concrete. Moreover, when specific drilling cells wear out due to contact with stones, pebbles, sand, they are quickly replaced by new ones. When the roots reach moisture and a source of nutrients, they die and must be replaced by cells designed to absorb mineral salts and water.

There is not a single plant, says Francais, that could exist without movement. Any growth is a sequence of movements, plants are constantly busy bending, rotating, fluttering. When the tendril of the same hop, making a full circular cycle in 67 minutes, finds support, then within only 20 seconds it begins to wrap around it, and after an hour it wraps itself so tightly that it is difficult to tear it off.

That's how powerful hydraulics are. Moreover, the same Charles Darwin tried to find out exactly how the mechanism of movement is carried out. He discovered that the surface cells, say the stems of a sundew leaf, contain one large vacuole filled with cell sap. When irritated, it is divided into a number of smaller vacuoles of a bizarre shape, as if intertwined with each other. And the plant rolls the leaf into a bag.

"Seditious" thoughts of a naturalist. Of course, the intricacies of such processes still need to be understood and understood. Moreover, botanists, hydraulics and ... electronic engineers should do this by joint efforts! Indeed, after all, we have not yet said a word about the principles of operation of those sensors, on the signal of which the trap mechanism begins to work.

Again, one of the first to become interested in this problem was Charles Darwin. The results of his research are presented in two books - "Insectivorous Plants" and "Ability to move in plants."

The first thing that surprised Darwin extremely was the very high sensitivity of the organs of insectivorous and climbing plants. For example, the movement of a sundew leaf was already caused by a piece of hair weighing 0.000822 mg, which was in contact with the tentacle for a very short time. No less was the sensitivity to touch in the antennae of some vines. Darwin observed the bending of the antennae under the influence of a silk thread weighing only 0.00025 mg!

Such a high sensitivity, of course, could not be provided by purely mechanical devices that existed in Darwin's time. Therefore, the scientist is looking for an analogy to what he saw again in the living world. He compares the sensitivity of the plant to the irritation of the human nerve. Moreover, he notes that such reactions have not only high sensitivity, but also selectivity. For example, neither the tentacles of the sundew nor the tendrils of climbing plants react to the impact of raindrops.

And the same climbing plant, as France notes, in need of support, will stubbornly crawl to the nearest one.

It is worth moving this support, and within a few hours the vine will change its progress, turn again towards it. But how does the plant know in which direction it needs to move?

the facts forced us to think about the possibility of the existence in plants not only of something resembling a nervous system, but also of the beginnings of ... considerations!

It is clear that such "seditious" thoughts caused a storm in the scientific world. Darwin, despite his high prestige, acquired after the completion of work on the Origin of Species, was accused, to put it mildly, of thoughtlessness.

For example, here is what the director of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden R.E. Regel wrote about this: “The famous English scientist Darwin put forward a bold hypothesis in modern times that there are plants that catch insects and even eat them. But if we compare everything known together, then we must come to the conclusion that Darwin's theory is one of those theories at which any sane botanist and naturalist would simply laugh ... "

However, history gradually puts everything in its place. And we now have reason to believe that Darwin was more mistaken in his generally accepted scientific work on the origin of species than in the last book on the movement of plants. More and more modern scientists come to the conclusion that the role of evolution in the teachings of Darwin is exaggerated. But as for the presence of feelings in plants, and perhaps even the rudiments of thinking, then there is something to think about in the light of the facts that have accumulated during our century.

Cell cartoon. At one time, Darwin found not only opponents, but also supporters. For example, in 1887, W. Burdon-Sanderson established an amazing fact: when stimulated, electrical phenomena occur in the leaf of the Venus flytrap, exactly resembling those that occur during the propagation of excitation in the neuromuscular fibers of animals.

The passage of electrical signals in a plant was studied in more detail by the Indian researcher J.C. It turned out to be a more convenient object for studying electrical phenomena in a leaf than the sundew or the Venus flytrap.

Bos designed several instruments that made it possible to very accurately record the time course of stimulus reactions. With their help, he was able to establish that the plant responds to touch, although quickly, but not instantly - the delay time is about 0.1 second. And this speed of reaction is comparable to the speed of the nervous reaction of many animals.

The period of contractions, that is, the time of complete folding of the sheet, turned out to be equal to an average of 3 seconds.

Moreover, mimosa reacted differently at different times of the year: in winter, it seemed to fall asleep, and wake up by summer.

In addition, the reaction time was influenced by various narcotic substances and even ... alcohol! Finally, an Indian researcher found that there is a certain analogy between the reaction to light in plants and the retina of animals. He proved that plants detect fatigue in the same way that animal muscles do.

“I now know that plants have respiration without lungs or gills, digestion without a stomach and movement without muscles,” Bos sums up his research. “Now it seems plausible to me that plants can have the same kind of excitation as in higher animals, but without the presence of a complex nervous system ... "

And he turned out to be right: subsequent studies made it possible to identify in plants something like a "caricature of a nerve cell," as one researcher aptly put it. Nevertheless, this simplified analogue of the nerve cell of an animal or a person regularly performed its duty - it transmitted an impulse of excitation from a sensor to an executive organ. And a leaf, a petal or a stamen begins to move...

The details of the control mechanism of such movements, perhaps, are best considered on the experience of A. M. Sinyukhin and E. A. Britikov, who studied the propagation of the action potential in the two-lobed stigma of the incarvilia flower upon excitation.

If the tip of one of the blades is mechanically touched, then after 0.2 seconds an action potential arises, propagating to the base of the blade at a speed of 1.8 cm / s. A second later, it reaches the cells located at the junction of the blades and causes their reaction. The blades begin to move 0.1 seconds after the arrival of the electrical signal, and the closing process itself lasts 6-10 seconds. If the plant is no longer touched, then after 20 minutes the petals fully open again.

As it turned out, the plant is capable of performing much more complex actions than simply closing the petals. Some plants react to certain stimuli in a very specific way. For example, if a bee or another insect starts crawling on a linden flower, the flower immediately begins to secrete nectar. As if he understands that the bee will also transfer pollen, which means it will contribute to the continuation of the genus.

And in some plants at the same time, they say, even the temperature rises. Why don't you have an attack of love fever?

Philodendron sympathizes with the shrimp.

If you think the story isn't enough to believe that plants can have feelings, here's another story for you.

It all started, perhaps, with what.

In the 1950s, there were two pineapple growing companies in the United States. One of them had plantations in the Hawaiian Islands, the other in the Antilles. The climate on the islands is similar, the soil is the same, but Antillean pineapples were more readily bought on the world market, they were larger and tastier.

In trying to answer this question, pineapple growers have tried every method and method that comes to mind. Seedlings from the Antilles were even taken to the Hawaiian Islands. And what? The grown pineapples were no different from the local ones.

Eventually John Mace, Jr., a psychiatrist by trade and a highly inquisitive personality, noticed this subtlety. Pineapples in Hawaii were cared for by locals, and in the Antilles by blacks brought from Africa.

The Hawaiians work slowly and with concentration, but the Negroes sing carelessly while they work. So maybe it's all about the songs?

There was nothing to lose for the company, and singing blacks also appeared on the Hawaiian Islands. And soon the Hawaiian pineapples could not be distinguished from the Antilles.

Dr. Mace, however, did not rest on that. He put the rationale for his conjecture on a scientific basis. In a specially equipped greenhouse, the researcher collected plants of different species and began to play hundreds of melodies. After 30 thousand experiments, the scientist came to the conclusion that plants perceive music and react to it.

Moreover, they have certain musical tastes, especially flowers. Most prefer melodic pieces with calm rhythms, but some - say, cyclamens - prefer jazz.

Mimosas and hyacinths are not indifferent to Tchaikovsky's music, and primroses, phloxes and tobacco - to Wagner's operas.

However, no one, except for pineapple experts and Dr. Mace himself, took the results seriously. After all, otherwise we would have to admit that plants have not only hearing organs, but also memory, some kind of feelings ... And over time, Mace's experiments would most likely simply be forgotten if this story had not received an unexpected continuation.

Now in the laboratory of Professor Clive Baxter.

In 1965, Baxter was improving his offspring of one of the variants of the "lie detector", or polygraph. You probably know that the operation of this device is based on fixing the reaction of the subject to the questions asked. At the same time, researchers know that the message of deliberately false information causes specific reactions in the vast majority of people - increased heart rate and respiration, increased sweating, etc.

Currently, there are several types of polygraphs. Let's say the Larsen polygraph measures blood pressure, breathing rate and intensity, and reaction time - the interval between a question and an answer. Well, the Baxter polygraph is based on the galvanic reaction of human skin.

Two electrodes are attached to the back and inner sides of the finger. A small electric current is passed through the circuit, which is then fed through the amplifier to the recorder. When the subject begins to worry, he sweats more, the electrical resistance of the skin drops and the recorder curve writes out a peak.

And so, while working on improving his device, Baxter thought of connecting the sensor to a leaf of a philodendron home plant. Now it was necessary to somehow make the plant feel emotional stress.

The researcher put one of the leaves into a cup of hot coffee, no reaction. "And if you try fire?" he thought as he pulled out his lighter. And he could not believe his eyes: the curve on the recorder tape vigorously crept up!

Indeed, it was hard to believe: after all, it turned out that the plant read the thoughts of a person. And then Baxter set up another experiment. The automatic mechanism, at the moments chosen by the random number generator, overturned a cup of shrimp into boiling water.

Nearby stood the same philodendron with sensors glued to the leaves. And what? Each time the cup was overturned, the recorder recorded an emotional curve: the flower sympathized with the shrimp.

Baxter didn't settle for that either.

Like a true criminologist, he simulated the crime. In the room where there were two flowers, six people came in turn. The seventh was the experimenter himself. When he entered, he saw that one of the philodendrons was broken. Who did this? Baxter asked the participants to walk through the room one at a time again. At that moment, when the man who broke the flower entered the room, the sensors recorded an emotional outburst: the philodendron recognized the "killer" of the colleague!

Look at the root. Baxter's experiments made a lot of noise in the scientific world.

Many have tried to reproduce them. And this is what came out of it.

Marcel Vogel worked for IBM and taught at a California university. When the students gave him a magazine with Baxter's article, Vogel decided that the experiments cited were nothing more than a swindle. However, for the sake of curiosity, I decided to reproduce these experiments with my students.

After a while the results were summed up. None of the three groups of students who worked independently managed to obtain the described effects in full. However, Vogel himself reported that plants can indeed respond to human input.

As evidence, he cited a description of the experiment, which, on his advice, was carried out by his friend Vivienne Wylay. Picking two saxifrage leaves from her own garden, she placed one of them on the bedside table, the other in the dining room. “Daily, as soon as I got up,” she told Vogel, “I looked at the sheet lying near my bed and wished him a long life, while I didn’t want to pay attention to another sheet ...”

After a while, the difference was visible to the naked eye. The sheet by the bed remained fresh, as if it had just been plucked, while the second sheet was hopelessly wilted.

However, this experiment, you see, could not be recognized as strictly scientific. Then Vogel decided to make another experiment. The philodendron was connected to a galvanometer and a recorder. The scientist stood at the plant completely relaxed, barely touching the leaf with his hands. The recorder drew a straight line. But as soon as Vogel mentally turned to the plant, the recorder began to write out a series of peaks.

In the next experiment, Vogel connected two plants to the same device and cut a leaf from the first plant. The second plant reacted to the pain inflicted on its fellow, but after the experimenter turned his attention to it. The plant seemed to understand: otherwise it is useless to complain...

Vogel spoke about his experiments in print, and this, in turn, sparked a flood of additional research and proposals. Customs officials saw plant susceptibility as another way to control airport smuggling, to detect terrorists before they even boarded an aircraft. The army was interested in finding ways to measure the emotional state of people through plants. Well, the Navy, represented by experimental psychoanalyst Eldon Baird, together with employees of the advanced planning and analysis laboratory of the Naval Artillery Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, not only successfully repeated Baxter's experiments, but also strengthened the control of emotional reaction, additionally affecting plants with infrared and ultraviolet light...

The news of such experiments reached domestic specialists.

In the 70s, one of the experimental tests of Baxter's experiments was carried out in the laboratory of V. Pushkin (Institute of General and Pedagogical Psychology). Scientists were interested in what exactly plants react to: to the emotional state of a person or to his suspiciously dangerous actions? In theory, after all, the person who broke the flower did not experience any feelings, he simply completed the assignment.

And so the Moscow psychologists began to immerse the subjects in a hypnotic state and inspire them with different emotions.

The person did not perform any special actions, but his emotional state, of course, changed. And what? Sensors attached to the leaves of a begonia tree that stood three meters from the subject recorded pulses of about 50 microvolts just at the moments when the person went from one state to another.

In general, in 200 experiments, the same thing was repeated in different variations: in response to a change in the emotional state of a person, the electrical potential produced by the plant also changed. To explain this, Professor Pushkin put forward a theory somewhat reminiscent of Mace's views. “Our experiments,” he said, “testify to the unity of information processes occurring in plant cells and in the human nervous system; after all, they also consist of cells, although of a different type. This unity is a legacy of those times when the first DNA molecule appeared on Earth bearer of life and common ancestor of plants and man. It would be surprising if such a unity did not exist..."

This assumption was also confirmed as a result of experiments conducted at the Department of Plant Physiology of the Timiryazev Academy under the guidance of Professor I. Gunar.

However, at first the professor accepted foreign ideas with hostility. “There were sunflower and mimosa plants in two adjacent vessels,” he described one of the first experiments. “The sensors of the devices were connected to one of them, the other plants were cut with scissors at that moment. The galvanometers did not react in any way to our “criminal” actions. The plants remained indifferent to the fate of fellow tribesmen. Then one of us came closer to a vessel with a mimosa connected to the device. The arrow swung ... "

From this fact, the scientist draws the following conclusion: “Any schoolboy familiar with the basics of electrostatics will understand that it was by no means a miracle. galvanometer stood unshakable as long as the capacitance of the system remained unchanged.

But then the laboratory assistant stepped aside, and the distribution of electric charges in the system was disturbed ... "

Of course, everything can be explained in this way.

However, after some time, the professor himself changes his point of view. His devices did register electrical impulses in plants, similar to the nervous bursts of humans and animals. And the professor spoke in a completely different way: "It can be assumed that signals from the external environment are transmitted to the center, where, after processing them, a response is prepared."

The scientist even managed to find this center. It turned out to be located in the neck of the roots, which tend to contract and decompress like a heart muscle.

Plants, apparently, are able to exchange signals, they have their own signal language, similar to the language of primitive animals and insects, the researcher continued his reasoning. One plant, changing the electrical potentials in its leaves, can inform another of the danger.

Plants radiate. Well, what is the signaling mechanism according to modern concepts? It opened up piecemeal. One signaling link, in the same 1970s when most of the research described above, was uncovered by Clarence Ryan, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington. He discovered that as soon as a caterpillar begins to chew a leaf on a tomato bush, the rest of the leaves immediately begin to produce protainase, a substance that binds digestive enzymes in caterpillars, thereby making it difficult, if not impossible, to digest food.

True, Ryan himself suggested that the signals are transmitted using some kind of chemical reaction. However, in reality, everything turned out to be not quite so. Plant cells destroyed by caterpillar jaws lose water. In this case, a chain of chemical reactions really begins, which eventually sets in motion the charged particles of the solution - ions. And they propagate throughout the plant organism, carrying electrical signals in the same way that a wave of nervous excitation propagates in the organisms of some primitive animals. Only these were not insects, as Professor Gunnar believed, but a jellyfish and a hydra.

It is in the membranes of the cells of these animals that special connecting gaps were found through which electrical signals carried by positively or negatively charged ions move.

There are similar slots-channels in the membranes of plant cells. They are called "plasmodesmata". Alarm signals move from cell to cell along them. Moreover, any movement of an electric charge leads to the emergence of an electromagnetic field.

So it is quite possible that this signaling serves a dual purpose. On the one hand, it causes other leaves of a given plant, or even other plants, to start producing inhibitors, as mentioned above.

On the other hand, perhaps these signals call for help, say, birds - natural enemies of the same caterpillars that attacked the tomato bush.

This idea seems all the more natural because Eric Davis, a professor of biology at the University of Nebraska, recently managed to establish that ion signaling is characteristic not only of plants, but also of many animals with a developed nervous system. Why is she to them? Perhaps as a receiver tuned to signals of someone else's misfortune ... After all, remember, the philodendron in Baxter's experiments reacted to distress signals emitted by a shrimp.

Thus, flora and fauna close their ranks, trying to resist the onslaught of the human race. After all, very often we, without hesitation, harm both of them. And it's time for a person, probably, to cease to be aware of himself as a kind of conqueror of nature. After all, he is nothing more than a part of it ...

Markevich V.V.

In this paper, we turn to one of the most interesting and promising areas of research - the effect of physical conditions on plants.

Studying the literature on this issue, I learned that Professor P.P. Gulyaev, using highly sensitive equipment, managed to establish that a weak bioelectric field surrounds any living thing and it is still known for sure: each living cell has its own power plant. And cellular potentials are not so small.

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PHYSICS

BIOLOGY

Plants and their electrical potential.

Completed by: Markevich V.V.

GBOU secondary school No. 740 Moscow

Grade 9

Head: Kozlova Violetta Vladimirovna

physics and mathematics teacher

Moscow 2013

1. Introduction

1. Relevance
2. Goals and objectives of the work
3. Research methods
4. Significance of work

1. Analysis of the studied literature on the topic "Electricity in life

plants"

1. Ionization of indoor air

1. Research methodology and technique

1. Study of damage currents in various plants

1. Experiment #1 (with lemons)
2. Experiment #2 (with an apple)
3. Experiment #3 (with a plant leaf)

1. Study of the influence of an electric field on seed germination

1. Experiments to observe the effect of ionized air on the germination of pea seeds
2. Experiments to observe the effect of ionized air on the germination of bean seeds

1. findings

1. Conclusion
2. Literature

1. Introduction

"Surprising as electrical phenomena are,

inherent in inorganic matter, they do not go

in no way comparable to those associated with

life processes."

Michael Faraday

In this paper, we turn to one of the most interesting and promising areas of research - the effect of physical conditions on plants.

Studying the literature on this issue, I learned that Professor P.P. Gulyaev, using highly sensitive equipment, managed to establish that a weak bioelectric field surrounds any living thing and it is still known for sure: each living cell has its own power plant. And cellular potentials are not so small. For example, in some algae they reach 0.15 V.

“If 500 pairs of halves of peas are assembled in a certain order in a series, then the final electrical voltage will be 500 volts ... It is good that the cook does not know about the danger that threatens him when he prepares this special dish, and fortunately for him, the peas do not connect in ordered series.This statement of the Indian researcher J. Boss is based on a rigorous scientific experiment. He connected the inner and outer parts of the pea with a galvanometer and heated up to 60°C. The device at the same time showed a potential difference of 0.5 V.

How does this happen? On what principle do living generators and batteries work? Eduard Trukhan, Deputy Head of the Department of Living Systems of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, believes that one of the most important processes occurring in a plant cell is the process of assimilation of solar energy, the process of photosynthesis.

So, if at that moment scientists manage to “pull apart” positively and negatively charged particles in different directions, then, in theory, we will have at our disposal a wonderful living generator, the fuel for which would be water and sunlight, and in addition to energy, it would also produce pure oxygen.

Perhaps in the future such a generator will be created. But to realize this dream, scientists will have to work hard: they need to select the most suitable plants, and maybe even learn how to make chlorophyll grains artificially, create some kind of membrane that would allow them to separate charges. It turns out that a living cell, storing electrical energy in natural capacitors - intracellular membranes of special cell formations, mitochondria, then uses it to perform a lot of work: building new molecules, drawing nutrients into the cell, regulating its own temperature ... And that's not all. With the help of electricity, the plant itself performs many operations: it breathes, moves, grows.

Relevance

Already today it can be argued that the study of the electrical life of plants is beneficial to agriculture. I. V. Michurin also conducted experiments on the effect of electric current on the germination of hybrid seedlings.

Pre-sowing seed treatment is the most important element of agricultural technology that allows you to increase their germination, and ultimately the yield of plants. And this is especially important in our not very long and warm summer.

1. Goals and objectives of the work

The aim of the work is to study the presence of bioelectric potentials in plants and to study the effect of an electric field on seed germination.

To achieve the goal of the study, it is necessary to solve the following tasks :

1. The study of the main provisions concerning the doctrine of bioelectric potentials and the influence of an electric field on the vital activity of plants.
2. Conducting experiments to detect and observe damage currents in various plants.
3. Conducting experiments to observe the effect of an electric field on seed germination.

1. Research methods

To fulfill the objectives of the study, theoretical and practical methods are used. Theoretical method: search, study and analysis of scientific and popular science literature on this issue. Of the practical research methods used: observation, measurement, experimentation.

1. Significance of work

The material of this work can be used in the lessons of physics and biology, since this important issue is not covered in textbooks. And the methodology for conducting experiments is as a material for practical classes of an elective course.

1. Analysis of the studied literature

History of the study of the electrical properties of plants

One of the characteristic features of living organisms is the ability to be irritated.

Charles Darwin attached great importance to the irritability of plants. He studied in detail the biological characteristics of insectivorous representatives of the plant world, which are highly sensitive, and outlined the results of the research in the remarkable book On Insectivorous Plants, which was published in 1875. In addition, the attention of the great naturalist was attracted by various movements of plants. Taken together, all the studies suggested that the plant organism is remarkably similar to the animal.

The widespread use of electrophysiological methods has allowed animal physiologists to achieve significant progress in this field of knowledge. It was found that electric currents (biocurrents) constantly arise in animal organisms, the distribution of which leads to motor reactions. C. Darwin suggested that similar electrical phenomena also take place in the leaves of insectivorous plants, which have a rather pronounced ability to move. However, he himself did not test this hypothesis. At his request, experiments with the Venus flytrap plant were carried out in 1874 by an Oxford University physiologist.Burdan Sanderson. Connecting the leaf of this plant to a galvanometer, the scientist noted that the arrow immediately deviated. This means that electrical impulses arise in the living leaf of this insectivorous plant. When the researcher irritated the leaves by touching the bristles located on their surface, the galvanometer needle deviated in the opposite direction, as in the experiment with the muscle of an animal.

German physiologist Hermann Munch , who continued the experiments, in 1876 came to the conclusion that the leaves of the Venus flytrap are electrically similar to the nerves, muscles and electrical organs of some animals.

In Russia, electrophysiological methods have been usedN. K. Levakovskyto study the phenomena of irritability in bashful mimosa. In 1867 he published a book called "On the Movement of the Irritable Organs of Plants". In the experiments of N. K. Levakovsky, the strongest electrical signals were observed in those specimens mimosa , which most energetically responded to external stimuli. If a mimosa is quickly killed by heating, then the dead parts of the plant do not produce electrical signals. The author also observed the emergence of electrical impulses in the stamensthistle and thistle, in petioles of sundew leaves.Subsequently, it was found that

Bioelectric potentials in plant cells

Plant life is dependent on moisture. Therefore, the electrical processes in them are most fully manifested in the normal mode of moistening and fade when withering. This is associated with the exchange of charges between the liquid and the walls of capillary vessels during the flow of nutrient solutions through the capillaries of plants, as well as with the processes of ion exchange between cells and the environment. The most important for life electric fields are excited in the cells.

So, we know that...

1. Wind-blown pollen has a negative charge.‚ approaching in magnitude the charge of dust particles during dust storms. Near pollen-losing plants, the ratio between positive and negative light ions changes dramatically, which favorably affects the further development of plants.
2. In the practice of spraying pesticides in agriculture, it has been found thatchemicals with a positive charge are deposited on the beet and apple tree to a greater extent, on the lilac - with a negative charge.
3. One-sided illumination of a leaf excites an electrical potential difference between its illuminated and unilluminated areas and the petiole, stem and root.This potential difference expresses the plant's response to changes in its body associated with the start or stop of the process of photosynthesis.
4. Germination of seeds in a strong electric field(e.g. near the corona electrode)leads to changestem height and thickness and crown density of developing plants. this occurs mainly due to the redistribution in the plant body under the influence of an external electric field of the space charge.
5. A damaged place in plant tissues is always negatively charged.relatively undamaged areas, and the dying areas of plants acquire a negative charge in relation to areas growing under normal conditions.
6. Charged seeds of cultivated plants have a relatively high electrical conductivity and therefore quickly lose their charge.Weed seeds are closer in their properties to dielectrics and can retain a charge for a long time. This is used to separate crop seeds from weeds on the conveyor.
7. Significant potential differences in the plant organism cannot be excitedBecause plants do not have a specialized electrical organ. Therefore, among plants there is no "tree of death" that could kill living beings with its electrical power.

Effect of atmospheric electricity on plants

One of the characteristic features of our planet is the presence of a constant electric field in the atmosphere. The person does not notice it. But the electrical state of the atmosphere is not indifferent to him and other living beings inhabiting our planet, including plants. Above the Earth at an altitude of 100-200 km, there is a layer of positively charged particles - the ionosphere.
So, when you walk across a field, street, square, you move in an electric field, you inhale electric charges..

The effect of atmospheric electricity on plants has been studied since 1748 by many authors. This year Abbe Nolet reported experiments in which he electrified plants by placing them under charged electrodes. He observed the acceleration of germination and growth. Grandieu (1879) observed that plants that were not affected by atmospheric electricity, as they were placed in a grounded wire mesh box, showed a weight reduction of 30 to 50% compared to control plants.

Lemström (1902) exposed plants to the action of air ions, placing them under a wire equipped with spikes and connected to a high voltage source (1 m above ground level, ion current 10-11 - 10 -12 A / cm 2 ), and he found an increase in weight and length of more than 45% (for example, carrots, peas, cabbage).

The fact that plant growth was accelerated in an atmosphere with an artificially increased concentration of positive and negative small ions was recently confirmed by Krueger and his collaborators. They found that oat seeds responded to positive as well as negative ions (a concentration of about 10 4 ions/cm3 ) increase by 60% in total length and increase in fresh and dry weight by 25-73%. Chemical analysis of the aerial parts of plants revealed an increase in the content of protein, nitrogen and sugar. In the case of barley, there was an even greater increase (about 100%) in total elongation; the increase in fresh weight was not large, but there was a noticeable increase in dry weight, which was accompanied by a corresponding increase in protein, nitrogen and sugar content.

Experiments with plant seeds were also carried out by Vorden. He found that the germination of green beans and green peas became earlier with an increase in the level of ions of either polarity. The final percentage of germinated seeds was lower with negative ionization compared to the control group; germination in the positive ionized group and control was the same. As the seedlings grew, the control and positively ionized plants continued to grow, while the negatively ionized plants mostly withered and died.

Influence in recent years there has been a strong change in the electrical state of the atmosphere; different regions of the Earth began to differ from each other in the ionized state of the air, which is due to its dust content, gas content, etc. The electrical conductivity of air is a sensitive indicator of its purity: the more foreign particles in the air, the greater the number of ions settles on them and, consequently, the electrical conductivity of the air becomes less.
So, in Moscow in 1 cm 3 air contains 4 negative charges, in St. Petersburg - 9 such charges, in Kislovodsk, where the standard of air purity is 1.5 thousand particles, and in the south of Kuzbass in the mixed forests of the foothills, the number of these particles reaches 6 thousand. This means that where there are more negative particles, it is easier to breathe, and where there is dust, a person gets less of them, since dust particles settle on them.
It is well known that near fast-flowing water, the air is refreshing and invigorating. It contains many negative ions. Back in the 19th century, it was determined that larger droplets in water splashes are positively charged, while smaller droplets are negatively charged. Since larger droplets settle faster, negatively charged small droplets remain in the air.
On the contrary, the air in cramped rooms with an abundance of various kinds of electromagnetic devices is saturated with positive ions. Even a relatively short stay in such a room leads to lethargy, drowsiness, dizziness and headaches.

1. Research methodology

Study of damage currents in various plants.

1. LITERATURE

1. Bogdanov K. Yu. A physicist visiting a biologist. - M.: Nauka, 1986. 144 p.
2. Vorotnikov A.A. Physics for the young. - M: Harvest, 1995-121s.
3. Katz Ts.B. Biophysics at physics lessons. - M: Enlightenment, 1971-158s.
4. Perelman Ya.I. Entertaining physics. - M: Science, 1976-432s.
5. Artamonov V.I. Interesting plant physiology. – M.: Agropromizdat, 1991.
6. Arabadzhi V.I. Riddles of plain water.- M .: "Knowledge", 1973.
7. http://www.pereplet.ru/obrazovanie/stsoros/163.html
8. http://www.npl-rez.ru/litra/bios.htm
9. http://www.ionization.ru

Bovin A.A.
Krasnodar Regional Center of UNESCO

All living organisms that exist on Earth, one way or another, in the course of a long evolution have fully adapted to its natural conditions. Adaptation took place not only to physical and chemical conditions, such as temperature, pressure, composition of atmospheric air, lighting, humidity, but also to the natural fields of the Earth: geomagnetic, gravitational, electrical and electromagnetic. Technogenic human activity in a relatively short historical period has had a significant impact on natural objects, sharply violating the delicate balance between living organisms and environmental conditions, which was formed over thousands of years. This has led to many irreparable consequences, in particular, to the extinction of some animals and plants, numerous diseases and a reduction in the average life expectancy of people in some regions. And only in recent decades, scientific research has begun to study the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors on humans and other living organisms.

Among the listed factors, the impact of electric fields on a person, at first glance, is not significant, so research in this area has been few. But even now, despite the growing interest in this problem, the effect of electric fields on living organisms remains a poorly studied area.

In this paper, a brief overview of the work related to this problem is made.

1. NATURAL ELECTRIC FIELDS

The electric field of the Earth is the natural electric field of the Earth as a planet, which is observed in the solid body of the Earth, in the seas, in the atmosphere and magnetosphere. The electric field of the earth is due to a complex set of geophysical phenomena. The existence of an electric field in the Earth's atmosphere is mainly associated with the processes of air ionization and the spatial separation of positive and negative electric charges arising during ionization. Air ionization occurs under the action of cosmic rays of the ultraviolet radiation of the Sun; radiation of radioactive substances present on the surface of the Earth and in the air; electrical discharges in the atmosphere, etc. Many atmospheric processes: convection, cloud formation, precipitation, and others, lead to a partial separation of opposite charges and the emergence of atmospheric electric fields. Relative to the atmosphere, the Earth's surface is negatively charged.

The existence of the electric field of the atmosphere leads to the emergence of currents that discharge the electric "capacitor" of the atmosphere - the Earth. Precipitation plays a significant role in the exchange of charges between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere. On average, precipitation brings positive charges 1.1-1.4 times more than negative ones. The leakage of charges from the atmosphere is also replenished due to the currents associated with lightning and the flow of charges from pointed objects. The balance of electric charges brought to the earth's surface with an area of ​​1 km2 per year can be characterized by the following data:

On a significant part of the earth's surface - above the oceans - the currents from the tips are excluded, and there will be a positive balance. The existence of a static negative charge on the Earth's surface (about 5.7×105 C) indicates that these currents are on average balanced.

Electric fields in the ionosphere are caused by processes occurring both in the upper layers of the atmosphere and in the magnetosphere. Tidal movements of air masses, winds, turbulence - all this is a source of electric field generation in the ionosphere due to the hydromagnetic dynamo effect. An example is the solar-diurnal electric current system, which causes diurnal variations in the magnetic field on the Earth's surface. The magnitude of the electric field strength in the ionosphere depends on the location of the observation point, the time of day, the general state of the magnetosphere and ionosphere, and the activity of the Sun. It varies from a few to tens of mV/m, and in the high-latitude ionosphere it reaches a hundred or more mV/m. In this case, the current strength reaches hundreds of thousands of amperes. Due to the high electrical conductivity of the plasma of the ionosphere and magnetosphere along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field, the electric fields of the ionosphere are transferred to the magnetosphere, and the magnetospheric fields to the ionosphere.

One of the direct sources of the electric field in the magnetosphere is the solar wind. When the solar wind flows around the magnetosphere, an EMF arises. This EMF causes electric currents to be closed by reverse currents flowing across the magnetotail. The latter are generated by positive space charges on the dawn side of the magnetotail and by negative ones on its dusk side. The magnitude of the electric field strength across the magnetotail reaches 1 mV/m. The potential difference across the polar cap is 20-100 kV.

The existence of a magnetospheric ring current around the Earth is directly related to particle drift. During periods of magnetic storms and auroras, electric fields and currents in the magnetosphere and ionosphere experience significant changes.

Magnetohydrodynamic waves generated in the magnetosphere propagate through natural waveguide channels along the lines of force of the Earth's magnetic field. Once in the ionosphere, they are converted into electromagnetic waves, which partially reach the Earth's surface, and partially propagate in the ionospheric waveguide and attenuate. On the Earth's surface, these waves are recorded, depending on the oscillation frequency, either as magnetic pulsations (10-2-10 Hz), or as very low-frequency waves (oscillations with a frequency of 102-104 Hz).

The variable magnetic field of the Earth, whose sources are localized in the ionosphere and magnetosphere, induces an electric field in the earth's crust. The electric field strength in the near-surface layer of the crust varies depending on the location and the electrical resistance of the rocks, ranging from several units to several hundred mV/km, and during magnetic storms it increases to units and even tens of V/km. Interrelated variable magnetic and electric fields of the Earth are used for electromagnetic sounding in exploration geophysics, as well as for deep sounding of the Earth.

A certain contribution to the Earth's electric field is made by the contact potential difference between rocks of different electrical conductivity (thermoelectric, electrochemical, piezoelectric effects). Volcanic and seismic processes can play a special role in this.

Electric fields in the seas are induced by the alternating magnetic field of the Earth, and also arise when conducting sea water (sea waves and currents) moves in a magnetic field. The density of electric currents in the seas reaches 10-6 A/m2. These currents can be used as natural sources of an alternating magnetic field for magnetovariational sounding on the shelf and in the sea.

The question of the electric charge of the Earth as a source of the electric field in interplanetary space has not been finally resolved. It is believed that the Earth as a planet is electrically neutral. However, this hypothesis requires its experimental confirmation. The first measurements showed that the strength of the electric field in the near-Earth interplanetary space ranges from tenths to several tens of mV/m.

In the work of D. Dyutkin, the processes leading to the accumulation of an electric charge and the formation of electric fields in the bowels of the Earth and on its surface are noted. The mechanism of occurrence of circular electric currents in the ionosphere, leading to the excitation of powerful electric currents in the surface layers of the Earth, is considered.

In the foundations of modern geophysics, it is noted that in order to maintain the intensity of the geomagnetic field, a mechanism of constant field generation must operate. The predominance of the dipole field and its axial character, as well as the westerly drift with an exceptionally high velocity for geological processes (0.2| or 20 km/year) testify to the connection of the geomagnetic field with the Earth's rotation. In addition, the direct dependence of the field strength on the speed of the Earth's rotation is proof of the interconnectedness of these phenomena.

To this we can add that by now a huge amount of statistical information has been accumulated, linking the change in the parameters of solar activity, the geomagnetic field, the speed of the Earth's rotation with the temporal periodicity and intensity of various natural processes. However, a clear physical mechanism for the interconnection of all these processes has not yet been developed.

In the works of Professor V.V. Surkov, the nature of ultra-low-frequency (ULF) electromagnetic fields is considered. The mechanism of excitation of ULF (up to 3 Hz) electromagnetic fields in the ionospheric plasma and atmosphere is described, the sources of ULF electromagnetic fields in the earth and atmosphere are indicated.

Hypotheses about the origin of the Earth's electric and magnetic fields are considered in a popular science article by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences G. Fonarev. According to the hypothesis of Academician V.V. Shuleikin, electric currents in the waters of the World Ocean create an additional magnetic field, which is superimposed on the main one. According to V.V. Shuleikin, the electric fields in the ocean should be on the order of hundreds or even thousands of microvolts per meter - these are quite strong fields. Soviet ichthyologist A.T. Mironov in the early 1930s, studying the behavior of fish, discovered in them a well-pronounced electrotaxis - the ability to respond to an electric field. This led him to the idea that electric (telluric) fields must exist in the seas and oceans. Although the hypotheses of V.V. Shuleikin and A.T. Mironov's studies have not been confirmed in practice, they are still not only of historical interest: both of them played an important stimulating role in the formulation of many new scientific problems.

2. LIVING ORGANISMS IN A NATURAL ELECTRIC FIELD

Currently, many studies have been carried out on the influence of electric fields on living organisms - from individual cells to humans. The influence of electromagnetic and magnetic fields is most often considered. A large proportion of all works are devoted to variable electromagnetic fields and their effects on living organisms, since these fields are mainly of anthropogenic origin.

Permanent electric fields of natural origin and their significance for living organisms have not been sufficiently studied so far.

The most simple and intelligible about the influence of the constant electric field of the Earth on humans, animals and plants is described in the work of A.A. Mikulin.

According to the latest research, the globe is negatively charged, that is, with an excess of free electric charges - about 0.6 million coulombs. This is a very big charge.

Repelling each other by the Coulomb forces, the electrons tend to accumulate on the surface of the globe. At a great distance from the earth, covering it from all sides, is the ionosphere, consisting of a large number of positively charged ions. There is an electric field between the earth and the ionosphere.

With a clear sky at a distance of a meter from the ground, the potential difference reaches about 125 volts. Therefore, we have the right to assert that the electrons, which, under the influence of the field, tend to escape from the surface of the earth, penetrated into the bare feet and electrically conductive ends of the nerves of the muscles of primitive man, who walked the earth barefoot and did not wear boots with electrically impervious artificial soles. This penetration of electrons continued only until the total free negative charge of a person reached the charge potential on the area of ​​the earth's surface where he was.

Under the action of the field, the charges that penetrated into the human body tried to break out, where they were captured, recombined with positively charged ions of the atmosphere, which was in direct contact with the open skin of the head and hands. The human body, its living cells and all the functional dependencies of metabolism have been adapted by nature for millions of years for a healthy human life in the conditions of a near-Earth electric field and electrical exchange, expressed, in particular, in the influx of electrons in the foot and outflow, recombination, electrons into positively charged ions of the atmosphere.

Further, the author draws an important conclusion: the muscles of animals and humans in contact with the earth are arranged by nature in such a way that they must carry a negative electric charge corresponding to the magnitude of the charge of the earth's surface on which the living being was at the moment. The magnitude of the negative charge of the human body should vary depending on the strength of the electric field at a given point on the earth at a given moment.

There are many reasons for changing the electric field strength. One of the main ones is cloudiness, which carries the strongest local electric charges. They reach tens of millions of volts at the time of lightning formation. In a living organism, on the surface of the skin, the intensity of electric charges sometimes reaches such a value that sparks appear when they come into contact with metal, when removing nylon underwear.

The latest observations by employees of the Institute of Public and Communal Hygiene have shown that when the weather changes, the well-being of a sick person depends on the magnitude of the local field strength of the earth, as well as on changes in barometric pressure, in most cases accompanying a change in field strength. But since in everyday life we ​​do not have instruments for measuring the magnitude of the voltage of the earth's field, we explain the state of health not by the main cause - a change in the field strength, but by the consequence - a drop in barometric pressure.

Experiments have shown that any mental or physical work performed by a person who is isolated from the earth is accompanied by a decrease in his negative natural charge. However, none of the described changes in electrical potential is observed or measured even by the most accurate instruments, if the human body is in contact with the ground or is connected to the ground by a conductor. The lack of electrons is immediately eliminated. On any oscilloscope, it is easy to notice these currents and determine their magnitude.

What changes in a person's life caused his departure from the natural primitive being? Man put on boots, built houses, invented non-conductive linoleum, rubber soles, filled city streets and roads with asphalt. Man today is much less in contact with the electric charges of the earth. This is one of the reasons for such “common” diseases as headaches, irritability, neurosis, cardiovascular disease, fatigue, poor sleep, etc. In the past, zemstvo doctors prescribed barefoot walks in the dew for the sick. In England, there are still several “sandal” societies functioning today. This treatment cannot be called anything other than "grounding the patient's body."

At the Institute of Plant Physiology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Biological Sciences E. Zhurbitsky set up a series of experiments to study the effect of an electric field on plants. Increasing the field to a known value accelerates growth. Placing plants in an unnatural field - at the top is a negative belt, and in the ground is positive - growth is depressing. Zhurbitsky believes that the greater the potential difference between seedlings and the atmosphere, the more intense photosynthesis proceeds. In greenhouses, the yield can be increased by 20-30%. A number of scientific institutions deal with the influence of electricity on plants: the Central Genetic Laboratory named after I.V. Michurin, employees of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University, etc.

Of interest is the work of R. A. Novitsky, devoted to the perception of electric fields and currents by fish, as well as the generation of electric fields by strong electric fish (freshwater electric eel, electric rays and catfish, American stargazer). The paper notes that weakly electric fish are highly sensitive to electric fields, which allows them to find and distinguish objects in the water, determine the salinity of the water, use the discharges of other fish for informational purposes in interspecific and intraspecific relations. Weak electric currents and magnetic fields are perceived mainly by fish skin receptors. Numerous studies have shown that in almost all weakly and strongly electrical fish, derivatives of the lateral line organs serve as electroreceptors. In sharks and rays, the electroreceptive function is performed by the so-called ampullae of Lorenzini - special mucous glands in the skin. Stronger electromagnetic fields act directly on the nerve centers of aquatic organisms.

3. Technogenic electric fields and their impact on living organisms

Technological progress, as you know, has brought mankind not only relief and convenience in production and everyday life, but also created a number of serious problems. In particular, the problem of protecting humans and other organisms from strong electromagnetic, magnetic and electric fields created by various technical devices has arisen. Later, the problem of protecting a person from prolonged exposure to weak electromagnetic fields appeared, which, as it turned out, also harms human life. And only recently they began to pay attention and conduct appropriate studies to assess the impact on living organisms of shielding natural geomagnetic and electric fields.

The influence of powerful constant and variable electric fields of technogenic origin on living organisms has been studied for a relatively long time. The sources of such fields are, first of all, high-voltage power lines (TL).

The electric field created by high-voltage power lines has an adverse effect on living organisms. The most sensitive to electric fields are ungulates and humans in footwear that isolates them from the ground. Animal hoof is also a good insulator. In this case, a potential is induced on a conducting bulk body isolated from the ground, depending on the ratio of the capacitance of the body to the ground and to the wires of the power transmission line. The smaller the capacitance to the ground (the thicker, for example, the sole of a shoe), the greater the induced potential, which can be several kilovolts and even reach 10 kV.

In experiments conducted by many researchers, a clear threshold value of the field strength was found, at which a dramatic change in the reaction of the experimental animal occurs. It is determined to be 160 kV/m, a lower field strength does not cause any noticeable harm to a living organism.

The electric field strength in the working areas of a 750 kV power transmission line at a height of human growth is approximately 5-6 times less than dangerous values. The adverse effect of the electric field of industrial frequency on the personnel of power transmission lines and substations with a voltage of 500 kV and above was revealed; at voltages of 380 and 220 kV, this effect is weakly expressed. But at all voltages, the effect of the field depends on the duration of being in it.

Based on the research, relevant sanitary norms and rules have been developed, which indicate the minimum allowable distances for the location of residential buildings from stationary radiating objects, such as power lines. These standards also provide for the maximum allowable (limiting) levels of radiation for other energy-dangerous objects. In some cases, bulky metal screens are used to protect a person, in the form of sheets, nets and other devices.

However, numerous studies by scientists in various countries (Germany, USA, Switzerland, etc.) have shown that such security measures cannot fully protect a person from the effects of harmful electromagnetic radiation (EMR). At the same time, it was found that weak electromagnetic fields (EMF), the power of which is measured in thousandths of watts, are no less dangerous, and in some cases even more dangerous, than high-power radiation. Scientists explain this by the fact that the intensity of weak electromagnetic fields is commensurate with the intensity of the radiation of the human body itself, its internal energy, which is formed as a result of the functioning of all systems and organs, including the cellular level. Such low (non-thermal) intensities characterize the radiation of electronic household appliances that are present in every home today. These are mainly computers, televisions, mobile phones, microwave ovens, etc. They are the sources of harmful, so-called. technogenic EMR, which have the ability to accumulate in the human body, while violating its bioenergetic balance, and first of all, the so-called. energy information exchange (ENIO). And this, in turn, leads to disruption of the normal functioning of the main body systems. Numerous studies in the field of the biological effect of electromagnetic fields (EMF) have made it possible to determine that the most sensitive systems of the human body are: nervous, immune, endocrine and sexual. The biological effect of EMF under conditions of long-term long-term exposure can lead to the development of long-term consequences, including degenerative processes of the central nervous system, blood cancer (leukemia), brain tumors, hormonal diseases, etc.

In the work of V.M. Korshunov, it is reported that in the 1970s, specialists returned to the effects of weak and very weak magnetic and electric fields on model physico-chemical systems, biological objects, and the human body. The mechanisms that cause these effects "work" at the level of molecules, and sometimes atoms, as a result of which they are very difficult to detect. However, scientists have experimentally demonstrated and theoretically explained the magnetic and spin effects. It turned out that although the energy of magnetic interaction is several orders of magnitude less than the energy of thermal motion, but at that stage of the reaction, where everything actually happens, thermal motion does not have time to interfere with the action of the magnetic field.

This discovery makes us take a fresh look at the very phenomenon of life on Earth, which arose and developed in the conditions of the geomagnetic field. The laboratory showed the effect of relatively weak (an order of magnitude or two higher than geomagnetic) permanent and variable magnetic fields on the output of the primary reaction of photosynthesis - the foundation of the entire ecosystem of our planet. This influence turned out to be small (less than a percent), but something else is important: proof of its real existence.

In particular, in the same work it was noted that household electrical appliances that surround us, at a certain position relative to our body (or our body relative to appliances) can affect the electrochemical processes occurring in the cells of the body.

4. DEVICES AND METHODS FOR MEASURING ELECTRIC FIELDS

To study and control the electromagnetic situation, it is necessary to have appropriate instruments - magnetometers for measuring the characteristics of magnetic fields and electric field strength meters.

Since the need for such devices is small (yet), then, basically, such devices are produced in small series for two purposes: 1 - to control sanitary safety standards; 2 - for the purposes of exploration geophysics.

For example, the federal state unitary enterprise "NPP" Cyclone-Test "serially produces an electric field meter IEP-05, which is designed to measure the root-mean-square value of the intensity of alternating electric fields created by various technical means.

Electric and magnetic field strength meters are designed to control electromagnetic safety standards in the field of nature protection, labor and population safety.

Within its technical characteristics, the device can be used to measure the strength of the electrical component of electromagnetic fields, regardless of the nature of their occurrence, including when monitoring according to SanPiN 2.2.4.1191-03 "Electromagnetic fields in production conditions" and SanPiN 2.1.2.1002-00 "Sanitary epidemiological requirements for residential buildings and premises.

The device has a direct reading of the measured field value (in real time) and can be used for electromagnetic monitoring, control of the spatial distribution of fields and the dynamics of measuring these fields in time.

The principle of operation of the device is simple: in a dipole antenna, an electric field induces a potential difference, which is measured by a device such as a millivoltmeter.

The Zyklon-Test Research and Production Enterprise also produces other devices designed to measure the parameters of electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields.

At the same time, methods of electrical exploration of minerals have long been used in geophysics. Electrical exploration is a group of exploration geophysics methods based on the study of natural or artificially excited electrical and electromagnetic fields in the earth's crust. The physical basis of electrical exploration is the difference between rocks and ores in terms of their electrical resistivity, dielectric constant, magnetic susceptibility, and other properties.

Among the various methods of electrical exploration, the methods of the magnetotelluric field should be noted. Using these methods, the variable component of the natural electromagnetic field of the Earth is investigated. The depth of penetration of the magnetotelluric field into the ground due to the skin effect depends on its frequency. Therefore, the behavior of the low frequencies of the field (hundredths and thousandths of Hz) reflects the structure of the earth's crust at depths of several kilometers, and the behavior of higher frequencies (tens and hundreds of Hz) at depths of several tens of meters. frequency allows you to study the geological structure of the study area.

Electroprospecting equipment consists of current sources, electromagnetic field sources and measuring devices. Current sources - dry cell batteries, generators and accumulators; field sources - grounded at the ends of the line or ungrounded circuits, powered by direct or alternating current. Measuring devices consist of an input converter (field sensor), a system of intermediate signal converters that converts the signal for its registration and filtering interference, and an output device that provides signal measurement. Electroprospecting equipment designed to study a geological section at a depth not exceeding 1-2 km is made in the form of light portable sets.

For research purposes, most often special equipment with the necessary parameters is manufactured.

The paper considers the most accurate and sensitive spectral methods for measuring superweak magnetic fields. However, there is an important statement here that on the basis of atomic spectroscopy a standard of electric field strength can also be constructed. The paper notes that it is possible to measure the absolute value of the electric field strength with high accuracy using the Stark effect. To do this, it is necessary to use atoms with nonzero orbital angular momentum in the ground state. However, so far, according to the author, the need for such measurements has not become acute enough for the corresponding technique to be developed.

On the contrary, right now is the time to create ultra-sensitive and precise instruments for measuring natural electric fields.

CONCLUSION

The results of numerous studies show that invisible, intangible electromagnetic, magnetic and electric fields have a serious impact on human and other organisms. The influence of strong fields has been studied quite extensively. The effect of weak fields, which had previously been overlooked, turned out to be no less important for living organisms. But research in this area has just begun.

A modern person spends more and more time in reinforced concrete-type rooms, in car cabins. But there are practically no studies related to the assessment of the impact on people's health of the shielding effect of rooms, metal cabins of cars, aircraft, etc. This is especially true for shielding the natural electric field of the Earth. Therefore, such studies are currently very relevant.

“Modern humanity, like all living things, lives in a kind of electromagnetic ocean, the behavior of which is now determined not only by natural causes, but also by artificial interference. We need experienced pilots who thoroughly know the hidden currents of this ocean, its shallows and islands. And even more stringent navigational rules are required to help protect travelers from electromagnetic storms,” Yu.A., one of the pioneers of Russian magnetobiology, vividly described the current situation. Kholodov.

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