plants' "sleep" gene

Interesting ideas! Read them both. Isn't it amazing what we don't know?

lol at least we're getting wise enough to know that we don't know it all! Previous ages were so arrogant in their attitudes, we're learning humility and therefore learning a lot more besides.

The links on the BBC pages are interesting in their own right: I've found another one to "plant light gene" which apparently isn't the same as the "plant dark gene"; one can start off here and go on a long walk, a small step at a time, and end up miles away from where one started!

That's the fun of it!

lol indeed, a meander through nature and you don't know where yo're going or where you'll end up, but the journey is so much fun you don't much mind

Interesting Fran. I suppose we shouldnt really be surprised we know so little about some things. - It was only about 500 years ago we realised the thing that makes us function is the brain- located in our heads. Before that it was thought that the heart was the place where all our thinking was done. We are still discovering lots more about the brain. There is such a lot we still dont know.

but at least now we're wise enough to know that we don't know it all - or most of us do *s*.

We still learn things "by heart" - somehow "by brain" doesn't sound right!

It took so long to get rid of some of the more extreme Greek misconcepotions: that men and women had a different number of teeth, that the penis had a direct link to the brain - but then again .... :} - and some of their medical remedies have to be read to be disbelieved! but still, comapred wtih what came after, they were a pinnacle of enlightenment.