"Lyrics of the Rain Forests," by Philip Emeagwali

Discussion Questions

After you have read the essay, discuss these questions with your newsgroup or partner.

1. What can we learn from 500 million years of plant evolution?

2. Do you think Emeagwali can design better computers by emulating the branching patterns of plants?

3. Do you believe that plants possess intelligence; can respond to music; and communicate with humans? Can you imagine other interesting traits of plants that is worth investigating?

4. IBM research chemist, Marcel Vogel, said:

It is fact: man can and does communicate with plant life. Plants are living objects, sensitive, rooted in space. They may be blind, deaf, and dumb in the human sense, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are extremely sensitive instruments for measuring man's emotions.