Polygraph Plants

The Invention Of The Polygraph

Amit Katwala | CrimeReads | 8th March 2023

Extract from a new book about the lie detector. Gus Vollmer, 1920s police chief in Berkeley, California, sought to prove Daniel Defoe's idea that "there is a tremor in the blood of a thief". Vollmer had a subordinate create "a Frankenstein device" that measured a subject's blood pressure and breathing rate. Then he tested it on the officer that built it — who had been slacking off on duty (3,284 words)

What Plants Are Saying About Us

Amanda Gefter | Nautilus | 7th March 2023

Are plants intelligent? They can distinguish between the self and others, communicate with those around them, and interact with their environment in a way that can seem "cognitive". And yet they have nothing we could identify as a brain. The researcher interviewed here argues that accepting plant intelligence requires a new conception of human intelligence, too (5,069 words)