Yasmine Meroz: how plants compute without a brain.

A special biomathematics seminar, open to all and with seating first come first served. Yasmine Meroz of Tel Aviv University gives a talk titled 'Plants as a Window on Decentralized Computation and Mechanical Intelligence', presenting plants as a model system in which sensing, information processing and behavior emerge from growth and mechanics without a brain or nervous system. She shows how plants represent directional light as vectors, with perceptual distortions akin to optical illusions, and how climbing plants test the stiffness of supports before twining around them. The seminar is hosted by Omer Karin at Imperial College London and takes place in room 130 of the Huxley Building on the South Kensington Campus.