Understanding Trees

 THE AMAZING DISCOVERY that trees growing closely together cooperate with each other in sharing resources instead of competing against each other for minerals and water, as had long been assumed to be the case by science, is worthy of a joyful human response for two basic reasons. Philosophically, nature turns out to be less brutal, less of a dog eat dog affair that it often seems, and often is. Somehow, that seems comforting, in our human world of competition and winners and  losers. The muddle sinks into the ground between two tall tress and they do not fight over it, as we had all long thought and assumed,they divide it half and half, just like we teach our children to do, without much success. Some smart scientist finally got around to putting a little dye in a puddle of water and found out the truth; the nearby trees divied up the water just as if they were sharing a pizza. A tree hugger myself, I planted about twenty saplings when I built my house on a barren vacant lot more than fifteen years ago. Now I Live in the middle of a mini forest of forty foot oaks and maples, and I love it. It comforts me to think that during our increasingly frequent droughts, my trees, several of which stand close together, shoulder to shoulder, share and share alike.This phenomenon appears not to be the only example of unexpected communication in nature. For several decades physicists have known that subatomic particles on opposite sides of the universe actually communicate, mysteriously, in what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" Obviously, Einstein was as baffled by it as the next man.. Our new knowledge tells us as much about science as it does about trees. Science never claims to be perfect, like religion does, it merely claims that it tries, that it constantly works to change and improve itself, which religion does not. A long time ago I lost a good friend over this matter. Someone in the group told us that there are extraterrestrials living among us, and I had the audacity to ask for proof. I justified my demand on the basis that the scientific method requires proof for all claims of fact, especially extraordinary claims. He responded, cleverly he thought, that science makes mistakes, and that scientists sometimes disagree. Ye, of course science makes mistakes, and not only do scientists sometimes disagree, they disagree trillions of times, constantly. that's what makes science work. it corrects itself. Everybody puts their cards on the table, and the best hand wins. the best hand is the one which fits the fact, which can be proven and proven over and over again. You'll never see any religion doing that. Religion must be perfect, and because of that, it must never change, even though it does, quite by accident due to human folly and vanity. Now that I understand them better, I love my beautiful trees, and all trees, more than ever, and the same goes for science.