I believe that the greatest part in regards to a liberal arts education is that not only do you get to focus on your individual major (in my case I'm going to school to become a pharmacist), but you're also exposed to a multitude of classes, ideas, and thought processes that otherwise would be overlooked. This Socratic method of learning, at least in my opinion, harbors a truly well-rounded intellectual.
So there I was, taking a music class during my first semester of school. I love music with my mind, body, and soul - even while writing this I am listening to Bon Iver's new album! Music's ability to stimulate creativity, relax the mind, and bring utmost joy is unparalleled. An interesting assignment was given to us towards the end of our semester: as a class, we were to write a cohesive research paper on music's effects on developmental growth. As we were an eleven person class, it was easier to allocate different segments to different people.
So most people took the normal route; how music affects the development of babies, how classical music impacts the brain of learners. I took a not-so talked about route.
I had always wanted to conduct a study on music's impact on plant growth and development. My father had always told me that plants are more intelligent than we think, that they're living, breathing entities that respond positively to positive encouragement (whether or not calling a plant beautiful will help it grow, as my Dad said, is debatable, but it certainly intrigued me). I had planned to conduct my own experiment to feed my curiosity, however work got in the way. This gave me the perfect opportunity to search for answers.
You'd be amazed at how many prior experiments have occurred to test music's impact on plant growth.
I chose to focus on five studies within my paper, and as I would love to discuss the findings of each of these unique scientific research papers the message can come across with a synthesis of one.
In an interesting experiment, Sharma et al. attempted to study soft, melodious music's effects on plants' morphological and physiological development. Using eight different plants, where each plant had an experimental and control group, the authors found groundbreaking results. When exposed to music, plants had more flowers, they budded earlier, they had an increased number of leaves, and even more profound was the increase in the concentration of metabolites such as sugar, protein, starch, Phenol, and even chlorophyll.
All of these studies found that when music was played, plants responded positively. Even different genres and types of music had different affects on plants, possibly due to the different types of sound waves produced. Music had the ability to beneficially impact the morphological and physiological development of the plants. It's utterly incredible.
Think of the implications this could have. Nurseries could increase business by increasing the liveliness and vibrant nature of their plants, small subsistence farmers could increase their crop yield, and coupled together with other farming techniques could greatly produce the productivity of our farmers.
They may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. Thank you for reading!
Sharma, Deepti, et al. “The Effect of Music on Physico-Chemical Parameters of Selected
Plants.” International Journal of Plant, Animal and Environmental Sciences 5.1 (2015):
282-287. Web. PDF file.