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Moss Is Generating Electrical Waves That Look Startlingly Like a Neural Network
NATURE
22 July 2026
By JESS COCKERILL

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A different type of moss to the one studied. (Oliver Strewe/Getty Images Plus)
Mosses are some of the earliest plants that appeared in the fossil record, but they're anything but simple.
A new study, published in Royal Society Open Science, reveals that moss cushions produce surprisingly complex electrical activity, with patterns that undulate across the velvety patch in dynamic waves.

The study's sole author, Andy Adamatzky, is actually a computer scientist, whose fascination with unconventional 'computing' systems like slime molds, crowds, and mycelium networks has now led him to a new subject: the humble moss, Brachythecium rutabulum.

Brachythecium rutabulum is a common species of moss. (dr Barmely/iStock/Getty Images Plus)
"Plants and bryophytes display diverse forms of electrical activity, yet the organization of endogenous signals in mosses has received little attention," Adamatzky writes in his new paper.

His findings suggest that "moss cushions behave as spatially distributed excitable systems potentially capable of coordinating and integrating electrical signals across both space and time."

Moss cushions are actually many individual clones of the same teensy tiny plant.

If you look really, really closely at a mat of moss, you can see it is made up of simple, minute leaves on stems, similar to those of their larger plant relatives.

But the stems of mosses are actually much less useful at moving water and nutrients around the body of the plant.

Mosses actually never developed the vascular systems that we see in other more complex plants, which is why they cannot grow much taller than a few centimeters. Their leaf-like structures are just one cell thick; they don't even have roots.

But that doesn't mean they're not potentially capable of transmitting information across the colony by other means.

For the study, Adamatzky collected cushions of the common moss species B. rutabulum from natural outdoor environments in North Somerset in the UK.

Back in the lab, he poked electrodes into the moss clumps to track any electrical activity that might be passing across this soggy green matrix.
Figures a) and b) show the experimental setup, with electrodes inserted into moss on a wet substrate. Figure c) shows the moss's electrical activity, with recordings from each electrode pair represented by a distinct color. (Adamatzky, R. Soc. Open Sci., 2026)
Like many plants, moss lives life in slow motion, so to get on its level, Adamatzky recorded its electrical behavior across multiple days.

This revealed "a rich repertoire of electrical events, including components consistent with both physiological activity and slower drift-related processes: fast oscillatory spikes, slower rhythmic fluctuations and very slow depolarization waves," he reports.

"In addition to these described classes, we also observed spikes resembling high-amplitude action potentials and neuron-like spike trains."

Some of the moss's electrical waves were rapid, while others undulated slowly. They tended to spread across the entire cushion rather than remaining confined to a particular region, and followed patterns across different timescales.

Like when a human throws water at them, I always imagined from a bug’s perspective it would be a natural disaster like how we perceive storms.

Because sometimes a cat doesn’t even seem to notice a human arm belonging to the human in front of them as a whole torso, or are they all smarter than this?

As far as I'm concerned, phages can only attack bacteria and apparently are capable of easily navigating through the human body. So could we at some point give Phages receptors that bind to those of human cancer cells or a "complementary tail" to bypass the softer layer of human cells compared to the more rigid-like wall of bacteria etc.

How does a blue-tongued skink say yes to visitors? 🦎

Meet Tilly, whose zookeepers use target training, a technique where jumping at a target earns him a tasty cockroach treat and guides him right into his carrier. This method, known in animal care as “choice and control”, means Tilly decides if he's up for visiting the museum floor, and if he skips the target, he simply stays home instead. A simple system to keep Tilly feeling safe and comfortable every time he chooses to say yes!

I understand that glucose (high levels of) damages blood vessels by narrowing them, and as a consequence worsening blood flow, but how exactly does it impact wound healing if not just by restricting blood supply that would deliver platelets and clotting agents to the site?

Growing up I’ve heard of diabetic people who had limbs amputated and that have always intrigued me. Thanks in advance all!

I have a dog named Rex, so whenever he’s around new people he acts weirdly, for instance tuck his tail between his legs or maybe look away whenever someone wants to pat his head

Seeing a recent post on canine transmissible venereal tumor got me thinking.

Bivalves are uniquely prone to transmissible neoplasm. Already 8 lineages have been found in modern times. One of them, MtrBTN2 has disseminated worldwide. Some have also already infected other species of bivalves.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-85098-5

Extrapolating this tendency all the way back to the Cambrian, roughly 500million years ago, when bivalves first emerged, there would have been hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of such lineages if not more.

Given the selection pressure against aggressive disease behaviour, the more indolent ones would be selected for. Coupled with the BTN cells’ ability to survive in seawater for some time, some may conceivably evolve to become free floating forms.

At any given time it is unlikely, but when you compound this across 500 million years, it is almost a certainty that there are very ancient lineages that still exist today. They may have outgrown their host and look like any free living protist in the sea, with life cycle stages that may or may not involve infecting bivalves. But when we sequence seawater, all metazoan genome is filtered away, they would have not been detected if we are not actively looking for it.

TLDR: I posit that ancient bivalve transmissible neoplasm lineages likely still exist and may be indistinguishable from any free living protist, with or without a parasitic life cycle. Surely one would have to classify such entities as a separate species of single cell bivalvia.

About 5 months ago I graduated with a Biology Degree and I seriously think it was the worst decision of my life. In highschool I always loved biology and would participate in the science fair every year. When I didn’t really know what to do in college I decided to go with a science degree because I was really interested in GMOs. All the professors really hyped it up but then by my last year I was graduating early and realized I really didn’t have any experience and hadn’t even enjoyed it all that much. My advisor never really gave me any guidance with my schedule, nor internships so I didn’t even look into them. I took one DNA technology class and microbiology class but that is literally the extent of my “Lab Experience.” I’m now a manager at this coffee shop which I love but of course I need a real job with benefits, and I know I’m completely disappointing my family. Does anyone have any advice on what steps I should take next, or any internships I should apply for? A professor suggested I go back to school to get a GIS certification but I really don’t want to waste all that money just for me to not even get a job again.

If anyone can point me to a database/library, good papers of books on the subject or just sharing anything you know would be appreciated, I’m a geologist and don’t know a lot of the biology terminology or good key words to search.

The video in Bristol Caverns a tour cave in eastern TN, this video is from a room with a small natural entrance however I have seen the same stuff in rooms in a cave called Worleys cave around 300 feet and 4 rooms from the entrance (in total darkness) as far as I have been able to find it is Actinomycetes but I could be wrong (again not a biologist) they fluoresce green, pink/purple and orange under 365nm UV if that helps.

Again any information or advice is appreciated!

Edit: please ignore the audio.

I know it sounds stupid.

The drug basically loosens up the uterus lining and you sit on the toilet and just shit out the period I guess. Like a period diarrhea, a Piarrhea

Plus another drug that greatly reduces cramps, or if it's not too effective, it can be paired with a strong numbing cream/injection.

It could possibly be the same price of tampons/pads.

Also please tell me why this wouldn't be feasible, recommended, or would be unsafe. Thank you ;)

So I have always been into simulating fluid dynamics and made this visualisation to show how heart disease progresses.

Computational Fluid Dynamics has so many applications!

YT: https://youtube.com/shorts/YeEj1JfpKs8?si=OG-xE7ysSOfoKCoH

I have a bachelor's of Science in biology and i applied to vet school twice but due to lack of guidance didn't meet the shadowing requirements. I decided to put that dream on pause and got a job as a microbiology technician at a biomedical research facility. We do vaccine and antibiotic development at a large scale for bsl-2 and bsl-3 agents. Im currently making $24 an hour and have been working there for 2 years. I enjoy the work but its very difficult work for low pay. Im looking to maybe get a masters degree to help increase my salary and job opportunities. Any recommendations? Id prefer something completely online if possible. I have mostly cell culture experience and im not great with math or computers.

From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense to me why girls reach puberty when they do. Becoming pregnant before the body is sufficiently strong and developed would be risky, and the body still needs a lot of energy and nutrients to finish growing.

But for males, I don't see an obvious reason why natural selection wouldn't favor becoming reproductively mature as early as possible. In fact, boys tend to reach puberty even later than girls on average.

Is there an evolutionary or biological explanation for this that I'm missing?

I was having a discussion with someone... And they cited so many points including: humans having F_st scores higher than many animals who have lower F_st scores and yet qualify as different subspecies, humans having visible traits that differentiate from each other based on geography, there being humans who were genetically or geographically isolated for tens of thousands of years, IQ scores remaining intact even when a geographically ancestral people live and grow up in another country, it being possible to plot accurate ancestries through 23&me by analyzing the individual's genome, and so much more.

I am against racism, so to speak. But he raised so many points to which I need answers. Kindly give me the counter points to these points.

Hey! I’m about to start my coursework for my bachelors in biology, I was curious to know from those who have already been through it, what course/s did you struggle with the most? What tips or resources helped you the most? Any advice that you have for a new student?

I don’t start class until spring, so I have a couple of months to refresh and prepare myself before starting and want to set myself up for success as best I can.

Thanks!!

I've read that siphonophores are not one organism, but rather a colony of smaller, specialized, and genetically-identical organisms that are connected.

Is this not just an animal?

I have two lungs. They are two highly-specialized and genetically-identical organisms (organs) that, just like zooids, can not reproduce, find food, or otherwise survive on their own. They must be physically attached to a greater collective. For even the most basic of matters, they rely on working together with other organisms (organs) which are also genetically-identical to them. From what I have read, that is no different from how zooids function.

How are siphonophores different from life that simply has epigenetically-differentiated cells/cell-groups?

When I started college I was planning on becoming a park ranger or a zookeeper or something of the like, but I'm about to be a senior and I can't walk unassisted for more than a few minutes. In the heat outside it gets even worse, and I have to use a wheelchair sometimes. I'm a biology major with class and extracurricular experience related to herpetology, some field work and some research. My area has a high saturation of medical students, which made it difficult to find a summer science job because they all have relevant experience in labs and I don't. Are there any options that are still zoology or ecology or wildlife related that don't involve a lot of physical labor? I've seen a few microbio lab type things, I'm just trying to see if there's anything closer to my original plan before I go with that. Are there any reptile, small animal, or insect related jobs that can be done mostly seated? I really wasn't planning on becoming disabled right before my career started. I truly appreciate any input.

SynBio Studio es como un Visual Studio Code, pero para la biología molecular. Es un software que permite a los científicos programar circuitos genéticos con un lenguaje propio y ver en tiempo real cómo van a interactuar esas moléculas en una simulación digital, antes de gastar tiempo y dinero probándolo en un laboratorio real." (Resido en España si alguien conoce algún laboratorio para poder hablar que prueben mi plataforma estaría muy agradecido y muchas gracias 🙏🙏)