This post is by Lizzie.
Here’s another media hit I missed; I was asked to discuss why daffodils are blooming now in January. If I could have replied I would have said something like:
(1) Vancouver is a weird mix of cool and mild for a temperate place — so we think plants accumulate their chilling (cool-ish winter temperatures needed before plants can respond to warm temperatures, but just cool — like 2-6 C is a supposed sweet spot) quickly and then a warm snap means they get that warmth they need and they start growing.
This is especially true for plants from other places that likely are not evolved for Vancouver’s climate, like daffodils.
(2) It’s been pretty warm! I bet they flowered because it has been so warm.
Deep insights, I know …. They missed me but luckily they got my colleague Doug Justice to speak and he hit my points. Doug knows plants more than I do. He also calls our cherry timing for our …
International Cherry Prediction Competition
Which is happening again this year!
You should compete! Why? You can win money, and you can help us build better models, because here’s what I would not say on TV:
We all talk about ‘chilling’ and ‘forcing’ in plants, and what we don’t tell you is that we never actually measure the physiological transition between chilling and forcing because… we aren’t sure what it is! Almost all chilling-forcing models are built on scant data where some peaches (mostly) did not bloom when they were planted in warm places 50+ years ago. We need your help!
Cherry blossom tree so pure and true,
tell me why you bloom when you do
Do you show your colours so pink, white, and red,
to tell us something that can’t be said
Or is it to something you just do,
something that’s innate, that’s truly you
Do you ever wonder why you bloom when you do,
or does one only wonder this when one hasn’t got a clue
That’s lovely!
Aww, thanks for commenting this!
I try my best to sometimes balance out my possibly “negative” and “critical” comments on this blog with some other comments, like this attempt at poetry, when I get the chance.
I wrote that in about two minutes, possibly as a result of a combination of things like:
1) reading the post (I think “hasn’t got a clue” might have partly come from “we aren’t sure what it is” written in the blogpost)
2) being busy with writing song lyrics
3) having a wondering mind about what scientists even do, and why, and whether that’s a good thing
“In springtime’s embrace, cherry blossoms unfold,
Petals like whispers in hues of pink and gold.
Nature’s ballet, a delicate display,
As April’s breath ushers the bloom’s ballet.
This year, the blossoms await their cue,
A dance in sync with the skies so blue.
Patience, like petals, gently unfurls,
Cherry blossom time, a gift to the world.”
That’s what I got from ChatGPT (10 seconds, no attempt to refine). Still better than I can do myself.
I have thought about AI stuff in relation to song lyrics. I wondered whether AI could create a coherent story-like song, not just random words that rhyme and sound cool. I think it might even be possible for AI to generate those types of lyrics, as possibly evidenced by your poem. I think that one is also pretty coherent.
What I wonder, and what I may have even done in at least one of my songs-lyrics and in the little poetry attempt above is perhaps telling something which can only be read and understood when reading between te lines so to say. For instance, the words “hasn’t got a clue” can be interpreted in several ways, one of which can be seen as being in line with words like “tell us something that can’t be said” and “innate” and things like that.
I wonder whether this reading between the lines might provide a nuance and interpretation which can’t be produced by AI. But, I don’t know much about AI, and do not like it, and do not want to investigate it.
I don’t want to investigate it either. I suspect you are correct that you can find subtle ways to distinguish between an AI generated poem and a human one – although more careful use of each can make it more difficult. Given how little most of us read poetry (speaking for myself), the fact is that it isn’t hard for an LLM to produce a poem “close enough” to fool me. That I find both amazing and disturbing.
The cherry trees will bloom in early spring when most days are too chilly and rainy to take a camera for a walk.
And, as Murphy would tell you, the nice days are the days I’ll have things that can’t be reschelduled.
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Yes somewhat relatedly here in the UK you tend not to notice the early spring blossom appearing on the trees until the first day of glorious spring sunshine when it seems like everything has burst into flower overnight.
Spring is ridiculously long in Japan, starting with the plum trees that bloom ahead of the cherries, and then different things (such as different varieties of azaleas/rhododendrons (I think they are)) blooming at different times. I did some joke photo titles about asking native informants (i.e. various flowering plants) whether it’s spring yet last year.
Start here: https://pbase.com/davidjl/image/173446495
and click “next” a few times in the upper right. (When you get to B&W photos of Boston in the 1960s, you’ve gone too far.)
(You may have to scroll the view up to see the titles under the images.)