Gene-editing has created a generation of musical crops

It has been known for some time that plants can talk to one another. Many communicate chemically, both through the air and via their roots—warning each other, for example, of the arrival of herbivorous insects in order to co-ordinate their responses to these pests. Those responses are also often a form of communication, namely a further release of chemicals that recruit predators and parasites of said herbivores. These then solve their summoners’ problems by having lunch.