--- title: Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds description: MIT researchers discovered that rice seeds can sense the sound of falling raindrops and germinate 30–40% faster when exposed to rain-induced acoustic... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds | daily.dev og:description: MIT researchers discovered that rice seeds can sense the sound of falling raindrops and germinate 30–40% faster when exposed to rain-induced acoustic... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/F6c7AryNX.png og:image:alt: Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary MIT researchers discovered that rice seeds can sense the sound of falling raindrops and germinate 30–40% faster when exposed to rain-induced acoustic vibrations. The study, published in Scientific Reports, is the first direct evidence that plant seeds can sense sounds in nature. The proposed mechanism involves sound waves dislodging statoliths — tiny gravity-sensing organelles inside seed cells — which triggers growth signals. Experiments with ~8,000 rice seeds confirmed the effect, and calculations showed that underwater sound pressure from a nearby raindrop can be equivalent to standing meters from a jet engine in air. The researchers suggest this ability may help seeds gauge whether they are at an optimal depth for germination. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Plants appear to detect the patter of falling rain](https://daily.dev/posts/plants-appear-to-detect-the-patter-of-falling-rain-j6flcn2ia) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ultrasonic device dramatically speeds harvesting of water from the air](https://daily.dev/posts/ultrasonic-device-dramatically-speeds-harvesting-of-water-from-the-air-kqvqmilgt) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Graphene Plant Tattoos Turn Leaves Into Live Sensors](https://daily.dev/posts/graphene-plant-tattoos-turn-leaves-into-live-sensors-nw9yzwxu4) · IEEE Spectrum · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Bacteria Marching To The Beat Of A Tiny Drum](https://daily.dev/posts/bacteria-marching-to-the-beat-of-a-tiny-drum-urag7iulu) · Hackaday · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [These tiny drones are powered by sound](https://daily.dev/posts/these-tiny-drones-are-powered-by-sound-rqya8ok3t) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx"},"datePublished":"2026-04-22T09:05:17.604Z","dateModified":"2026-04-22T09:05:43.121Z","description":"MIT researchers discovered that rice seeds can sense the sound of falling raindrops and germinate 30–40% faster when exposed to rain-induced acoustic...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/db2927524c3c60fde8baa7573d07423b?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/db2927524c3c60fde8baa7573d07423b?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"MIT News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MIT News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/881e20a40aa44b12ba4bd27f5c14289d","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/plants-can-sense-the-sound-of-rain-a-new-study-finds-f6c7arynx","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MIT News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/mit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Plants can sense the sound of rain, a new study finds"}]} ```