Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or “doomsday vault,” on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle took its first deposits in March 2008. The vault’s builders had spent some $7 million and 12 months blasting a tunnel and three chambers into the mountainside’s hard permafrost. To be stored within? Treasure.
Continue reading… “‘Doomsday vault’ keeps over 800,000 plant species on ice”
Now if they could grow pre-printed 100 dollar bills!
In theory, plants could be the ultimate “green” factories, engineered to pump out the kinds of raw materials we now obtain from petroleum-based chemicals. But in reality, getting plants to accumulate high levels of desired products has been an elusive goal.
Continue reading… “Plants created to grow PLASTIC!!!!”
When plant-eating mammals such as goats chomp on a sprig of alfalfa, they could easily gobble up some extra protein in the form of insects that happen to get in their way. But a new report in the August 10th issue of Current Biology, shows that plant-dwelling pea aphids have a strategy designed to help them avoid that dismal fate: The insects sense mammalian breath and simply drop to the ground.
Continue reading… “Insects Sense Danger on Mammals’ Breath”
In the beginning is the fertilized egg cell. Following numerous cell divisions, it then develops into a complex organism with different organs and tissues. The largely unexplained process whereby the cells simply “know” the organs into which they should later develop is an astonishing phenomenon.
Forests in northern areas are stunted, verging on the edge of survival. It has been anticipated that climate change improves their growth conditions. A study published in Forest Ecology and Management journal shows that due to their genetic characteristics trees are unable to properly benefit from the lengthening growing season.
Continue reading… “Northern Forests Do Not Benefit from Lengthening Growing Season, Study Finds”
Approximately 120-130 million years ago, one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth occurred: the first flowering plants, or angiosperms, arose. In the late 1800s, Darwin referred to their development as an “abominable mystery.” To this day, scientists are still challenged by this “mystery” of how angiosperms originated, rapidly diversified, and rose to dominance.
Continue reading… “Secrets In A Seed: Clues Into The Evolution Of The First Flowers”
The great diversity of male sexual traits, ranging from peacock’s elaborate train to formidable genitalia of male seed beetles, is the result of female choice. But why do females choose among males? In a new study published October 22 in Current Biology, researchers from Uppsala University found no support for the theory that the female choice is connected to “good genes”.
Continue reading… “Female Choice Benefits Mothers More Than Offspring”
Tomato seeds exposed to nanoparticles in the form of carbon nanotubes that are only 1/50,000 the width of a human hair, sprouted sooner and grew faster in what researchers are describing as a step toward the “goals of nanoagriculture.”
Continue reading… “Carbon Nanotubes Make Tomatoes Grow Faster”
With potential adverse health and environmental effects often in the news about nanotechnology, scientists in Arkansas are reporting that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could have beneficial effects in agriculture. Their study, scheduled for the October issue of ACS Nano, found that tomato seeds exposed to CNTs germinated faster and grew into larger, heavier seedlings than other seeds. That growth-enhancing effect could be a boon for biomass production for plant-based biofuels and other agricultural products, they suggest.
Continue reading… “Advance In ‘Nano-Agriculture:’ Tiny Stuff Has Huge Effect On Plant Growth”
Scientists have shown that the main shoot dominates a plant’s growth principally because it was there first, rather than due to its position at the top of the plant. Continue reading… “Explaining Why Pruning Encourages Plants To Thrive”
To thine own self be true” may take on a new meaning—not with people or animal behavior but with plant behavior.
Continue reading… “Sagebrush Engage In Self-recognition And Warn Of Danger”
Plants or meat: That’s about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur’s diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur. Continue reading… “Sands Of Gobi Desert Yield New Species Of Nut-cracking Dinosaur”
