Celebrating Plants and People
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Loss Of Urban Forest Killing Us?
In an analysis of 18 years of data from 1,296 counties in 15 states, researchers found that Americans living in areas infested by the emerald ash borer, a beetle that kills ash trees, suffered from an additional 15,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 6,000 more deaths from lower respiratory disease when compared to uninfected areas.
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Reforestation With Non-Native Trees: More Harm Than Help?
The animals have all moved far away – they can’t hide in the pine trees, We used to look for herbal medicines in the forest, but now we can’t. There is something that was lost along with those trees. We have lost a big thing.”
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He’s Not Really Right For You: Mutualism Fails The Test
Insect-Eating Bat Outperforms Nectar Specialist as Pollinator of Cactus Flowers
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Are Moths "Nectar Foodies"?
For moths, the ability to seek and remember alternate sources of food helps them survive harsh, food-deprived conditions. Scientists knew bees could learn, but this is the first proof that moths can too.
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Climate Change Pressures Cloud Forest To Extinction
Their mission: To collect as many species of flowering plants as possible and return to base camp before heavy afternoon rains swell the river to dangerous levels. They're racing a different clock, too. Climate change and development are beginning to erase these irreplaceable ecosystems. The researchers are scrambling to understand what is here before it disappears.
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Ant "Bouncers" Keep Poor Pollinators Out
Most flowers don't want pesky ants hanging around scaring away would-be pollinators. Not so the Singapore rhododendron – the first flower found to recruit ants to chase poor pollinators away.
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Mistletoe Could Be Better Than Chemotherapy
One of the mistletoe extracts — from a species known as Fraxini (which grows on ash trees) — was highly effective against colon cancer cells in cell culture and was gentler on healthy intestinal cells compared with chemotherapy.
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Botanical Horror! Cannibal Algae
It's the first time that a member of the plant kingdom has been shown to break down another plant's cellulose, the biopolymer that gives strength to plants' cell walls, and use it as an energy source, according to the new research.
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Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell: Electricity From Marshes
An unexpected source of new, clean energy has been found: the Plant-Microbial Fuel Cell that can generate electricity from the natural interaction between living plant roots and soil bacteria.
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Cultivating Plants To Mine For Rare Metals
Fields of native flowers may soon become high tech nanoparticle factories if a team of scientists in the United Kingdom succeeds in using plants to extract soil pollutants which bacteria will then process into useful materials.