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Celebrating Plants and People

  • Newly Discovered Bee Behavior Re-imagines Pollination

    More than just a biological curiosity, the discovery could open the door to advances in areas ranging from improving the efficiency of certain crop pollination to better understanding muscular stress and the development of miniature flying robots. (Click image or title for full story.)

  • Your Smartphone And Tablet Would Not Exist Without Carrots

    It was the Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer and the German physicist Otto Lehmann who discovered liquid crystals in 1888 when they were experimenting with the natural substances found in carrots and came across a strange phenomenon: some of the substances appeared to have not just one, but two different melting points. At the first melting point, the substance melted into a cloudy liquid, and at the second the cloudiness suddenly disappeared, giving way to a clear transparent liquid, a new state of matter that was termed “liquid crystal”. (Click on image or title for full story.)

  • Maybe It Takes A Society To Save Large-Fruited Rain Forest Trees

    If an area becomes devoid of rainforest and is then recolonised and there are no animals capable of dispersing large-fruited species, it becomes recolonised only by small-fruited species. So you lose a whole component of your biodiversity because there’s no mechanism to bring the large-fruited species back. (Click on image or title for full story)

  • The Parasitic Plant, Its Host Tree, The Caterpillars and the Ants. A Circle Of Life Thing

    What this suggests to us is that there’s an evolutionary relationship between this butterfly, its caterpillars, and the parasitic plant. And, of course, the ants. (Click on image or title for full story.)

  • Seaweed Is Becoming Big Business In Maine

    The state now supports more than 20 companies that grow or collect seaweed, about double from 10 years ago. Maine harvesters collected 17.7 million pounds of seaweed in 2014—the most ever recorded for the state and more than four times the 2004 total. )Click on image or title for full story.)

  • Invasive Plant Inspires Innovative Waterproof Coating For Boats

    A floating weed that clogs waterways around the world has at least one redeeming feature: It’s inspired a high-tech waterproof coating intended for boats and submarines. (Click on image or title for full story.)

  • Tropical Birds And Farms Can Co-Exist If Some Trees Are Saved

    Knocking down the Costa Rican forest to make room for farms and pastures can drive away the birds and the benefits they bring to farmers. That’s the bad news. The bit of good news is that data from 10 years of careful counting of birds in rural Costa Rica have led Stanford researchers to conclude that birds and farmers can co-exist, to everyone’s benefit, if some trees are left in the fields and pastures. (Click on image or title for full story.)

  • Ant-Plant Symbiotic Relationships: It’s Complicated

    Tropical ants often enter into obligate symbioses with plant hosts, which often prove to be mutually beneficial for both sides. The ants protect their hosts against herbivores, such as caterpillar larvae, and in return they receive cosy nesting-sites and an ample supply of food. How such relationships are initiated and what factors determine their subsequent course are among the major unanswered questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. (Click image or title for full story)

  • Bees Not The Only Important Pollinators. Non-Bees Just As Important To Crops.

    Fruit set in crops increased with non-bee insect visits, independently of bee visitation rates, indicating that non-bee insects provide a unique benefit not provided by bees. We also found that non-bee pollinators were less sensitive to habitat fragmentation than bees. (Click image or title for full story.)

  • Algae-based Batteries Are On The Way

    Currently, the photosynthetic power cell exists on a small scale, and consists of an anode, cathode and proton exchange membrane. The cyanobacteria or blue green algae are placed in the anode chamber. As they undergo photosynthesis, the cyanobacteria release electrons to the electrode surface. An external load is connected to the device to extract the electrons and harness power. (Click on image ot title for full story)