plants

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IBM Creates Plastic From Plants

(Newser) - IBM has created a form of plastic that is made from plants, the company announced today. Researchers claim that the process can lead to the replacement of petroleum-based plastics that are killing our planet. "This discovery and new approach using organic catalysts could lead to well-defined, biodegradable molecules made...

Aquaponics Gaining Converts Among Gardeners

System of fish and fertilizer is catching on

(Newser) - Aquaponics—the word is a blend of hydroponics and aquaculture, the cultivation of fish—is backyard agriculture using only fish droppings as fertilizer. And it's not for everyone, at least yet. One man’s greenhouse “wouldn’t look out of place on a wayward space station where pioneers have...

Hey, Vegans, Plants Have Feelings, Too
 Hey, Vegans, Plants 
 Have Feelings, Too 
opinion
Dec 22, 2009 1:52 PM CST

Hey, Vegans, Plants Have Feelings, Too

It's time we give them the same due we give animals

(Newser) - It's hip these days to banish meat from the diet, chow down instead on the plant world, and congratulate ourselves for our enlightened morals. But what about the poor plants? They "no more aspire to being stir-fried in a wok than a hog aspires to being peppercorn-studded in my...

Scientists Find Ancestor to Giant Dinosaurs

It's a link between smaller bipeds and huge quadripeds

(Newser) - Paleontologists in South Africa have found a new dinosaur, a sort of missing link between smaller two-legged creatures that dined on plants and the long-necked carnivorous giants of Jurassic Park. The new species, aardonyx celestae, was 20 feet long and walked on two feet. But crucially, it was able to...

Plant Your Own Beer Garden

  Plant Your Own Beer Garden 
Jul 2, 2009 12:14 PM CDT

Plant Your Own Beer Garden

Even if you don't drink, hop vines can be an attractive garden addition

(Newser) - Sure, anyone can buy a home beer-making kit. But why not go one step further and grow the hops yourself? That’s what Ben Granger, owner of a specialty beer shop, decided to do when he turned to home brewing. “I wanted to know what I was working with,...

Feds Showing More Love for Uglier Endangered Species

(Newser) - When you’re an endangered species jockeying for federal funding, good looks are historically a plus. That may be changing, the Washington Post reports. In the past, researchers note, “there has been a very heavy bias toward ‘charismatic megafauna’—relatively large, well-known birds and mammals.” But...

Plants Warn Each Other: Study
 Plants Warn Each Other: Study 
Jun 22, 2009 7:11 AM CDT

Plants Warn Each Other: Study

(Newser) - They can't quite tweet, but plants have sophisticated means of communication nonetheless, reports the Telegraph . A new study suggests they use complex chemical signals to discuss both predators and pollinators. In one test, sagebrush shrubs whose neighbors had their leaves clipped, as if by grasshoppers, appeared to grow more...

Human Hair Grows Plants, Profits for Fla. Company

(Newser) - For growers and gardeners of all kinds, Smart Grow mats could be revolutionary. Tucked around the stems of plants, the cheap, natural mats keep weeds and pests away as they spur growth. There’s just one thing holding them back: They’re made from human hair. “No matter what...

Can Tomatoes Grow to Love Shakespeare?

Brit study puts plants-love-voices theory to the test

(Newser) - A tomato by any other name might taste as sweet, but will it grow as fast without the sound of a human voice? A new British study intends to find out with recordings of Shakespeare's verse and a poem by John Wyndman. The recordings will be played to the plants...

Saltwater Crops Could Ease Land Demand

Hardy, saltwater-loving plants could produce biofuels from otherwise unusable land

(Newser) - A worldwide shortage of prime farmland has scientists taking a closer look at plants that thrive on briny water, Wired reports. Plants that can grow in earth too salty for other crops have huge potential for use as biofuel as well as food: One variety produces 1.7 times more...

Global Warming Changes Thoreau's Walden

27% of species have disappeared from Mass. pond author made famous

(Newser) - While living at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau collected detailed data on the plant species native to Concord, Mass. Scientists studying climate change have compared those records to present-day biodiversity—and found chilling evidence of global warming’s effects, the Boston Globe reports. 27% of the species Thoreau documented are...

Sensitive Swiss Ban Plant Humiliation

Genetic research must not violate the dignity of wheat

(Newser) - Swiss scientists eager to carry out genetic experiments on plants can’t be rash—they must first consider the how their actions make that tulip feel. Government-backed ethicists studied the effects of such experimentation on plants’ dignity; they found that it was wrong to hurt plants for no reason, or...

Invasive Species Getting Bad Rap: Scientists

Exotics can cause extinctions, but spur diversity, evolution, too

(Newser) - Invasive species don’t always spell disaster for native ecosystems and animal life, scientists say after a study of the process and its effects on New Zealand. More than 22,000 non-native plants have been introduced to the islands, the New York Times reports, and only three native species have...

New Way to Fight Global Warming: Wipe Your Feet

Scientist cleans visitors' shoes to keep plant invaders from taking root on Arctic isle

(Newser) - Global warming could make it easier for non-native plants to take root on the Arctic's Svalbard archipelago, but one researcher is fighting the problem on the ground level, Der Spiegel reports. Chris Ware has set up shop at Longyearbyen’s airport, where he cleans arriving passengers' shoes. "Dirt almost...

Philosophical Vintner Rethinks Wine

The bizarre techniques behind the Scholium Project

(Newser) - Abe Schoener is reinvigorating California wines with a decidely unorthodox, almost experimental, approach, writes Jon Bonne in the San Francisco Chronicle. Schoener, who lacks formal training, eschews the traditional do's and don’ts of the craft with his Scholium Project winery. His wines "are bizarre, ingenious and polarizing—quite...

Gardeners Dig These Gadgets
 Gardeners Dig These Gadgets 
Jul 10, 2008 6:00 PM CDT

Gardeners Dig These Gadgets

New tools can make your thumb look a little greener

(Newser) - Technology is coming to the rescue of gardening-handicapped yard owners. A variety of new tech tools can help weekend gardeners keep their plants alive and even thriving with a minimum of effort, reports MSNBC. Among the new green gadgets:
  • Wireless Weather Projection Station: This handy device measures temperature and barometric
...

Midwest Fights Weeds With Bugs

Biological control takes a food-chain approach to invasive plants

(Newser) - Officials in the Midwest are returning to a tried-and-true technique to fight invasive plants, the Chicago Tribune reports. Biological control uses natural enemies to rein in pests, and importing a tiny brown beetle in the 1990s brought under control a fast-spreading European weed, known as loosestrife, that was terrorizing agriculture....

Warming Will Kill 66% of Calif. Plants Within Century

Flora won't have time to migrate if emissions continue at current rate

(Newser) - If California’s climate warms significantly in the next 100 years the consequences could be grave for the majority of the state’s native plants, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A team of scientists from UC Berkeley and Duke found that up to 66% of the state’s plants wouldn’...

Gene Discovery Holds Hope for Drought-Safe Crops

Scientists make botanical breakthrough

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a gene that controls how plants absorb carbon dioxide and release moisture in a breakthrough discovery that could help develop drought-resistant crops, reports the BBC. The gene that regulates the work of stomata, or pores on plant leaves, has been sought by biologists for decades. The gene...

Feed Me, Seymour! Lab Decodes Floral Intelligence

Plant 'brains' may help build better robots

(Newser) - Plants have signaling and response systems that could make major contributions to robotics and communications research. The controversial field of “plant neurobiology” starts from the assumption that plant biology mirrors the human nervous system—and has a lot to teach scientists and engineers, Wired reports. The head of the...

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