Bees buzz at just the right frequency to release pollen from tomatoes and other flowering plants.
Gagliano and her colleagues recently showed corn seedling's roots lean toward a 220-Hertz purr
and the roots emit clicks of a similar tune. Chili seedlings quicken their growth when a nasty sweet fennel plant is nearby sealed off from the chilies in a box that only transmits sound not scent another study from the group revealed.
 The fennel releases chemicals that slow other plants'growth so the researchers think the chili plants grow faster in anticipation of the chemicals
Gagliano imagines that root-to-root alerts could transform a forest into an organic switchboard.
Considering that entire forests are interconnected all by networks of fungi maybe plants are using fungi the way we use the Internet
To replace this moisture roots suck water from the ground sending it skyward through a series of tubes called the xylem.
The drier the soil the more tension builds up in the xylem until pop an air bubble is pulled in through the membrane.
We became fascinated with the thought of being able to listen in to the plumbing of the saguaro cactus said Lois Wardell owner of Tucson-based consulting firm Arapahoe Scitech.
Starting with a 3-foot-tall potted saguaro Wardell and geophysicist Charlotte Rowe hope to distinguish between cacti drying out
Saguaros: Living Bouquets of the Sonoran Desert What plants say about drought Acoustic emissions or the sound of bursting air bubbles could also upend assumptions about the effects of drought on plants.
Broadleaf plants including rhododendrons and beaked hazels were better at fixing the damage caused by dry pipes.
If you stake down a seedling you do it a little bit of disservice because a tree needs to perceive motion.
but Karban and others went on to prove that plants including sagebrush warn their neighbors of impending danger by wafting chemical signals into the air.
but realistically these were emitted from roots in the ground so the truth is we probably wouldn't hear it she said.
And the fizzy bubble bursts in xylem are ultrasonic about 300 kilohertz detectable only by insects and some other animals.
Given that most grapevines produce fruit for 25 to 50 years grape growers and wine makers must consider the long term
and monkeys often have tails that let them grab branches). O. bambolii had apelike arms odd teeth with ridges more like a monkey's
Denise Dearing a biologist at the University of Utah studies how herbivores deal with toxins from plants such as creosote juniper and alpine avens a wildflower.
#Super-Eruption Launched Algae Army Into the Sky Slimy brown algae not only survived a wild ride into the stratosphere via a volcanic ash cloud they landed on distant islands looking flawless a new study finds.
The diatoms were launched by the Taupo super-eruption on New zealand's North Island 25000 years ago.
More than 600 million cubic meters (20 billion cubic feet) of diatoms from a lake flew into the air Van Eaton reported Sept. 6 in the journal Geology.
Some diatoms drifted as far as the Chatham Islands 525 miles (850 kilometers) east of New zealand.
The pristine shells in the Chatham Island ash suggest diatoms could infect new niches by coasting on atmospheric currents.
Biggest Volcanoes On earth World domination cell by cell Diatoms a golden brown algae rule Earth's waterways.
From Antarctica's glacial lakes to acidic hot springs to unkempt home aquariums diatoms are everywhere.
The tiny creatures pump out up to 50 percent of the planet's oxygen said Edward Theriot a diatom expert and evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas at Austin who was involved not in the study.
How diatoms manage to colonize new homes remains a mystery: They can't swim. Yet diatoms get around.
When Wyoming's Yellowstone Lake emerged from its mile-thick ice cover 14000 years ago diatoms quickly arrived Theriot said.
They had to be blown in by some mechanism or carried in by water birds he added.
Diatoms particularly love volcanic lakes because they are the only creatures that build shells of glass.
and silica is the key ingredient in diatom shells. Yellowstone Lake which sits in a caldera created by a super-eruption contains so many diatoms that the lake sediments are mostly shells (85 percent by weight) Theriot said.
Now scientists know what happens to diatoms when a massive volcano like Yellowstone blasts through a big lake.
Immaculate preservation The Taupo Volcano super-eruption slammed through a deep lake that filled a rift valley similar to the elongated lakes in East Africa.
Van Eaton discovered the diatoms while examining the volcanic hail with a scanning electron microscope. The first time I ever saw them I was looking at these volcanic ash aggregates
Van Eaton soon determined that one of the three diatom species entombed in the ash only lives on the North Island of New zealand.
The unique North Island diatoms turned up in a few inches of ash on the Chatham Islands.
The diatoms'trip to the Chatham Islands took longer than it looks on a map.
Some of the diatoms even kept their color both in ash close to the volcano and at the Chatham Islands.
Spores infect the sky But even though the Taupo diatom shells are pristine Theriot is doubtful any diatoms lived through the eruptions.
Instead he suspects diatom resting spores could travel the atmospheric currents dropping out and colonizing new ecosystems.
Diatoms fashion spores to ride out inhospitable changes in their environment Two years ago Danish researchers revived 100-year-old resting spores from muck in a local fjord.
Resting spores have been found in clouds. The eruption could have launched spores from the lake bottom into the atmosphere Theriot said.
I and many others have joked about Yellowstone blowing up again and dispersing the diatomite that is being created at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake Theriot said.
This is the most thoroughly studied and best documented example of this phenomenon and so it really says maybe we can add volcanoes to the list of possibilities of how diatoms spread.
And volcanoes would be particularly effective. Infographic: The Geology of Yellowstone Van Eaton hopes the discovery will prompt other scientists to search for microscopic life in wet eruptions where magma hit water.
But Theriot is skeptical that diatoms will prove to be a useful tool for tracking volcanic ash.
Diatoms are so global that endemic species known only to one place are hard to find he said.
If you found diatoms in ash deposits in a bog in Ohio you would have no idea
It would take a really extraordinary set of circumstances like this New zealand diatom that is clearly out of place to be convincing that the diatoms had blown in with the ash.
This is the unintended consequence of a longstanding federal policy symbolized by Smokey Bear to stamp out forest fires.
and each additional tree's roots suck 18 gallons of moisture up out of the ground before runoff can feed thirsty creeks.
and fireweed can't reproduce. Deer lose edge habitat. Threatened owls and raptors can't navigate through increasingly dense thickets.
And when the inevitable forest fires rage through over-forested lands they burn hotter and faster
A new study finds that bees use simple logical steps to learn from other bees which flowers hold the sweetest nectar.
Just by watching another bee forage through a screen a bumblebee could go on to pick the sweetest flowers on its own Dawson said.
This time they saw six colored flowers either three orange and three green or three blue and three yellow.
All flowers of one color were occupied by model bees. After 10 minutes the researchers removed the model bees
me Pick any number inside Pascal s triangle and look at the six numbers around it (that form alternating petals in the flowers drawn above).
If you multiply the numbers in every second petal you ll end up with the same answer no matter which of the petals you start from.
to the historical roots of Pascal s triangle. As mentioned above all the numbers in Pascal s triangle actually correspond to combinations that is they tell us exactly how many ways we can choose a small group of objects out of a larger group
#The Amazing Mating Dance of the Peacock Spider The animal dances and lifts up its tail-flap which once unfurled resembles an abstract Indian blanket of intense color.
Another example of the usefulness of stable isotope ratios can be found in the tropics where woody plants and grasses
. Because woody plants and grasses have very different carbon isotope ratios there is a strong relationship between carbon isotope ratios of soil
and was inscribed on buildings stele artifacts and books (only a few examples of Maya books survive today).
The court s rings through which competing teams somehow tried to score rose about 20 feet (6 meters) off the ground about twice the height of a modern-day NBA net.
which are larger and juicier than wild varieties were cultivated probably first from wild olive trees at the frontier between Turkey and Syria.
People selected new cultivars everywhere but that was a secondary diversification later. From biblical times the olive tree has served as a symbol of sacredness peace and unity.
One exception was a combination of garcinia cambogiaâ taken with another herb called gymnema sylvestre which showed a slight increase in weight loss results.
If you're talking any prescription medications talk to your doctor before adding any herbal supplement.
The netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific research (TNO) announced they ll build printers to reassemble pureed food to look like the original think 3d printed broccoli florets from pureed broccoli.
The process could potentially use stem cells. Industrial scale printing of meat could additionally use cells grown in an algae-based cell culture
which protect the tree bark and branches. So as we're climbing we're not digging the rope into the tree branch
which would be damaging the cambium layer of the tree. Also we want to make sure to stay on the rope the whole time.
or more for plant colonies to grow on a tree branch. But just one kick with your boots and you can dislodge an entire ecosystem
and the poisonous mercury is now slowly making its way toward the fruit and nut orchards and the rice fields of California s lush Central Valley America s food basket according to new research by a team
Some plants have the natural ability to take up through their roots and concentrate metals such as nickel cadmium and zinc in their leaves and shoots.
so plants have no natural way of taking the particles in through their roots. Under certain chemical conditions gold solubility can be forced said Chris Anderson an environmental geochemist and gold phytomining expert at Massey University in New zealand.
Find a fast-growing plant with a lot of aboveground leafy mass such as mustard sunflowers or tobacco. Plant the crop on soil that contains gold.
Field samples and greenhouse experiments suggest these gold particles which exist at concentrations not harmful to the trees are absorbed by the roots
Tension in the xylem tubes increases in times of drought then cavitates. Douglas firs and pine trees can repair this damage as frequently as every hour said Katherine Mcculloh a plant ecophysiologist at Oregon State university in a past Our Amazing Planet interview.
wildfires and desertification release carbon stored in vegetation; and melting permafrost allows for the decomposition of peat bogs and the melting of methane hydrates releasing methane into the atmosphere.
or Basil (or 1 tsp dried) 1 Clove Garlic Minced (optional) Salt and Pepper to Taste (Salt is not necessary with the cheese and olives) Vegetables:
The same deer return every year to their favorite clumps of the bushy evergreens called deeryards.
6985 visits (6. 7 percent) Seeds nuts or shells: 6771 visits (6. 5 percent) Chips pretzels or popcorn:
or seeds nuts or shells were more likely to require hospitalization than those who choked on other foods.
and vegetables) or those that are consumed by the handful (such as seeds and nuts) which may be too much for a child to chew the researchers said.
#Tracking Leaf-Out: A Good Cause Takes Root: Op-Ed Jake Weltzin is an ecologist with the U s. Geological Surveyand executive director of the USA National Phenology Network.
 He contributed this article to Livescience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The first days of spring are upon us:
Changes in the timing of leaf-out that important indicator of spring to so many of us including farmers
When warmer temperatures occur earlier in the year trees may leaf out and blossom earlier
but also color change and leaf drop in the autumn across the entire country For the next five years we re particularly interested in tracking maples oaks
You can contribute phenology data to Nature s Notebook an online program the USA National Phenology Network manages that collects observations of leaf phenology from professional and amateur naturalists.
It had never been shown that the circadian rhythm of the leaf affected the whole tree said study researcher Rubã n DÃ az Sierra a physicist at the National University of Distance Education in Spain.
and crustaceans that sheltered between tree roots. After Livescience's Ouramazingplanet originally reported the story people from around the country contacted Raines to discover the forest's location including several salvage companies hoping to mine the forest for its wood.
and store carbon in the soil or vegetation at higher amounts than do buildings or roads.
Forest fires come next mostly in the boreal forests of temperate regions. Storm damage also harms forests. 7 Ways the Earth Changes in the Blink of an Eye We see a lot of blowdowns
and shapes mimicking those from nature like shells and foliage. There will be natural materials plenty of light and open spaces.
a nature island with waterfalls rivers different kinds of trees flowers plants grass rocks a beach and dirt paths;
Global Warming Brings Earlier Spring Flowers Additionally aâ study in the journalâ Ecology in September of last yearâ found that Broad-tailed hummingbirds which migrate northward from Central Americain the spring are becoming decoupled from their nectar resources
and more intense allergen production from a number of tree species that flower in the spring including oak birch olive
At the same time warmer winters can lead some tree species to produce less pollen when they flower in the spring.
Later in the year summer brings allergens from weeds and grasses which can produce more allergens
Fall ragweed season has grown also 13 to 27 days longer depending on latitude as late fall temperatures have increased.
Plants and flowers all over the region are blooming or are ready to bust out. However it is not the bright showy flowers that cause most problems for allergy suffers.
This sudden boom in tree blossoms could have allergy sufferers seeing symptoms more abruptly than usual.
As per this time of year the tree pollen is the main allergy threat especially from the less conspicuous oak maple pine and elm varieties.
A forest mystery Fossilized wood and leaf impressions record a history of the Antarctic forests.
The leaf impressions appear to show mats of leaves as if the trees had shed all at once a sign of a deciduous forest.
and they have been killed by hunters to be eaten as bush meat according to various news reports. Â The plight of Madagascar's lemurs is just one example of how a rising population of humans is contributing to the sixth-largest mass extinction in the history of the planet most biologists say.
but rather how much people consume said Richard Moss a scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park Md.
People need to take steps to create an economic value for the lands where biodiversity is concentrated Moss said.
and use drip irrigation to target water directly to a plant's roots. Conversion to drip irrigation is happening albeit slowly.
For instance slightly water-stressed plants redirect their sugar formation into seeds and fruits at the expense of leaves and branches
such as xerophyte plants cactus-related plants that are water-sparing. For this water-transfer idea to work an index of global water usage is needed Grove said.
Swamp-loving plants like sedges and tussocks are the fossil survivors not delicate leaves from hardwood trees.
which was attacked by an imported fungal disease called the chestnut blight. Leaves from swamp plants also appear in the mud confirming that the forested spot was on the upslope edge of a nearby wetland.
Image Gallery: Plants in Danger We had a valley margin forest growing right next to the valley bottom in conjunction with all these wetlands Elliott said.
The scientists hope that identifying similar fossil tree-leaf sites will help the massive milldam restoration projects underway throughout the Northeast.
& Marshall College scientists discovered the fossil leaf site. Email Becky Oskinâ or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
when diatoms (a type of algae with hard cell walls made ofâ silica) settled on the lake bottom alternating with layers of clay and volcanic ash.
Nuts and seeds contain high levels of minerals and healthy fats. Although these are common additions on superfood lists the downside is that they are high in calories.
A quick handful of shelled nuts or seeds could contain more than 100 calories. Related: Reality Check:
Swiss chard collards mustards (including radish greens) spinach (and others in the amaranth family) and cabbages. Add broccoli to that.
It's in the cabbage-mustard family; the modern version is grown merely for its floret instead of leaves.
These dark vegetables are loaded with vitamins A c and K as well as fiber calcium and other minerals.
But so do red raspberries. One could just as easily include green tea coffee dark chocolate yogurt and olives to the superfood list for a variety of reasons mentioned above.
To shed light on this mystery a team of investigators have reconstructed past changes in vegetation by looking at ancient sediment from the Murray Canyons Group region offshore southern Australia.
On the other hand trees and shrubs that have adapted to cooler wetter conditions depend on a type of photosynthesis known as C3
This molecule is generated exclusively during the burning of land vegetation so its presence would bolster the idea that humans changed the landscape with fire.
much as they do today making up 60 to 70 percent of the vegetation there. However by 43000 years ago C4 plants made up only 40 percent of the vegetation there.
There was a matching rise in C3 plants that lasted for about 5000 years. Which came first?
Instead this discovery hints that an extinction of megafauna herbivores that normally browsed on C3 plants allowing trees and shrubs to rise in dominance.
This in turn led more fire-prone vegetation to build up in the Australian landscape the researchers said.
In 150000 years of climate change in southeastern Australia lots of changes in the vegetation took place
But be forewarned that the pawpaw's maroon blossom while beautiful is said to smell like rotting meat which might further explain its delayed cultivation.
Bees and other insects show little interest in the pawpaw flower so hand-pollination is required sometimes.)
when bacteria spores enter the body through a cut or scrape on the skin. Of the three forms of the disease cutaneous pulmonary and gastrointestinal cutaneous anthrax is the easiest to treat with antibiotics.
Spores of anthrax bacteria can lie dormant for years before entering a living host where they reactivate
In 2001 letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news-media offices and two U s. senators resulting in the deaths of five people and the infection of 17 others.
Nectar from unopened flowers can be used to create a syrup which can be processed further into a sugar or fermented into an alcoholic drink.
The nut technically called a drupe holds coconut water when the coconut is unripe but the water is absorbed as the fruit ripens from green to brown with a husk.
Coconut water has a considerable amount of nutrients including potassium sodium magnesium and calcium especially when compared with other juices.
and cotton packaging material for food at levels now current or as it might reasonably be expected to be used for such purposes in the future.
Gluten refers to the proteins found in wheat endosperm (a type of tissue produced in seeds that's ground to make flour.
Though true gluten is defined sometimes as being specific to wheat gluten is said often to be part of other cereal grains including rye barley
and weeds later in the spring and in early summer producing more pollen. In many parts of the country this spring saw a perfect storm of allergy conditions.
Evergreens also can be troublemakers. Cedar juniper cypress and sequoia trees have all been known to cause allergies
and some blue grasses. 3. Weeds are guilty of causing most of the allergy misery that occurs in the late summer and early fall.
Top on the list of offenders is ragweed which affects as many as 75 percent of all hay fever sufferers.
Ragweed is found in virtually every region of the United states and with 17 different species of the weed there's plenty of pollen to keep people sneezing
and sniffling until frost. Other common weed allergens are sagebrush found predominantly in the west pigweed
and goosefoot pollen. 4. Molds are microscopic plants that reproduce by sending tiny spores into the air.
They thrive in areas that are warm dark and moist. Unlike pollen which appears only in the warm weather months mold can lurk in your house year-round. 5. Dust Mites are small (hundreds can live in a single gram of dust) eight-legged creatures
A thick golden liquid produced by industrious bees honey is made using the nectar of flowering plants
Nectar a  sugary liquid is extracted from flowers using a bee's long tube-shaped tongue
Honey's color taste aroma and texture vary greatly depending on the type of flower a bee frequents.
Clover honey for example differs greatly from the honey harvested from bees that frequent a lavender field.
Kale is a leafy green vegetable (Brassica oleracea) sometimes called borecole. It's related to cabbage broccoli collard greens and Brussels sprouts.
Melatonin may also produce this side effect if taken with herbs that slow blood clotting such as angelica clove danshen garlic ginger ginkgo Panax ginseng red clover and willow.
Similarly melatonin will enhance herbs with sedative effects such as calamus California poppy catnip hops Jamaican dogwood kava St john's wort skullcap valerian and yerba mansa.
Molasses is a dark viscous liquid that's generally made from sugarcane. Grapes sugar beets sorghum or other plants can also be used to make a molasses-like substance.
The production of molasses is a labor-intensive process requiring several steps including cutting the sugarcane plants boiling straining skimming
If the molasses undergoes a third boiling step the result is blackstrap molasses a dark bittersweet syrup that is produced after the sucrose in molasses has crystallized.
As a key ingredient in the distillation of rum molasses (and the cultivation of sugarcane) played a crucial part in the slave trade that brought an estimated 12 million Africans to The americas to work as slave laborers many in the tropics
where sugarcane is grown. In 1919 a tank holding 2. 5 million gallons of molasses in Boston's North End suddenly burst flooding the neighborhood with an estimated 2. 3 million gallons (8. 7 million liters
Raspberry ketone is actually found in cranberries blackberries as well as red raspberries or the species Rosaceae Rubus ideaus L. Red raspberries are native to Europe Northern Africa and Central asia.
They have essential nutrients including beta-carotene and vitamins A e and C. Only trace amounts of raspberry ketone are found in the fruit
Though there are some variations the story typically involves bees pollinating flowers symbolizing male fertilization and the birds laying eggs
and bees gathering honey from the flowers. Related: Animal Sex: How Birds Do it A more direct reference can be found in Cole porter's lyrics to the 1928 song Let's Do it.
which are made up of genetically identical trees connected by a single root system that are much older.
and subsisted on lean proteins (like fish venison and poultry) eggs fruits vegetables nuts and roots.
The tree lost a huge branch in 2006 which shattered a new walkway and fence below.
however as that was calculated using trunk volume and not branches. General Sherman is also tall standing 274.9 feet (83.8 meters) high
The branches here were spindly and were encrusted with many kinds of lichen. Other giant redwoods include Helios
which is just a shade smaller than Hyperion at 374.3 feet (114.1 m) as well as Icarus (371.2 feet
Fermentation means feeding sugar to yeast so that the yeast can produce alcohol. Today most vodka is made from fermented grains such as sorghum corn rice rye
or wheat though you can also use potatoes fruits or even just sugar. The fermentation step creates a product with only about 16 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) too low for spirits.
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011