#School Gardening Programs Plant Seeds of Healthy Eating Involving children in a school gardening program may do more than cultivate a green thumb.
or learn to identify plants in science class. Surveys completed at the end of the kitchen garden program found that kids in the program group were twice as willing to try new foods as children who did not participate in a structured program.
Use about 2 cups of plant material and about half a cup of water and a tablespoon of salt instead of Gatorade.
oewhat kind of dirt do you think is best for plants to grow in? oehow is the dirt from under the tree the same as the potting soil?
#Scientists Create Giant Tobacco Plants That Remain Young Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular biology
Normal tobacco plants grow for only about four months then flower and die. The researchers discovered a genetic switch
which can prevent the plants from flowering. They modified the expression of the gene and then inserted the gene back into the tobacco plant using a bacterium.
Last Saturday Caitlin Mackenzie finished setting up the common gardens in Acadia national park that will provide data for her Ph d. research on the effects of climate change on plants.
 On Monday he watered the plants for the first time. On Tuesday the government shut down and the park was locked blocking access to the gardens and the new vulnerable transplants.
I would love to be able to focus solely on the phenology of plants instead of also worrying about the phenology of politics.
if these plants do not survive. Almost all of the work that the volunteers and I poured into this project over the two weeks in September will be erased.
Traditionally a Mediterranean diet is based a plant diet meaning it's high in fruits vegetables whole grains
A component of the spider venom is especially effective against the cotton bollworm a pest that attacks crop plants.
Or scientists could genetically engineer insect-resistant plants or microbes that produce these toxins. The breakthrough discovery that spider toxins can have oral activity has implications not only for their use as bioinsecticides
We've already reached that stage where the plant is showing signs of beginning to pack it in Ari Novy a plant scientist
Over the course of the next several days the whole plant will essentially fall apart. In Images:
Instead of the rotting flesh odor that is typical of a blooming corpse flower visitors were greeted with the smells emitted by other fans of the stinky plant.
During the earlier part of the week however the plant was in peak form. On Sunday night I was here at about 10:30 at night
The plant uses its rotten aroma to attract flesh-eating critters like carrion beetles and flies that will carry its pollen to potentially cross pollinate other corpse flowers.
and the plants have been known to grow to be as much as 12 feet (3. 7 m) tall.
While in its current enclosure the plant grew 5 to 8 inches (13 to 20 centimeters) per day reaching its full 8-foot height in less than a week
however these are fickle plants. This is the first time this particular corpse flower has bloomed and it is the first to bloom in Washington D c. since 2007.
These plants can be long-lived and there are absolutely records in botanic gardens or other horticultural institutions of these plants blooming multiple times in their life spans
but it's unpredictable Novy said. They can take as little as two or so years between blooms and there are recordings of them taking as many as 20 years between blooms.'
It's really cool seeing all these other plants I haven't seen before. Follow Miriam Kramerâ@mirikramerâ andâ Google+.
In addition the FDA analysis found many supplements labeled as containing Acacia rigidula didn't actually include this plant as an ingredient.
The researchers compared the composition of dietary supplements labeled as containing Acacia rigidula with that of the plant itself.
but this compound is found at very low levels in the plant itself. Given the low natural abundance of phenethylamine in the plant materials it appears nearly impossible to achieve the amounts of phenethylamine found in the dietary supplements by formulating them with plant material
or extracts of A. rigidula the researchers wrote. Amphetamine risks The relatively high levels of beta-methylphenethylamine found in nine of the supplements indicate that the ingredient was not an accidental contaminant Cohen said.
Can Plants Actually Talk and Hear? The forest really does hum with life. Though often too low or too high for human ears to detect insects
Even trees and plants fizz with the sound of tiny air bubbles bursting in their plumbing.
and plants hear each other's sounds. Bees buzz at just the right frequency to release pollen from tomatoes and other flowering plants.
And bark beetles may pick up the air bubble pops inside a plant a hint that trees are experiencing drought stress.
Sound is so fundamental to life that some scientists now think there's a kernel of truth to folklore that holds humans can commune with plants.
And plants may use sound to communicate with one another. If even bacteria can signal one another with vibrations why not plants said Monica Gagliano a plant physiologist at the University of Western australia in Crawley.
Sound is overwhelming it's everywhere. Surely life would have used it to its advantage in all forms she told Ouramazingplanet.
 The fennel releases chemicals that slow other plants'growth so the researchers think the chili plants grow faster in anticipation of the chemicals
but only because they hear the plant not because they smell it. Both the fennel and chilies were also in a sound-isolated box.
We have identified that plants respond to sound and they make their own sounds Gagliano said.
Considering that entire forests are interconnected all by networks of fungi maybe plants are using fungi the way we use the Internet
As with other life if plants do send messages with sound it is one of many communication tools.
but there are many ways that listening to plants already bears fruit. When the bubble bursts Scientists first recognized in the 1960s that listening to leaves revealed the health of plants.
When leaves open their pores to capture carbon dioxide they lose huge amounts of water. To replace this moisture roots suck water from the ground sending it skyward through a series of tubes called the xylem.
For some plants these embolisms are deadly as with human blood vessels because the gas bubbles block the flow of water.
The more air in the tubes the harder it is for plants to pull in water explains Katherine Mcculloh a plant ecophysiologist at Oregon State university.
But researchers who eavesdrop on plant hydraulics are discovering that certain species like pine trees and Douglas firs can repair the damage on a daily
The plant is happy it's just day-to-day living Mcculloh said. In my mind this is revolutionary in terms of plant biology.
When I learned about how plants moved water it was a passive process driven by evaporation from the leaves.
What we're beginning to realize is that's just not true at all. It's a completely dynamic process.
How to listen to plants The technology to hear plant bubbles explode is actually quite simple.
Plant hydraulics will tell us what our future forests will look like in 50 years. Two geologists in Arizona are also building a low-cost acoustic detector crowd-funded at about $1000 drawn by the age-old allure of communicating with plants.
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.
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.
In the arid Southwest Johnson was surprised to find that the plants considered the most drought-tolerant such as junipers did worst at repairing embolisms.
Broadleaf plants including rhododendrons and beaked hazels were better at fixing the damage caused by dry pipes.
With the incredible drought going on there right now the species we predicted to die are exactly the opposite of
Johnson predicts that in future severe droughts the plants that have a harder time repairing embolisms are more likely to die.
It's the plants that can repair embolisms that are going to survive he said. Gallery:
Plants in Danger Living in drought-stricken Australia Gagliano is excited also by the possibility of decoding drought signals.
if these emissions are also providing information to neighborhoods of plants she said. Plants have ways of protecting themselves
when they run out of water and they are really good at sharing information about danger
Critics of Gagliano's research point out that no one has found structures resembling a mouth or ears on corn or any other plant.
Nor do the group's studies prove that plants talk among themselves. This is pretty provocative and worth following
but it doesn't really provide a lot of evidence that these are said acoustic communications Richard Karban a University of California Davis expert in how plants communicate via chemical signals.
Could a sense of touch be why plants seem to respond to sound? Even humans can perceive sound without hearing it said Frank Telewski a botanist at Michigan State university
If you stake it too tight it does not allow the plant to produce stronger tissues.
But Telewski is open to the idea of plant communication by sound. He said in the last few years researchers in China have shown they can increase plant yields by broadcasting sound waves of certain frequencies.
Their studies find that acoustic vibrations modify metabolic processes in plants. Some of the beneficial vibrations also drive away pesky insects that munch on crops.
We're not there yet Telewski said of the effort to prove plants communicate. Sometimes a fantastic hypothesis can turn out to be true
Answering critics Karban from UC Davis notes that the plant field is not very receptive to new ideas.
The idea that plants could talk via scent or volatile chemicals was poohed roundly pooh in the 1980s
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.
I was guided to sound by the long tradition in folklore of people talking to plants
and listening to plants and plants making sounds Gagliano said. I wanted to see if there was any scientific basis for something that stays so stubbornly in our culture.
This spring Gagliano and her collaborators will screen more plants for communication skills. We will see
whether some groups of plants might be more chatty than others and if some plants have specific requirements for sound she said.
They also plan to record sounds emitted from plants and play them back and see what kind of response if any they produce in other plants.
Shamans say they learn from the plant's sounds. Maybe they are attuned to things we don't pay attention to Gagliano said.
It's really fascinating. We might have lost that connection and science is ready to rediscover it.
and toxic plants. 8 Strange Things Scientists Have tasted Party ice At camps on sea ice scientists drink their study subject
Also in the nonedible category are toxic plants. 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.
I usually taste all the toxic plants that my wood rats and pikas eat. They are usually unworthy of a second tasting Dearing said.
and this favors more fires said Ryan Kelly a plant biologist at the University of Illinois who examined the records.
However the severe wildfires promoted the growth of fire-resistant plant species resulting in a gradual shift from conifer-rich boreal forests to deciduous woodlands.
It crowds out indigenous plant and animal species. Shade tolerant species take over. Deprived of low-intensity naturally occurring fires aspen lupine sequoia
The year before in Oregon 4000 of real pig blood spilled from a truck carting animal waste from a processing plant.
GMOS are plants or animals that have been created with gene-splicing techniques or genetic engineering. According to the Worldwatch Institute corn accounts for 31 percent of all genetically modified crops.
His sarcophagus shows the king s rebirth and depictions of his ancestors in the form of plants.
and plants writes Coe. Creating sentient beings proved more difficult but eventually humans were created including the hero twins Hunahpu
and analyzed genetic material from the trees'chloroplasts the green plant structures where photosynthesis takes place.
Because CHLOROPLAST DNA is passed from one tree to the descendant trees that spring up around it the DNA can reveal local changes in plant lineages he said.
The researchers then reconstructed a genetic tree to show how the plant dispersed. The team found that the thin small and bitter wild fruit first gave way to oil-rich larger olives on the border between Turkey and Syria.
Researchers evaluated clinical trials that used plant extracts as potential treatment for obesity and found that the evidence was not convincing in most cases.
or some other plant-based extract proceed with caution. If you're talking any prescription medications talk to your doctor before adding any herbal supplement.
But more important it's to make sure you're not damaging the plant life that's up in the treetops too.
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
Michael Singer of St andrews who also holds an appointment at the University of California Santa barbara said the plants in the area had not yet been tested for mercury
#There's Gold in Them Thar Plants Money doesn't grow on trees but gold might.
and harvest gold from crop plants. Called phytomining the technique of finding gold uses plants to extract particles of the precious metal from soil.
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.
For years scientists have explored the use of such plants dubbed hyperaccumulators for pollution removal. But there are no known gold hyperaccumulators
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.
Striking gold Fifteen years ago Anderson first showed it was possible to get mustard plants to suck up gold from chemically treated soil containing gold particles.
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.
When the plant transpires pulling water up and out through tiny pores on its leaves it will take up the gold water from the soil
Getting the gold into plants is the easy part. Getting the gold out has proved more difficult Anderson explained.
Gold behaves differently in plant material Anderson told Livescience. If the plants are burned some of the gold will stay attached to the ash
but some will disappear. Processing the ash poses difficulties too and requires the use of huge amounts of strong acids
The gold found in plants are nanoparticles so there may be great potential for the chemical industry which uses gold nanoparticles as catalysts for chemical reactions Anderson said.
The chemicals involved in making gold soluble also induce the plants to take up other soil contaminants such as mercury arsenic
Many plants root deep into the Earth drawing up nutrients and minerals they need for life.
since traces of gold are sometimes found in soils surrounding these plants. However researchers were not certain until now
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.
Plant listening device The race is now on between researchers to create equipment capable of listening to tree sounds.
and made new coal plants uneconomical. Society cannot rely on either of those factors continuing to bring emissions down.
One is by eating plants and the other is by excreting nutrients said Bryan Murray an ecologist and doctoral student at Michigan Tech University.
 Data from satellites in space offer us important clues about how plants are responding to spring summer and autumn conditions
and poplars for each region of the United states. Even if oespring has sprung in your area it s not too late to select a plant
There's still a lot of work to do with other plants he said. But if it works on small plants on the leaves why not the whole tree?
he said. Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitterâ and Google+.+Â Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.
a nature island with waterfalls rivers different kinds of trees flowers plants grass rocks a beach and dirt paths;
Eat a Plant-Based Diet To stave off death by a few extra years a vegetarian diet appears to be superior to a non-vegetarian one according to results of a study of more than 73000 people published today (June 3) in the Journal of the American Medical
and a plant-based diet live longer that the general population Seventh-Day Adventists in California live on average four to seven years longer than other Californians an earlier study revealed.
but does not mandate a plant-based diet. The researchers led by Dr. Michael J. Orlich of Loma Linda University in California (a Seventh-Day Adventist institution) analyzed the diets of 73308 Seventh-Day Adventists.
and lead to mismatches in annual cycles for plants and animals that interact with one another.
Other research relying on independent data includingâ a review of historical data collected by Henry David Thoreau found that 32 plants in Concord Mass. are flowering 11 days earlier than they used to.
Similarly data collected by scientist Aldo Leopold helped researchers find that flowering dates for 23 plants have advanced seven days in south-central Wisconsin.
and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase to allergen production from plants Ziska co-authored a review of human-induced climate change and allergen exposure inâ the Journal of Allergy and Clinical
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.
The question said Patricia Ryberg a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute is coped how plants with photosynthesizing constantly for part of the year and then not at all when the winter sun set.
According to the IUCN 20000 species of animals and plants are considered at high risk for extinction meaning there is a good chance they could die out
Some native crops such as pigeon peas and pulses in South Asia and cowpeas and millet in Africa have not yet benefited from plant-breeding techniques that could improve productivity he said.
As states and counties squabble over their allotment of water in the coming years hydroelectric plants (including the one on the Hoover dam) could idle
What 11 Billion People Means for the Planet Water is the new oil said Bill Davies a plant biologist at the Sustainable agriculture Center at Lancaster University in England.
Water-sparing plants Of course using more water efficiently also means not squandering it particularly through wasteful agricultural practices.
and use drip irrigation to target water directly to a plant's roots. Conversion to drip irrigation is happening albeit slowly.
   Drought-prone regions will also have to shift crop production relying on less-thirsty plants for agriculture Davies said.
Tweaking plant growth But changing how water is used may not be sufficient: Many climate-change models predict that some regions such as the Southwest may face more frequent droughts.
To provide for 11 billion people farmers will have to know how to manipulate plants'own systems for dealing with drought.
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.
and plants are radically different today than they were 400 years ago. But little direct evidence exists to prove
Swamp-loving plants like sedges and tussocks are the fossil survivors not delicate leaves from hardwood trees.
The thousands of small dams which powered mills forges and other industry changed the water table altering the plants growing nearby
Plants in Danger We had a valley margin forest growing right next to the valley bottom in conjunction with all these wetlands Elliott said.
and is absorbed by the plants and hard surfaces inside. Weaker IR radiation however has difficulty passing out through the glass walls
Because trees and other plants absorb CO2 from the atmosphere they reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 14 percent.
and a growing number of citizens fear that the worst effects of global warming extreme weather rising sea levels plant
Superfoods are foods mostly plant-based but also some fish and dairy thought to be nutritionally dense and thus good for one's health.
or phytochemicals the chemicals in plants responsible for deep colors and smells which can have numerous healthful benefits.
A major relatively brief shift in plant life from grasses to trees occurred during this period as well.
and plant life of Australia many scientists have speculated that humans impacted the continent's flora and fauna.
This shift in plant life would have driven these plant-dependent herbivores s well as the carnivores that preyed on those herbivores o extinction.
which plants dominated the continent. 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.
History's Most Mysterious Extinctions Carbon signatures The scientists focused on isotopes of carbon in plant waxes found in ancient soils and sediments.
By analyzing the ratios of these different carbon isotopes within plant waxes the researchers could infer what plants dominated the region at different times in the past.
However by 43000 years ago C4 plants made up only 40 percent of the vegetation there.
This shift in plant life probably came after the megafauna extinction about 44000 to 49000 years ago not before it the study researchers suggest.
Instead this discovery hints that an extinction of megafauna herbivores that normally browsed on C3 plants allowing trees and shrubs to rise in dominance.
Humans remain one potential culprit for the megafauna extinction they did arrive on the continent about 45000 to 54000 years ago before this shift in the region's plant life
which suggests they could have caused the demise of the megafauna that led to the plant upheaval.
The coconut palm ranks as one of the most useful plants on the planet. For generations cultures in tropical regions have used it for food cosmetics or building materials.
Scholars theorize the plant spread on ocean currents to India and East Africa. The Polynesians introduced various forms of the coconut to the Pacific Islands as they settled there 4500 years ago.
and keeping its plants warm throughout the winter. The atmospheric gases primarily responsible for the greenhouse effect are known as greenhouse gases
and oil burned to power electrical generating plants. More sustainable transportation options such as mass transit and alt-fuel vehicles will also reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
and goosefoot pollen. 4. Molds are microscopic plants that reproduce by sending tiny spores into the air.
and the plant is able to grow well into the cooler winter months. Additionally the leaves of the kale plant freeze well
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
In her explanation of reproduction to her young daughters she used images of blue eggs in the robin's nest wind blowing pollen dust from one plant to the other
and is absorbed by the plants and hard surfaces inside. Weaker IR radiation however has difficulty passing through the glass walls
This effect lets tropical plants thrive inside a greenhouse even during a cold winter. A similar phenomenon takes place in a car parked outside on a cold sunny day.
and handling of downer pigs at federally inspected slaughter plants. This case made it to the U s. Supreme court
and the plant makes up most of their diet. Thousands of miles away in Africa bamboo is also an important food for mountain gorillas.
and independent botanical researcher who has studied extensively the plants in The himalayas and China. Bamboos are thought to have evolved in the Southern hemisphere on an ancient landmass called Gondwanaland according to a release from Phytokeys.
The plants then likely spread via the movement of Earth's tectonic plates finding their way to what became South america Africa and South Asia.
Studies of these species in intermediate areas between Asia and Africa will help construct a more complete picture of the plant's family tree according to the statement.
and the pandas who rely almost exclusively on the plant for food. Emailâ Douglas Mainâ or follow him onâ Twitterâ orâ Google+.
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