Friday, March 7, 2014

What I've been reading elsewhere


Okay, so this first one is about stink bug spit, but it is pretty cool. These nasty pests need their specialized saliva in order to feed, so it might be possible to design a spray that would stop their spit from working without harming other insects. These invasive pests haven't really gotten to Michigan yet, at least not in a serious way, but they're moving fast and are NASTY. Hopefully we see practical results from this research soon, because we need a good, safe, way to control these insects.

This piece caught my eye because someone tweeted it, calling Monsanto 'sneaky' because they're doing conventional (non-GMO) breeding for traits like flavor in vegetables. I find that a little odd... Monsanto isn't anyone's idea of an admirable company, but I'm afraid I can only see big companies finally breeding for traits like flavor rather than just yield and shipping as a good thing. Related: Why does everyone hate Monsanto?

Slow motion of popcorn popping, the technical details of what is going on, AND super magnified images of what it actually looks like. I'm by way of becoming a total corn addict (link to corn blog) so... yeah.

Totally off topic of gardening, but I'm totally fascinated by this... archaeological evidence is telling us more every year about just how massive, complex, and advanced native American civilizations were before Europeans came along with small pox and devastated them, and this is some new research on that topic.

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