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Plants can recognize rivals and fight, study says
An interesting article from 2009 that I kept in my favorites...
Plants can't see or hear, but they can recognize their siblings, and now researchers have found out how: They use chemical signals secreted from their roots, according to a new study.
Back in 2007, Canadian researchers discovered that a common seashore plant, called a sea rocket, can recognize its siblings — plants grown from seeds from the same plant, or mother. They saw that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil, they "play nice" and don't send out more roots to compete with one another.
But as soon as one of the plants is thrown in with strangers, it begins competing with them by rapidly growing more roots to take up the water and mineral nutrients in the soil.
Researchers from the University of Delaware wanted to find out how the plants were able to identify their kin .
"Plants have no visible sensory markers, and they can't run away from where they are planted," Harsh Bais, assistant professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, said in a statement. "It then becomes a search for more complex patterns of recognition."
Bais and doctoral student Meredith Biedrzycki set up a study with wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant that is often used as a model organism in plant research.
They wanted to use wild populations instead of laboratory-bred species, because the latter "always has cousins floating around in the lab," Bais said.
In a series of experiments, young seedlings were exposed to liquid containing the root secretions, called "exudates," from siblings , from strangers (non-siblings), or only their own exudates.
Six real-life 'X-Files'The length of the longest lateral root and of the hypocotyl, the first leaf-like structure that forms on the plant, were measured. A lateral root is a root that extends horizontally outward from the primary root, which grows downward.
Plants exposed to strangers had greater lateral root formation than the plants that were exposed to siblings.
Further, when sibling plants grow next to each other, their leaves will often touch and intertwine, while stranger plants near each other grow rigidly upright and avoid touching, the authors say.
In future studies, Bais hopes to examine questions such as: How might sibling plants grown in large monocultures, like corn, be affected? Are they more susceptible to pathogens? And how do they survive without competing?
"It's possible that when kin are grown together, they may balance their nutrient uptake and not be greedy," Bais speculates.
The research also may have implications for the home gardener .
"Often we'll put plants in the ground next to each other and when they don't do well, we blame the local garden center where we bought them, or we attribute their failure to a pathogen," Bais said. "But maybe there's more to it than that."
The study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, will be published in the January/February 2010 issue of the journal Communicative & Integrative Biology.
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| Harsh Bais, University of Delaware assistant professor of plant and soil sciences, and doctoral student Meredith Bierdrzycki with Arabidopsis plants in the laboratory at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. CREDIT: University of Delaware. |
Greenery grows more roots to absorb resources when next to ‘strangers’
Plants can't see or hear, but they can recognize their siblings, and now researchers have found out how: They use chemical signals secreted from their roots, according to a new study.
Back in 2007, Canadian researchers discovered that a common seashore plant, called a sea rocket, can recognize its siblings — plants grown from seeds from the same plant, or mother. They saw that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil, they "play nice" and don't send out more roots to compete with one another.
But as soon as one of the plants is thrown in with strangers, it begins competing with them by rapidly growing more roots to take up the water and mineral nutrients in the soil.
Researchers from the University of Delaware wanted to find out how the plants were able to identify their kin .
"Plants have no visible sensory markers, and they can't run away from where they are planted," Harsh Bais, assistant professor of plant and soil sciences at the University of Delaware, said in a statement. "It then becomes a search for more complex patterns of recognition."
Bais and doctoral student Meredith Biedrzycki set up a study with wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana, a small flowering plant that is often used as a model organism in plant research.
They wanted to use wild populations instead of laboratory-bred species, because the latter "always has cousins floating around in the lab," Bais said.
In a series of experiments, young seedlings were exposed to liquid containing the root secretions, called "exudates," from siblings , from strangers (non-siblings), or only their own exudates.
Six real-life 'X-Files'The length of the longest lateral root and of the hypocotyl, the first leaf-like structure that forms on the plant, were measured. A lateral root is a root that extends horizontally outward from the primary root, which grows downward.
Plants exposed to strangers had greater lateral root formation than the plants that were exposed to siblings.
Further, when sibling plants grow next to each other, their leaves will often touch and intertwine, while stranger plants near each other grow rigidly upright and avoid touching, the authors say.
In future studies, Bais hopes to examine questions such as: How might sibling plants grown in large monocultures, like corn, be affected? Are they more susceptible to pathogens? And how do they survive without competing?
"It's possible that when kin are grown together, they may balance their nutrient uptake and not be greedy," Bais speculates.
The research also may have implications for the home gardener .
"Often we'll put plants in the ground next to each other and when they don't do well, we blame the local garden center where we bought them, or we attribute their failure to a pathogen," Bais said. "But maybe there's more to it than that."
The study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, will be published in the January/February 2010 issue of the journal Communicative & Integrative Biology.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33400752/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
10 Naughtiest Vegetables on Earth
10. Wee Weenie Carrot. Image: Lucie Smith
We love organic fruits and veggies here at Organic Authority, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a certain fondness for those rejects from the green grocer’s table that look a little... different. Just because an edible piece of earth-grown goodness appears a bit bizarre, doesn’t mean it’s crammed full of chemicals or that it's genetically modified to the max. In fact, you might think some of these succulent veggies look mouth-wateringly delicious. Vegetables grow into such cheeky forms due to a variety of environmental factors such as unfavorable growing conditions or inadequate pollination. But (speaking of inadequacy) is this an excuse for some of the lewder shapes these errant veggies take? You decide. Just remember: what we see says more about the purity of our minds than the failing of some fruity-looking fruit.
9. You say potato, we say good golly...
Image via Heavy Petal
Almost too explicit to be included; this potato's resemblance to the male member is made the more stark by the way it’s being gripped. You know what we could do with one of these? Whip up some mashed potatoes! If the definition of an oddly shaped veggie is one that’s not in line with its normal body plan, this bad boy sure fits the bill.
8. Nice to meet you, Ben Dover...
Image via Heavy Petal
A switch of gender now with another bawdy view we might not expect from a potato. Two buttocks are placed on a plinth and we’d sooner not go into any more detail. As for a pseudo-scientific explanation, it looks like a case of Siamese twins – that's two fruit growing together, which is actually not all that uncommon.
Now we're as big fans of pomme de terres as the next culinarily inclined folks – a mid-sized, oven baked jacket potato (with its skin on, of course) provides almost half our recommended Daily Value of vitamin C plus a fair percentage of the potassium and vitamin B6 we need – but nutrients need some table manners too.
7. Parsnip caught with its pants down
Image: fireflies604
Not according to this parsnip, which isn’t so much phallic as packing its very own projecting phallus. It’s like the bottom half of a miniature mannequin that was a little too well made, with a naughty bit it should put away. Either that or nature's designer lost count and started on a third leg it couldn’t finish. Obscenely inspired.
6. Well hung carrot
Image: Gary Koelling
This next lascivious reject from Nature's line of veggie dummies is a carrot letting it all hang out... But speaking seriously for a second about the causes of such abnormalities: when a root vegetable is growing and its tip receives damage, it's liable to split, forming various roots joined at one point. Cue peels of laughter.
Of course, when they're not getting all frisky and upsetting the in-laws, root veggies like these make for great grub. For a simple, tasty dish, try this: parboil some parsnips andcarrots for 8-10 minutes; let them cool; toss them in olive oil, garlic, rosemary and seasoning; then roast for 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Delish!
5. Cheeky butt-tomato
Image: Sauri
What’s plump, juicy, has two squeezable cheeks and would look irresistible, however you dressed it? Hint: the answer has nothing to do with J-Lo and everything to do with this prime bit of beef – beef tomato, that is. With this evidence, it’s easy to see whytomatoes were once known as love apples.
4. Enough to make the other fruit blush
Image: pauly...
OK, phallic cucumbers we get. Squashes too. Even carrots we can understand. But tomatoes? These plump greenhouse products should be flying the flag for all things curvaceous, not flaunting bits that jut out at an embarrassing angle like a half-raised marquee. Maybe it was stored too close to the peaches.
For a mouth-watering yet devilishly simple salad to clean your palate after a meal, lay a few fresh slices of a deliciously, garden, fresh tomato on a serving plate, sprinkle with a pinch of fleur de sel, drizzle it with some balsamic glaze and extra-virgin olive oil. Can you say, yum?!
3. Strawberry doo-dah
Image: Tony Robinson via r3tr0fr34k
Dear oh dear, what do we have next on the menu? A strawberry that really shouldn’t have been allowed to grow into this shape. As we’re learning, it’s really not unusual for fruit and veggies to take on the amusing appearance of our own more private body parts. Enough to make Grandma cover her eyes.
Still, before we crack up, back to the scientific explanation bit: damage to one part of a given veggie can cause the growth to slow in that area while the rest continues to develop as normal, and even more mutation will occur if this happens while the plant is still in its embryonic stage.
2. Peppery porn
Image: Nex Ninek
No mutations in this next snapshot of vegetable naughtiness – just shamelessly choreographed eroticism of the bawdiest kind. Or smut, we prefer to call it. For shame. Soft vegetable porn if we ever saw it.
These peppers may have been exempt from such legislation, but did you know there was a recent attempt to reinstate an EU-wide ban on misshapen fruit and veggies, which was blocked over concerns that it would increase food wastage? "The shape of a fruit is irrelevant to its taste and nutrition," said one British Euro MP in response to the proposed "uniform standardization parameters" which would have forbidden everything from curly cucumbers to fused fruit like those we’ve seen. “Bravo!” came the chorus from these coarsest of veggies.
1. Hot chilli pepper peckers
Image via Heavy Petal
Were these wayward peppers grown using moulds that helped shape them into these lewd forms – complete with wrinkles and folds? Apparently not – although the semblance between them and a certain part of the male anatomy seems too conspicuous for simple serendipity. Whatever next?
What can we say to conclude this XXX-rated garden show? Well for one we can wish all the contestants luck for the future. Not that they’ll need it. They’re living proof that ruder forms survive.
Humanity falls deeper into ecological debt: study
Humankind will slip next week into ecological debt, having gobbled up in less then nine months more natural resources than the planet can replenish in a year, researchers said Tuesday.
At its current pace of consumption humankind will need, by 2030, a second globe to satisfy its voracious appetites and absorb all its waste, the report calculated.
Earth's seven billion denizens -- nine billion by mid-century -- are using more water, cutting down more forests and eating more fish than Nature can replace, it said.
At the same time, we are disgorging more CO2, pollutants and chemical fertilizers than the atmosphere, soil and oceans can soak up without severely disrupting the ecosystems that have made our planet such a comfortable place for homo sapiens to live.
Counting down from January 1, the date when human activity exceeds its budget -- dubbed "Earth Overshoot Day" -- had receded by about three days each year since 2001.
The tipping point into non-sustainability happened sometime in the 1970s, said the Oakland, California-based Global Footprint Network, which issued the report.
This year, researchers estimate that the equivalent of Earth's resource quota will be depleted on September 27.
"That's like spending your annual salary three months before the year is over, and eating into savings year after year," Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel said in a statement.
"Pretty soon, you run out of savings."
Even as Earth's capacity to host our ever-expanding species diminishes, the demands on "ecosystem services" -- the term scientists use to describe Nature's bounty -- continues to grow.
"From soaring food prices to the crippling effects of climate change, our economies are now confronting the reality of years of spending beyond our means," Wackernagel said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon earlier this month said sustainable development now tops the global agenda of issues demanding urgent action.
"Overshoot" is driven by three factors: how much we consume, the global population, and how much Nature can produce.
Technology has vastly boosted productivity of edible plants and animals, but that expansion has barely kept pace with the rate at which demand has increased, the report said.
As critical, it has not taken into account all the collateral damage inflicted on the environment.
The United States is the biggest ecological deficit spender, according to an earlier calculation by the same group.
If all people adopted the American lifestyle -- big house, two cars, huge per-capita energy consumption -- the world's population would need about five "Earths" to meet its needs.
By contrast, if everyone on Earth matched the average footprint of someone in India today, humanity would be using less than half the planet's biocapacity.
But as India, China and other emerging giants continue to grow their economies at breakneck pace -- fuelled in large part by the desire for a "Western" lifestyle -- that per-capita footprint will become much larger, scientists warn.
Already today, for example, China is the top emitter of greenhouse gases and the top producer of automobiles.
(c) 2011 AFP
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Dolphin Midwives and Underwater Birthing
Igor Charkovsky, a Russian male mid-wife has assisted in over 20,000 underwater births, but in 1979 he began experiments with dolphins and children. His daughter, one of the first modern water-birthers, was in her late twenties when the following incident happened. Charkovsky and his team had taken a woman to the Black Sea in Israel for an underwater birth. In two feet of water, preparing for the birth, suddenly three dolphins approached, pushed everyone out of the way and took over. They scanned the length of her body (with sonar?), which somehow relaxed the mother and child and gave birth with no pain or fear. Apparently all the human midwives were pretty shocked though. This opened up the new practice of ‘Dolphin mid-wivery’ which may sound strange, but fits in with the new breed of super-children that are currently coming in to existence.For some reason, dolphins are attracted to pregnant women and young children and as most people are aware, the dolphins can also help heal people with mental and psychological problems. But the children, who are being born with the aid of dolphins, at least with the cases documented in Russia, are extraordinary children. Most of the have IQ’s of over 150 (genius range again), plus extremely stable emotional bodies and strong physical bodies. They are superior in one way or another.
The below video shows a dolphin assisting a mother in giving birth underwater
There are videos that document these babies and children up to age three, sleeping on the bottom of swimming pools. They even come up for air whilst still asleep and turn their heads over the surface of the water, take a breath, then go back to the bottom. It is as though this is their natural home.Some people call them ‘Homodolphinus’ , because they seem to have the characteristics of humans and dolphins. Water is becoming their natural environment, plus they are also super intelligent.
There is ample evidence that humans once had a much more intrinsic connection with water. Charkovsky believes that mans close affinity with aquatic animals can be explained by our common origins in water in our mammalian history. In the book The Aquatic Ape, Elaine Morgan gives a fascinating account of the aquatic theory of evolution. According to Morgan, our aquatic affinity goes back millions of years to the Pilocene age, when our ape ancestors lived a semi-aquatic life on the coastline to escape the extreme heat which occurred due to climatic change. By wading in the sea, our ancestors began to walk upright and lost their body hair and developed a layer of sub-cutaneous fat like other aquatic mammals, to protect them from the cooler temperatures of the water. Today, we still have this layer of sub-cutaneous fat.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Rawfood Workshop
In this Rawfood Workshop you will learn how to prepare and taste several raw meals including:
Breakfast - Raw Muesli
Lunch - Raw Burger (veg)
Dinner - Gazpacho with Carrot Conserve
Drinks - Ginger Pineapple Juice, Raw Champagne (no-alcoholic)
Dessert - Coconut Mousse, Date Cake
I will also explain how to make delicious sauces that you can use with salads and other dishes.
Mayo
Curry
Tampenade
I will be presenting for the first time my exclusive method called Fermenting Pan that makes delicious fermented food.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Maximum 25 participants<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Please contact me via FB message for more details !!! http://www.facebook.com/nutriviva
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