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Home > News > Tags > plant
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Taking a potted plant and placing it on your desk might not be just a girlie thing, as in, prompted by aesthetic reasons, as we all might be tempted to believe. In fact, a plant helps us fight allergies caused by indoor pollution in what is known as the “Sick Building Syndrome,” according to a NASA study.... |
24 March 2009
09:24 GMT |
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The 5,000-year-old Tyrolean iceman mummy found in a melting glacier almost two decades ago still has some surprises in store for researchers. As an example, during a recent study, they discovered that the Copper Age man ingested, more or less accidentally or conscientiously, six different moss types, including one th... |
2 December 2008
09:40 GMT |
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Tradition and legend have it that four-leaf clovers bring luck to their finders. You might tend to believe that, but if you happen to find a five-leaf clover, what would be your first thought? According to common superstition, this kind of clover brings even more good luck to the already lucky discoverer, plus a bonu... |
31 October 2008
11:25 GMT |
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Back in 1998, there was a contest called EDITT (Ecological Design in the tropics) which would sponsor ecologically-oriented building projects. The winner was Dr. Ken Yeang from T.R. Hamzah & Yeang International, an ecological architecture company, whose project focused on the building of a large ecological skyscraper... |
16 October 2008
05:57 GMT |
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A scarce plant once populating the inland salty marshes of upstate New York was thought to have gone extinct. But recently, the rare species of goldenrod appeared from nowhere, in a surprising place: on the sides of the local roads.The re-emergence of the rare plant surprised the specialists. If anyone expected this ... |
1 October 2008
06:45 GMT |
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Life is ephemeral by definition but it does vary from one species to another. The lifespan of each organism is considered to be the actual time it takes said organism to complete its life cycle. Most bacteria live for 15-80 minutes and then they divide into two daughter cells. More complex organisms live much longer.... |
14 May 2008
15:46 GMT |
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Who would believe that all the roots and absorbing hairs of grasses or cereals, be they rye, wheat or couch grass, put all together, could form a line surrounding the perimeter of an European country? In 1937, a German naturalist carried out this scrupulous work, measuring the surface and length of all roots of a rye... |
29 April 2008
10:42 GMT |
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Plants may not have complex tissues and a nervous system, but they still "feel". If they sprout, develop and flower at the right time and place, that's because they are sensitive to environmental factors. The vegetation boom during each spring shows they obey precise rhythms, which come encoded in their genes. P... |
29 April 2008
09:34 GMT |
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Throughout the history of Earth, countless plant and animal species have appeared and disappeared, because not only individuals, but species too get old and become extinct. Best case scenario, they live on in related species, that may later evolve in new plant or animal groups. Very few species resisted throughout th... |
23 April 2008
03:56 GMT |
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In 1995, the Ministry of the Environment of South Africa launched the program "Working for the Water," aiming to eliminate the "foreign plants" by cleansing 20 million of hectares for returning water to the natives, both plants and humans. Those supporting the program said the exotic species, imported or entered acci... |
9 April 2008
11:26 GMT |
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Since prehistory, people have been consuming about 3,000 plant species. Of these species, about 150 have been cultivated systematically, and the development of agriculture just made humans to exclude "marginal" species, for focusing on an increasingly smaller number of plant species. This resulted in the fact that no... |
9 April 2008
10:58 GMT |
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In the world of the building materials, bamboo could compete successfully against steel, concrete, wood and glass. Because of its exceptional mechanical qualities, low price and design, bamboo could turn into one of the preferred building materials of the future. Even if it looks like a tree, the bamboo is just a woo... |
29 March 2008
09:02 GMT |
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Lizards wandered the world along with the dinosaurs. And even if small, they proved tougher, as they survived into the era of the mammals. A 130-million-year-old fossil found in the Ishikawa Prefecture of Japan and described by the journal "Paleontology" is the oldest found plant-eating lizard, a discovery with impli... |
25 March 2008
03:57 GMT |
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Men and women think differently, behave differently, have a different structure, and that's why it should be not such a surprise they eat differently as well. A new research presented at the recent 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, Georgia, shows us how. Indeed, men remain... |
21 March 2008
14:06 GMT |
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Over 50 tropical and subtropical areas (20, only in Africa) are infested today by the beautiful water hyacinth (Eichornia crassipes), originating in the Amazon basin. The conquered areas go from Africa (except Sahara and Namib deserts and southern tip of South Africa) to India, Indochina, eastern China, Japonia, New ... |
11 March 2008
11:22 GMT |
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The world we live in is full of synthetic chemicals, most of which are toxic. They are encountered from our food to all the objects we touch. No wonder the explosion of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) cases (see: http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Disease-of-the-Technology-MCS-74254.shtml). But if you think that ... |
9 February 2008
07:07 GMT |
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The Big Mac combination may be an insidious caloric bomb loaded with starches and oils, but a new research of the plants that people around the world eat has found it, if you can believe this, as a symbol of a varied diet brought by globalization!The team from the University of Calgary and Stellenbosch University in ... |
8 February 2008
06:00 GMT |
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The largest ever land animals were the enormous plant-eater dinosaurs called sauropods, of which Apatosaurus (former Brontosaurus) is the best known. These creatures could grow up to 42 m (130 ft) in length (but the neck and tail could be longer than their body) and at least 110 tons in weight. Researchers have been... |
8 February 2008
03:30 GMT |
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You are an animal lover, and you have decided not to eat anything coming from an animal. But with the meat and animal products out, you're going to miss many minerals, vitamins and nutrients. Watch out to this:1. Proteins are the "bricks" of the organism, and must contain all the essential aminoacids, in precise... |
1 February 2008
14:06 GMT |
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1. Anise (Pimpinella anisum). It works against distensions, coughing, colics, gut and stomach spasms, low digestive secretions and dry mucosae, bronchitis; it stimulates lactation in new mothers. 2. Bergamot orange (Citrus x bergamia). It works against anxiety, irritability, stress, distension, gut infections, colics... |
31 January 2008
14:06 GMT |
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These are the most impressive carnivorous plants, having spectacular traps: pitcher plants (Nepenthes), growing in various places, from Madagascar and southeastern Asia to northeastern Australia. The 117 species are also dubbed "Monkey cups" as monkeys have been spotted drinking rainwater from them. These plants are ... |
29 January 2008
05:07 GMT |
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1. Plants have in their structure xylem tubes that transport water and mineral salts and phloem tubes that carry the food. Both types of tubes are produced by a meristematic tissue called cambium. Xylem is produced inward, phloem outward. Death xylem layers form the wood. 2. The green pigment called chlorophyll allow... |
26 January 2008
07:50 GMT |
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Two days ago, Nokia announced that it will close its manufacturing plant from Bochum, Germany, and transfer production to other plants in order to lower production costs. Opened more than 20 years ago, in 1987, the Bochum Nokia factory currently has more than 2,300 employees that will be affected after the plant clo... |
17 January 2008
10:55 GMT |
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The spring, when nature blooms, pollen is everywhere in the air. It is the curse for the allergic people, experiencing the "hay fever". But what's the pollen? The product of the male part of the flowers (stamins), in other words, plant sperm. For a plant to reproduce, the pollen must reach the pistil on the fema... |
27 November 2007
11:00 GMT |
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1.Costa Rica is a small country from Central America having 4 million inhabitants and is slightly larger than Switzerland. The land was discovered in 1502 by Columbus, who was taken by surprise with his whole fleet by a storm in the waters off the neighboring Honduras. Columbus navigated along the shores of present-d... |
27 November 2007
08:26 GMT |
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Life on Earth is fueled by the 'relationship' between plants and sunlight. A new research made on Arabidopsis, a common model plant employed in researches and published in Nature "has significantly advanced our understanding of how plant responses to light are regulated, and perhaps even how such responses ... |
26 November 2007
02:49 GMT |
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An oak with a 37 cm trunk diameter has about 119,000 leaves while a pine with a trunk of 60-70 cm in diameter has 30-40 million needle leaves. An oak eliminates in a warm summer through its leaves about 10 tonnes of water. There is only one place in the world, at the north of the Panama Channel, where trees with a sq... |
23 November 2007
15:59 GMT |
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Except for sea food and fish, all you eat comes directly or indirectly (through chicken, pork and beef) from flowering plants. But how they appeared is a big puzzle for the researchers. A new research made by a team at Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and published in Nature comes with new data on the issue. New 3-D non... |
23 November 2007
03:28 GMT |
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There are at least 500 species of medicinal plants utilized by the Indians of Amazon. 10 species coming from the Amazon are already employed by drug companies. Cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa) is a woody vine related to the coffee tree, employed locally in Amazonia (Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador), drunk as infusion. T... |
22 November 2007
14:06 GMT |
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There are over 200 species of plants linked to the existence of underground ore deposits. Plants usually need in low amounts metals for their metabolism. If there is too high the amount encountered in the soil, the plants depose the absorbed excess in their tissues. Sometimes, the deposits can be so big, that when th... |
21 November 2007
10:06 GMT |
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These are the most amazing carnivorous plants: the 117 pitcher plant species of the genus Nepenthes, found from Madagascar and southeastern Asia to northeastern Australia. They possess the most spectacular traps, even if considered amongst the least sophisticated functionally, till the publication of a new research i... |
21 November 2007
06:07 GMT |
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T-rex might have been one of the most fearsome meat eaters ever to walk the Earth, but, surprisingly, there was a group of closely related dinosaurs that were plant-eaters; they were called the therizinosaurs. One of these odd waddling dinosaurs with long arms and enormous claws has been recently found in Gansu Provi... |
4 October 2007
02:43 GMT |
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Ever wanted to grow some flowers, but you were just too busy typing away at your computer to remember to water them? Well, now the USB enabled Greenhouse has the answer for you, as it comes with everything you need to grow your very own flowers and that without stepping very far away from your computer.A cool gadget ... |
15 September 2007
06:59 GMT |
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Lenovo is one of the most important computer systems manufacturer and vendor, sitting in Top 5 just behind more powerful names like HP and Dell. Like any other computer hardware manufacturing firm, Lenovo thinks about expanding its producing facilities in emerging and developing countries as a means to cut production... |
27 July 2007
05:51 GMT |
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American citizens are not very fond of nuclear powerplants, in fact, of anything that involves the word "nuclear." This is somewhat understandable considering that for half a century they lived with the constant threat of global nuclear war, caused by the arms race and constant showoffs from both the former Soviet U... |
24 July 2007
10:52 GMT |
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Work on building the Nokia plant in Cluj, Romania has begun after a long time of debates and agreements set between local authorities and the Finnish company. An opening ceremony has taken place today in order to mark the beginning of work on the factory.The Nokia plant in Cluj is the eleventh such production facili... |
29 June 2007
05:43 GMT |
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A person may be a "vegetable", but many plants definitely aren't. It seems that plants are not that docile as it was widely assumed, and they can have quite nasty reactions towards strangers. A new research at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, has showed that plants can recognize one another when they shar... |
18 June 2007
03:37 GMT |
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Svalbard is like a bridge between Norway and the North Pole: an icy Norwegian archipelago famous for glaciers, freezing winds, polar bears, harboring the northernmost human settlements in the world. 10,000 years ago Svalbard was completely covered by ice and now it still covers 60 % of its surface. The rest of the ... |
15 June 2007
06:08 GMT |
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Plants make photosynthesis to get all the food they need. And food, for both plants and animals, is represented by three classes of chemicals: sugars, fats and proteins. Sugars and fats are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen: these elements are easily extracted from air (carbon dioxide) and water. But proteins conta... |
9 June 2007
11:41 GMT |
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Coca-Cola and Cargill have announced that they have developed a new natural sweetener from the sweet grass or honey leaf (Stevia rebaudiana), a South American bush whose leaves are used by Guarani Indians (Paraguay and Southern Brazil) for centuries as sweetener in mate beverage. The plant is highly popular in Paragu... |
4 June 2007
14:56 GMT |
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During 4 million years of evolution, people just gathered, hunted and fished what nature offered, living just like another intelligent mammal. But about 12,000 years ago, with the Neolithic ("new stone") era, people started to be producers, creating voluntarily their subsistence means and breaking their dependence on... |
24 May 2007
17:06 GMT |
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Faster mating means safer existence. This is valid at least in the case of the large herbivorous mammals, from rhinos and elephants to deer and antelopes: the slower their reproductive period, the higher the risk of extinction. Habitat loss and naturally limited living areas are also great factors of risk, but under ... |
16 May 2007
06:52 GMT |
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The European Union rules and regulations imply having increased taxes for products that are being manufactured in Asia. Of course, the main purpose of this rule is to make the Europeans buy stuff that are made in, you guessed it, Europe, and shy away from the oh, so dreaded Made in China logo. But this rule applies t... |
3 April 2007
10:51 GMT |
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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Bonn, Germany have realized the first global map of estimated plant species richness. The map assessed three hundred thousand species and is the most extensive map of the distribution of biodiversity on Earth to date. The map signals very cl... |
21 March 2007
09:16 GMT |
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