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29 July 1997 | ScienceNOW

No Small Potatoes

by Science News Staff

Vegetables with genetically engineered pest resistance are already appearing on supermarket shelves, but scientists have had a much harder time controlling the sizes and crop yields of many vegetables. Now...

6 June 1997 | ScienceNOW

Aluminum Foiled

by Science News Staff

Scientists have engineered tobacco and papaya plants to resist one of the world's least known enemies of agriculture: aluminum. The findings, reported in today's issue of Science,* could lead to...

27 May 1997 | ScienceNOW

The Father of Taxonomy

by Science News Staff

Today is the 290th anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish botanical taxonomist who was the first person to formulate and adhere to a uniform system for defining...

19 May 1997 | ScienceNOW

An Original Green Thumb

by Science News Staff

Yesterday would have been the 94th birthday of Frits Went, a Dutch-born American botanist who discovered the role of the plant hormone auxin and paved the way for the development...

9 May 1997 | ScienceNOW

You Spit, You Die. Here's Why

by Science News Staff

Spitting in Singapore may get you thrown in jail, but in nature there are far more lethal results. When a caterpillar drools on a corn leaf, the offended vegetable releases...

8 May 1997 | ScienceNOW

Permian Pollen Eaters

by Science News Staff

Russia's Ural Mountains have yielded what may be the oldest evidence yet for pollen eating among insects. If confirmed, the findings, reported in the current issue of Lethaia, would turn...

8 May 1997 | ScienceNOW

Squash Seeds Quash Dissent on New World Farming

by Science News Staff

An analysis of squash seeds and other table scraps dug up in a Mexican cave suggests that people in the Americas gave up hunting and gathering for farming at least...

30 April 1997 | ScienceNOW

Red Algae Revise Early Life History

by Science News Staff

The family tree of life may have just grown another branch. Red algae, mostly tropical seaweeds, look different from green algae and plants, but biologists believed that the appearance was...

23 April 1997 | ScienceNOW

Mutant Gene Builds Better Blossoms

by Science News Staff

April showers bring May flowers. With a little genetic engineering, they could soon last until June. By transplanting a mutant gene into a petunia, researchers have created a flower that...

16 April 1997 | ScienceNOW

More Plants in Greenhouse Earth

by Science News Staff

Earth is not only getting warmer; it's getting greener as well, says a group of U.S. researchers in tomorrow's issue of Nature. Their analysis of satellite data shows that there...

11 March 1997 | ScienceNOW

A Plankton's Penchant for Poisoning

by Science News Staff

CINCINNATI--In 1989, a researcher at North Carolina State University was studying a newly discovered one-celled marine organism when he developed persistent confusion and memory loss. Other scientists in the lab...

3 March 1997 | ScienceNOW

For One Bug, Pesticide Resistance Is Not Futile

by Science News Staff

Just as farmers begin a second year of sowing a biotech wonder--crops engineered to make their own pesticides--comes a new study showing that a type of moth can resist several...

25 February 1997 | ScienceNOW

Sun-Ripened Vaccines

by Science News Staff

LONDON--Scientists have for the first time used a vaccine made inside a plant to protect animals--in this case minks--against a viral disease. The achievement, reported in next month's issue of...

25 February 1997 | ScienceNOW

Red-Thumb Gardeners to Transform Agriculture?

by Science News Staff

When a team of biochemists spliced a bacterium's gene for making hemoglobin into a tobacco plant, they expected the transgenic plant to be a tad hardier. Instead, they got veritable...

4 February 1997 | ScienceNOW

The Germ of a New Taxonomy

by Science News Staff

Today is the birthday of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, a French plant taxonomist born in 1778. Candolle introduced key principles into plant classification. He adopted the scheme that plants are...

10 January 1997 | ScienceNOW

Bright Light in Photosynthesis

by Science News Staff

Melvin Calvin, who as a biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory unraveled the secrets of how plants use light for energy, died on 8 January in Berkeley, California. He...

9 January 1997 | ScienceNOW

Bacchus Knows Best: Cancer Drug in Grapes?

by Science News Staff

A battery of lab tests has indicated that a chemical found in grapes and other fruits and vegetables is a potential antitumor agent. But experts caution that the compound, described...

11 November 1996 | ScienceNOW

Fruit of the Bioengineered Loom

by Science News Staff

Biotech products may soon change the very fabric of our society: our cotton fabric, that is. Scientists have developed a kind of cotton whose fibers have improved insulating properties, says...

18 October 1996 | ScienceNOW

Better Wheat Through Science?

by Science News Staff

The world could face a crisis in wheat production unless agricultural scientists learn how to breed better varieties of wheat, warns a new report from a leading international agricultural research...