Findings: “We have discovered a new strategy whereby an insect uses saliva to inhibit the release of airborne plant defenses through direct manipulation of plant stomata,” said Gary Felton, professor and head of the Department of Entomology at Penn State, noting that stomata are tiny pores on plant leaves that regulate gas exchange”
Plants
Why did Darwin consider flowers an “abominable mystery”?
He was referring to their abrupt and unaccounted for appearance.
Researchers discover an alarm plants use when attacked by munching critters
Researchers: The receptor detects conserved plant protein fragments accidently released as digestive products during caterpillar munching, thereby enabling plant recognition of attack.
There is now a philosophy of plant biology—and a call for abstracts
Everyone knows plants don’t have minds but they do have a lot of intelligence. Just an accident or part of the intelligence massively inherent in nature? From what source? Darwinism grows increasingly difficult to believe.
Venus fly-trap uses calcium to remember when to shut the trap
Plants communicate in ways that we are only beginning to learn.
Devolution: The “surprising” gene costs of the carnivorous lifestyle to plants
Researchers: “To their surprise, the researchers discovered that the plants do not need a particularly large number of genes for carnivory. Instead, the three species studied are actually among the most gene-poor plants known. ” Yes, because – as Mike Behe says – Darwin Devolves.
Claim: Plants are conscious!
Expect more crazy. Salad is murder, did you know? That time of year.
There is an “underlying design principle” in plants?
“Our model shows that by absorbing only very specific colors of light, photosynthetic organisms may automatically protect themselves against sudden changes — or ‘noise’ — in solar energy, resulting in remarkably efficient power conversion,” said Gabor, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, who led the study appearing today in the journal Science.
Billion-year-old algae (“leaves, … branches …”) raise some interesting questions
Like any real history, evolution is not driven by a single force or idea. Horizontal gene transfer from bacteria obviates the quest for an “ancestor” seaweed. Maybe there isn’t one.
Could we bring back extinct plants?
So far a Siberian flower and a date palm have been brought back. The idea is that restoring n extinct animal like the woolly mammoth would just be a curiosity but some of these plants may be staple foods or useful medicines.
Granville Sewell: Bladderworts are irreducibly complex
Carnivorous plants construct “mousetraps” which are no use to the plant until they succeed. How then did they evolve randomly by chance?
Huge discordance between gene trees in a new phylogenetic study
“Deep phylogenetic incongruence” sounds like journalspeak for “our current phylogenetic tree is a hot mess.”
Green plants discovered in China dated at a billion years ago
It’s not “land” vs. “sea” that’s really significant here. It’s how much time was available for the development of photosynthesis. If the claim is that photosynthesis developed via natural selection acting on random mutations (Darwinism), then it must have somehow randomly happened in that billion years. Was there enough time? becomes an unavoidable question.
Cells have two separate guidance systems for the arrangement of their cellulose fibres
This “dual guidance system” was “not predicted”. Imagine somehow randomly evolving two separate guidance systems…
At Mind Matters News: Researchers: Trees “sense” their height and weight
Trees rarely just fall over but we seldom stop to think about why they don’t.