Agriculture
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Health & Medicine
Honeybee CSI: Why dead bodies can’t be found
Virus could explain one symptom of colony collapse.
By Susan Milius -
Agriculture
A Mushrooming Advance
Human skin isn't the only thing that makes vitamin D upon exposure to the ultraviolet radiation.
By Janet Raloff -
Animals
Farm chemicals can indirectly hammer frogs
A widely used agricultural weed killer teams up with fertilizer to render frogs especially vulnerable to debilitating parasites.
By Janet Raloff -
Agriculture
Network Antennas — Yum!
Sensor designers might have to consider engineering in bovine deterrence.
By Janet Raloff -
Ecosystems
Coastal dead zones expanding
The number of coastal areas known as dead zones is on the rise. A new tally reports more than 400 of the oxygen starved regions worldwide.
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Plants
Fugitives spread bumblebee diseases
Pathogens hitchhike on commercial bees that escape from greenhouses. These escapees bring disease to wild bumblebees.
By Susan Milius -
Plants
Parasitic plant gets more than a meal
The parasitic vine known as dodder really sucks. It pierces the tissue of other plants — some of which are important crops — extracting water and nutrients needed for its own growth. But it also consumes molecules that scientists could manipulate to bring on the parasite’s demise.
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Agriculture
Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa
by Robert Paarlberg, Harvard Univ. Press, 2008, 235 p., $24.95.
By Science News -
Ecosystems
Tracing Tahitian vanilla
The discovery of Tahitian vanilla’s heritage could set off a custody battle between nations.
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Agriculture
Dirt Is Not Soil
Probing the distinction in what you call the stuff that mud is made of.
By Janet Raloff