Category: Earth Intelligence

Smart, everything is…AND connected.

Plants may use language to communicate with each other, Virginia Tech researcher finds

BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 15, 2014 – A Virginia Tech scientist has discovered a potentially new form of plant communication, one that allows them to share an extraordinary amount of genetic information with one another.

The finding by Jim Westwood, a professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, throws open the door to a new arena of science that explores how plants communicate with each other on a molecular level. It also gives scientists new insight into ways to fight parasitic weeds that wreak havoc on food crops in some of the poorest parts of the world.

His findings were published on Aug. 15 in the journal Science.

“The discovery of this novel form of inter-organism communication shows that this is happening a lot more than any one has previously realized,” said Westwood, who is an affiliated researcher with the Fralin Life Science Institute. “Now that we have found that they are sharing all this information, the next question is, ‘What exactly are they telling each other?’.”

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Another unhappy trend. We need a major paradigm change. One that recognizes that we live embedded in the Earth in a vast matrix of life, all of which is interdependent and interconnected. When one part of it is stressed all life suffers.

6th Mass Extinction? Humans Kill Species Faster Than They're Created
STEPHANIE PAPPAS, Contributing Writer – Live Science

Humans are killing off species thousands of times faster than nature creates them, new research finds.

The modern rate of extinction across species is 1,000 times that of the background rate before humans began altering the globe and thousands of times faster than the creation of new species, according to a new study in the journal Conservation Biology. The findings echo and expand on previous research published in the journal Science, which also suggested that humans are on the verge of causing a sixth mass extinction on Earth.

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Using molecular phylogenies – family trees created by a comparison of DNA among species – the researchers tracked how species are born and die over time. This is the first time the three sources of information, from fossils to diversification to molecular phylogenies, have been tied together, Pimm said.

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This is a wonderful story that gives some hope that the dominant culture is opening to the interconnected and interdependent nature, of nature.

Seeing the Wood
The Economist (U.K.)

More good news. The Clean Air Act, which the Theocratic Right has been trying to undermine since it was passed, we now know, based on actual data, has done great good. Not enough to be sure, but at least a step in the right direction.

Thanks To The Clean Air Act, We Breathe 3 Million Fewer Tons Of Toxins Each Year
EMILY ATKIN – Climate Progress