The Mena District Cooling Projects Conference starts with more than 250 industry experts and government officials focusing on growing opportunities in the sector
These books tell us why we ignore plants, and what we are missing out on as a result scroll.in - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scroll.in Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When did they get into our homes? A brief history of houseplants
When did they get into our homes? A brief history of houseplants
“More sun? Less sun? What do you want? More water? Less water? Why don’t you speak? Answer me now! (1)
My grandma loved plants. She kept dozens of them with their terracotta vases precisely aligned on the ground or suspended on iron frames close to the staircase. When I was young, I liked to see her taking care of red and pink hairy geraniums or repotting asparagus ferns and spider plants. She also cultivated flowers – small white roses, flowering quinces, asters, and jonquils – that in Spring and Summer gave her plenty of fresh bouquets she brought to the cemetery every Saturday afternoon.
Spinach is certainly an unbeleafable plant, having been used by scientists to grow human heart tissue and even to make batteries with enough energy to power an electric car. Right now an MIT study is blowing up in the news, with mainstream media outlets claiming that “spinach can send emails.” But can it? Eh, not exactly.
More accurately, scientists insert nanoparticles into spinach leaves, and these nanoparticles are utilized as sensors to detect explosives and also emit infrared light. The spinach absorbs groundwater up through its roots, and when the nanoparticles sense the presence of explosive chemicals in that water, the nano-sensors in the leaves emit signals to an infrared camera, and that camera sends a wireless email alert to let researchers know explosives are present. That’s a far cry from a plant typing out a message to Popeye to remind him to eat his spinach, which a lot of these headlines suggest.