8230 - variation on a meme, I pollified it.

[scottobear]

[Poll #686339]

feel free to post a guess in comments, if you can't do the poll above.

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Science!

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Some people like to talk to their plants. Now, students at Singapore Polytechnic say they have created a plant that can communicate with people -- by glowing when it needs water.

The students said on Tuesday that they have genetically modified a plant using a green fluorescent marker gene from jellyfish, so that it "lights up" when it is stressed as a result of dehydration.

The light is hard to detect with the naked eye but can be seen using an optical sensor developed in collaboration with students at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

The development of such plants could help farmers to develop more efficient irrigation of crops

Comments

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

applying red tape to any situation can make it needlessly dopey.

How's that old saw about the space program go?

"When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space,
they found out that writing pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing surface).

In order to solve this problem, they hired Andersen Consulting. It took them one decade and $12 million.

They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, under water, on practically any surface including crystal, and in a temperature range from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

The Russians discovered the same problem.

But instead of spending ten years and millions of dollars, they just used a pencil ..."