Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1998 01:40:05 -0400 From: Derek Glidden <dglidden@illusionary.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3187$foo@default> Subject: off-topic
This is probably old-hat for die-hard botanists, but I just saw a report
on Discovery Channel about a scientist who, after 30 years of searching
and testing, has finally found exactly two American Elm trees out of
literally tens of thousands trees grown and tested that appear to be
totally resistant to Dutch Elm Disease, which has killed off something
like 99.95% of the American Elm trees in the US.
The first specimen came from the years of testing seed-grown plants and
was dubbed "Valley Forge" (One hopes he's following proper cultivar
naming conventions...) and the second was a healthy specimen he found
literally growing alongside the highway among other infected elms.
The two plants are in massive TC and are hoped to be shipped to
nurseries sometime in the year 2000. There is already apparently a
2-year backlog on orders.
There was also a report on CNN's website at
http://cnn.com/TECH/science/9809/28/super.trees.ap/index.html about
poplar trees that have been engineered with bacterial genes to allow
them to withstand and absorb high concentrations of heavy metals and
other toxins. So for some typs of contaminated sites, instead of having
to cart away the topsoil to an incinerator to sterilize it, scientists
hope they'll be able to just plant some trees.
Kind of gives ya hope for the future...
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Derek Glidden http://www.illusionary.com
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