Glowing Plants

Roses that glow could reduce the need of street lights, according to the company Bioglow, Inc. A few reasearchers realized that this was possible after transplanting the genes of marine bacteria that allow them to light up into tobacco plants. After doing this, the researchers discovered that the tobacco plants were able to show a faint green glow. One of the researchers, Krichevsky, says this is the first time that plants have been able to glow by themselves. Glowing plants that were created before were sprayed with chemicals or had a temporary glowing effect. Right now, these plants can only glow a little bit, but Krichevsky assures that Bioglow will be able to make them glow even brighter. There are numerous living things that can produce a glow on their own, and Bioglow decided to transplant the gene of marine bacteria. The glow's color could be determined by the luciferase. This could be altered to show various colors on the plant, such as red or blue. Some people believe that this may cause nuclear contamination, but Krichevsky still needs to research further about this. Even though this fact has been discovered, the researchers say that these glowing plants will most likely not be found at a local florist and that this is more of just a visonary thing.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/technology/glowing-plants-101129.html

A Devastating Virus

Crickets that are raised as food for reptiles and other animals are dying because of a terrifying virus. This virus is quickly spreading around throughout cricket farms everywhere in North America. It has already brought millions of crickets to their death. This would assure at least one cricket producer to become bankrupt or out of a job. The cricket producer Elizabeth Payne says that there is no way to cure the virus and because of that, she was forced to go out of business. This virus has also affected crickets in Europe in 2002. In Canada, this destructive virus killed 60 million crickets. This virus came from a certain cricket. Although it is very deadly, it does not effect the other animals that eat crickets. Overall, the year for animals has not been very easy. Many of the cricket producers are now thoroughly cleaning and sanitizing the barns in the cricket farms to prevent more diseases to spread. Hopefully this disease will somehow be stopped from spreading further out, or many crickets will be in danger.


Source: http://www.livescience.com/animals/etc/110112-virus-paralyzes-crickets-and-pet-food-industry.html