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Disease Threatens Florida Oranges

Scientists search for solutions to citrus greening disease

(Newser) - Florida’s orange growers face a powerful adversary in a disease know by its shorthand of HLB that causes citrus trees to “green”—produce only sour, misshapen fruit, Scientific American reports. With every county in the state affected, the citrus industry has dedicated $10 million this year alone...

Chew on This: Biodegradable Gum Hits Stores

Will vanish in six weeks after a good chew

(Newser) - The first widely available biodegradable chewing gum hits British stores today. Chicza Rainforest Gum is manufactured in Mexico from the sap of the chicle tree collected by a cooperative network of chicleros, or gum farmers. Unlike regular gum, Chicza uses no petrochemicals, isn't sticky, and dries up and crumbles to...

Barbies of the Future May Grow on Trees

Researchers use wood and wax to make biodegradable alternative

(Newser) - Wooden toys may not be so 1850s, scientists say. A bioplastic made from trees has been used to make everything from golf tees to car parts in recent years, but its sulfurous stink kept it out of the toy market. Now a sulfur-free version of "liquid wood" is available,...

Nuke Tests Left Mark on Trees, People

Scientists can date humans and trees by the extra carbon in their systems

(Newser) - Scientists can now carbon-date baby boomers by detecting atomic bomb residue in their DNA, NPR reports. Turns out that carbon-14 released during above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s hung around, then was absorbed into living tissue, experts say. Evidence, in the form of extra carbon neutrons, has been...

Disease Stalks Florida's Palms
 Disease Stalks Florida's Palms 
Jul 23, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

Disease Stalks Florida's Palms

State worries it lacks resources to identify, combat pathogen

(Newser) - A mystery disease is eating away at the sabal palm, Florida’s state tree, and scientists say the prospects of successfully fighting the disease are slim. The AP reports that an increasing number of the trees, which can grow up to 50 feet tall, have suffered collapsed canopies. "There's...

Pine Beetles Eat Through Western Forests

Huge bug infestation doing more damage than wildfires

(Newser) - The biggest infestation of mountain pine beetles in decades is devastating huge tracts of forest in the Western states, USA Today reports; forestry workers say the bugs are killing even more trees than the wildfires ravaging California's forests. The larvae consume the inner bark of trees, usually lodgepole pines, killing...

Italian Cooks Up Eggplant and Tomato Tree

Hardy hybrid said to yield better produce than nature intended

(Newser) - A Sicilian amateur botanist claims to have developed a plant hybrid that functions as the world’s first tomato/eggplant tree, ANSA reports. Taking advantage of the fact that all three share the same genus, Giuseppe Marino grafted tomato and eggplant tissue onto a devil’s fig shrub, a hardy plant...

Warming Will Kill 66% of Calif. Plants Within Century

Flora won't have time to migrate if emissions continue at current rate

(Newser) - If California’s climate warms significantly in the next 100 years the consequences could be grave for the majority of the state’s native plants, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A team of scientists from UC Berkeley and Duke found that up to 66% of the state’s plants wouldn’...

Ruling Doesn't Chop Tree-Hugging Stalemate

UC Berkeley dismantles treehouses; protesters cheered construction can't proceed

(Newser) - UC Berkeley can't yet proceed with a $140 million athletic center, a judge ruled yesterday, even as the university continued to dismantle structures belonging to protesters trying to save a grove of trees that would be cut down during construction, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Earthquake safety is the major...

What Happened to the Paperless Office?
 What Happened to
 the Paperless Office? 
ANALYSIS
May 28, 2008 2:33 PM CDT

What Happened to the Paperless Office?

Still, huge financial incentives to cut down have wheels in motion

(Newser) - More than 30 years after Xerox guru George Pake predicted a "paperless office" by 1995, the dream is as elusive as ever. That's because the very computers that made paper theoretically obsolete, BusinessWeek notes, also brought us printers and copiers on practically every desktop. "The decision to print...

Solar Panels Trump Trees
 Solar Panels Trump Trees 
Mar 26, 2008 5:43 PM CDT

Solar Panels Trump Trees

Calif. man forced to cut down redwoods so neighbor can tap sun's energy

(Newser) - A dispute between California neighbors pitting trees against solar panels has gone to the panels, KGO-TV reports. Following a seven-year battle over whether one should have to cut down trees in his backyard that shade the other’s solar panels, Richard Treanor today chopped two redwoods after he was found...

Kamikaze Palm Baffles Botanists
Kamikaze Palm Baffles Botanists
Jan 17, 2008 3:30 AM CST

Kamikaze Palm Baffles Botanists

Madagascar giant flowers spectacularly, then dies

(Newser) - Scientists have found a gigantic—and suicidal—new species of palm tree in a remote area of Madagascar, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The tree, so big it can be seen in satellite photos, grows normally for a century or so until it spectacularly erupts with countless tiny flowers that...

NY to Clone Central Park 'Tree-nome'

Cuttings will be replicated in lab, replanted across city

(Newser) - Arborists and geneticists are collaborating on a project to bring 1 million new trees to New York's gritty streets by 2016. They won't be entirely new, though, Newsday reports. Cuttings will be taken from several species in Central Park, then shipped to an Oregon lab where they will be cloned,...

Vegas Tree Chopper Sought Better View of Strip

Saw-wielding retiree could face 35 years

(Newser) - A retiree convicted of killing 500 trees in a Las Vegas suburb was trying to better his view of the famous Strip, the Los Angeles Times reports. Douglas Hoffman, 60, was found guilty last month of felling $250,000 worth of mesquite and other trees over the course of a...

Sorry, Al: Tree Planting May Speed Warming

Outside the tropics, trees merely trap heat, study shows

(Newser) - Planting trees to offset your carbon footprint not only won't slow global warming, it may worsen its effects, a new study claims. Trees growing outside a small band of tropical zones don't cut the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by enough to offset the heat their foliage traps,...

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