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Gizmorama - July 7, 2014
Good Morning, Did you hear about this? Apparently, plants have the ability to "hear" - sense and detect vibrations, like caterpillars munching, and then are able to respond with defensive strategies. That's amazing!
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
ErinP.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives****-- Astronomers discover most Earth-like of all exoplanets --*SYDNEY (UPI) - Astronomers at the University of New South Wales in Australia are calling the newly discovered exoplanet Gliese 832c a "super-Earth." In fact, scientists say it's one of the most Earth-like of all the exoplanets so far discovered.
Technically -- according to the very official-sounding Earth Similarity Index -- Gliese 832c is the third most Earth-like exoplanet.
"With an outer giant planet and an interior potentially rocky planet, this planetary system can be thought of as a miniature version of our Solar System," explained Chris Tinney, co-author of the new study on the discovery, published this week in the Astrophysical Journal.
The search of exoplanets is motivated by the prospects of finding cosmic bodies capable of hosting life. One would think an exceptionally Earth-like exoplanet would be just that. But even the scientists responsible for the new discovery admit: Gliese 832c may be more like a super-Venus.
Gliese 832c orbits Gliese 832, a red dwarf some 16 light-years away from Earth. The dwarf star has roughly half the mass and radius as the sun. Because red dwarfs like this give off less energy, a planet capable of sustaining life would have orbit much closer to its host star.
Gliese 832c does just that. It orbits Gliese 832 in just 36 days. But being so close might actually make the planet too hot. If its atmosphere is big, thick and heat-trapping (as the atmospheres of big planets usually are), the planet would likely stifle any possibility of life.
"If the planet has a similar atmosphere to Earth it may be possible for life to survive, although seasonal shifts would be extreme," Tinney acknowledged.
If life does exist on the steam bath that likely is Gliese 832c, it probably looks a lot different than life here on Earth.
*-- Plants can hear caterpillars munching and respond with defensive strategies --*COLUMBIA, Mo. (UPI) - Plants don't have ears in the traditional sense, but they can "hear" -- or at least detect and respond to sonic vibrations.
Researchers at the University of Missouri found Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant similar to cabbage and mustard, could recognize the munching sounds of an invading caterpillar. Upon hearing the hungry insect, the plant released additional mustard oils, a compound caterpillars find unappetizing.
"Previous research has investigated how plants respond to acoustic energy, including music," said lead researcher Heidi Appel. "However, our work is the first example of how plants respond to an ecologically relevant vibration."
"We found that feeding vibrations signal changes in the plant cells' metabolism, creating more defensive chemicals that can repel attacks from caterpillars," Appel added.
Previous studies have shown some of the ways plants respond to touch and even wind. But this new study, published in Oecologia, showed the plants were selective in which sounds they paid attention to. Only when caterpillar munching vibrations were recorded and played back for the plants, did they excrete additional mustard oil -- not so for recordings of wind and other vibrations.
"This indicates that the plants are able to distinguish feeding vibrations from other common sources of environmental vibration," explained study co-author Rex Cocroft said.
The researchers say better understanding how plants detect and respond to ecological threats could help botanists design plants with improved defense mechanisms.
"Once you understand these things you can mess around with it in plant breeding through conventional methods or biotech approaches to modify plants so they are more responsive in the ways you want to make them more resistant against pests," Appel said. "That's the practical application one day."
Researchers also want to figure out exactly how the plant senses vibrations. That remains a mystery, though Appel and Cocroft guess a protein called mechanoreceptors, which can respond to pressure or distortion, likely plays an important role in the process.
"Finding that out is our next step," said Appel.
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