"This most unusual construction was built by an amateur lady in Iceland. It is really creative, I have seen nothing like it before." - Norman Haddow
– Norman Haddow: Walls in Iceland 3
Haddow loves stone: “This rather unusual wall was built recently in Iceland with alternate layers of turf and rock. Surprisingly the top layer is turf. This system was also used in Scotland in the past but is seldom seen nowadays. The entry on 13th Feb. is a wall in Scotland with three layers of coping stones. After that I am posting some walls seen in Australia.” Dry Stone Walling
– Dead for 32,000 years, an Arctic plant is revived
Living plants have been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower, the narrow-leafed campion, that died 32,000 years ago, a team of Russian scientists reports. The fruit was stored by an arctic ground squirrel in its burrow on the tundra of northeastern Siberia and lay permanently frozen until excavated by scientists a few years ago. (Hat tip to Quinn) New York Times
– The Earlysville white oak
Since late December of 2007, I’ve stopped and photographed an old white oak just outside of Earlysville, Virginia whenever I could. …But tonight as I write this, I realize that I’ve also been steadily documenting this tree that has lived more years than either you or I might imagine to live. …If only trees could talk… Tales from the Microbial Laboratory
– The Cabbage that is King: Brassica oleracae longata
Or, the curious case of the seven-foot tall cabbage, which brought two seedsellers and one Reverend Laycock of Hampshire into Westminster County Court in 1898. The sellers of seed were seeking to collect £24 from the good Reverend for cabbage seeds with which they had supplied him; he was countersuing because the resulting plants were, well, not as described. Garden History Girl
– Starting This Year’s Artichokes
I’m trying a new variety of artichoke this year. ‘Tavor’ is another ‘Imperial Star’ type artichoke bred specifically to produce in the first year. The edible buds are supposedly green and have purple tips.
A Growing Tradition
Native Medicinal Plants Research Program
We promote the public understanding of medicinal uses of native Kansas plants. We reach out to those who wish to preserve traditional ecological knowledge, who have an interest in natural healing, and who love the prairie. KU Native Medicinal Plants
Fill ‘er up with tobacco?
A team of scientists led by a researcher from the U.S.Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is exploring a way to produce gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from the iconic plant of the South. Their goal is to engineer tobacco plants that use energy from sunlight to produce fuel molecules directly in their leaves. The leaves would then be crushed, and the fuel extracted and separated. The scientists estimate that about 1000 acres of tobacco could yield more than one million gallons of fuel. PhysOrg
– Single-Atom Transistor Is End of Moore’s Law; May Be Beginning of Quantum Computing
The smallest transistor ever built — in fact, the smallest transistor that can be built — has been created using a single phosphorus atom by an international team of researchers at the University of New South Wales, Purdue University and the University of Melbourne. Science Daily
My Education of a Gardener 