(AP) - Scientists on three continents have deciphered the entire
genetic makeup of a plant, a breakthrough in basic science that not
only unlocks the secrets of nature, but may soon help to feed a
hungry world, reduce pollution and identify medicines of tomorrow.
Arabidopsis thaliana _ gardeners know it as thale cress _ joins
the fruitfly, the nematode worm, 600 viruses and two dozen bacteria
as organisms that have revealed their entire DNA blueprints.
``From this point on, plant science will never be the same again
and genetics will never be the same again,'' Mike Bevan, European
coordinator of the $70 million international project, said in
London.
http://csm.jmu.edu/biology/courses/bio480_580/mblab/thaliana.html
http://www.tigr.org/tdb/ath1/htmls/
http://www.nal.usda.gov/pgdic/Probe/v6n1/inter.html
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
3M TA3
"If you go back a hundred years," he explains, "one of the biggest
scientific questions was 'what is life?' And one of the most prominent
theories had to do with vitalism--some substance, some thing that is
transmitted from cell to cell, animal to animal, that is the essence of
life. Well, you don't hear anybody talking about vitalism anymore. We've
come far enough to see all the mechanics--we've seen how DNA works, we've
seen all the pieces of the cell, and we don't have need for a hypothesis
like vitalism." So it will go, Sejnowski suspects, with consciousness.
(Phlogiston, incidentally, refers to a theoretical substance that people
once sought in combustible material, thinking it made up the "substance" of
fire.)
<http://www.doubletwist.com/news/columns/article.jhtml;$sessionid$WLUGKNIAAA
5EBWBCHIVSFEQ?section=weekly01&name=weekly0130>
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