There's an interesting article in today New York Times concerning the research of a Dr Brand on rhododendrons. Apparently the latter suffer a great deal from root rot cause by a common soil fungus called phytophthora.
However, frogs don't suffer from foot rot in the same soil conditions because they have a gene which protects it. The obvious thing to do therefore is to inject the appropriate frog's gene into the rhododendron and thus prevent hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to the plant every year. The article doesn't say whether Dr Brand has succeeded yet. I'm just a little anxious, though. Rhododendrons, being a native of the cold Himalayas are already spreading like wildfire in temperate England and Wales and threaten to devastate many beautiful wildlife areas. Indeed, parties of nature lovers have to go out every week-end armed with hatchets to chop these aliens down and allow the natural wild orchids and daisies to grow again. They're just about keeping pace with the slow, but relentless creep of rhododendrons around the countryside. But what really worries me is what might happen if Dr Brand accidentally fires the wrong frog gene into the rhododendrons. This time the latter might start hopping around the countryside instead of just creeping. I think the government ought to step in here. I don't think I will sleep well until this research is stopped once and for all. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
