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We know people can do it, but can PLANTS do it? This is necessary to know if we want to eventually create living space environments, in which people can spend the many years it might take to travel to distant stars and planets.

Researchers have found that changes in gravity affect the reproductive process in plants. Gravity modulates traffic on the intracellular "highways" that ensure the growth and functionality of the male reproductive organ in plants, the pollen tube.
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We have a lot to thank bees for, so maybe we should let them share our lattes.

It turns out that bees like caffeine, and that ingesting it actually boosts their memories. But where can they get it? They’re attracted to citrus flowers because they have caffeine-laced nectar, which hooks them the same way coffee hooks human imbibers.

The New York Times quotes brain specialist Geraldine Wright as saying, "The plant is using this as a drug to change a pollinator’s behavior for its own benefit." In other words, if the bees remember where those flowers are, they’ll return again and again to pollinate them.
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Despite what’s happening in Alaska and the Midwest, a recent study of centuries of weather suggests we have record warming ahead.

Researchers looking at weather patterns since the end of the last Ice Age predict that average surface temperatures will be at their highest point in human history by the end of this century. But we’ll survive: In the last 11,300 years, humans endured a planet warmer than today’s, as they built their earliest civilizations.
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Despite not having sugared soft drinks or fast food, the ancients didn’t lead healthier lives than we do. Researchers who examined 137 mummies from four different cultures, spanning 4,000 years, under CT scanners, and found evidence of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in almost half of them.

In the March 11th edition of the Wall Street Journal, Ron Winslow quotes cardiologist Randall Thompson as saying, "The older ones at the time of death had a lot more calcification than the younger ones, and there was a trend toward worse disease in women." This is the opposite of heart disease today, where women generally develop cardiovascular disease a decade or so later than men.
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