The more we find out about plants, the more we fear them.
PLANTIMAL
The New Scientist reported in 2008 that biologist Mary Rumpho of the University of Maine discovered a species of sea slug that is an animal…and a plant. The primary thing that distinguishes plants from animals is that plants use photosynthesis— they convert sunlight into energy needed for survival, while animals have to eat plants or other animals to get energy. But Elysia chlorotica, an inch-long, leaf-shaped, gelatinous mollusk that lives in shallow ocean waters along the Atlantic coast, is an animal that does both. It eats algae—a plant—and then incorporates genes from the algae into its own DNA. Then it utilizes those genes to create chlorophyll, the pigment that plants use to perform photosynthesis. A baby sea slug, Rumpho found, eats algae for just the first two weeks of its life, and lives off sunlight for the remainder of its lifespan, making it the first multicellular animal-plant hybrid known to science.
Researchers on the Philippine island of Palawan reported in August 2009 that they’d discovered a new—and gruesome—species of carnivorous plant. It’s a type of “pitcher plant,” a group of plants that grow deep, pitcher-shaped traps filled with sticky liquid. Insects are lured to the pitchers by sight or smell, fall into them, and become trapped in the liquid. Acidlike enzymes then slowly dissolve the captured bugs, and the plant absorbs nutrients from them. The plant on Palawan works the same, but its cone-shaped pitchers are huge—more than a foot deep and seven inches diameter at the opening, and they can trap and eat not only insects but even small mammals such as rats. “It is remarkable,” lead researcher Stewart McPherson said, “that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century.” The researchers named the rat-eating plant Nepenthes attenboroughii—a tribute to 83-year-old wildlife broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, who commented, “I’m absolutely flattered.”
As much as 70% of the microwaves emitted from mobile phones are absorbed by your head.