Word: cressing
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Their company, Aresa, a Copenhagen-based biotech start-up, has genetically modified a common weed called thale-cress so that its leaves turn red when the plant comes in contact with nitrogen dioxide - a compound that naturally leaches into the soil from unexploded land mines made from plastic and held together by leaky rubber seals. Aresa is growing large patches of the stuff on old army shooting ranges that have been seeded with land mines...
Aresa uses a seeding hose known as a "hydroseeder" - groundskeepers use such a hose to grow green grass on golf courses - to cover about a football field of territory in a day. After four to five weeks the thale-cress will have sprouted and turned red if it encounters nitrogen dioxide. Normally, plants neutralize nitrogen dioxide, which they recognize as harmful. But Aresa scientists, led by founder Meier, have genetically engineered thale-cress, fusing its nitrogen dioxide neutralizer with an enzyme that creates red pigment (plants naturally produce red pigment, which isn't visible until the green disappears in autumn...
Aresa has had mixed results. The thale-cress does indeed turn red when it meets nitrogen dioxide. But Aresa can't get the weed to grow large enough to be easily visible. Aresa has experimented with only one of the more than 1,600 varieties of thale-cress. Following the summer letdown, the company ordered 174 different strains, and is awaiting seeds from Libya, Norway, the Caucasus, Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere...
Biology had its share of the agenda. Corn and garden cress seeds were tucked into soil to test the influence of microgravity on plant growth. Frog eggs were fertilized to determine if low gravity alters the development of organs responsible for balance. At one point a fruit fly escaped from its container and was quickly dubbed Willy. Later the astronauts found the ill-fated drosophila dead in a filter. Tongue in cheek, officials at Oberpfaffenhofen handed out an obituary for "our bold little astronaut...
...Seeing Red A Danish biotech company has developed a new way to detect land mines using genetically modified THALE CRESS, a member of the mustard family. The plant turns a deep red when exposed to nitrogen dioxide, a gas released by mines. The grow-anywhere green, which scientists propose to sow from airplanes or handheld seed-shooters in heavily mined areas, could prove an inexpensive and safe solution for land mine detection?a boon to countries like Cambodia, which harbors an estimated four million mines...