Word: resins
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...trees. The area now boasts some 60 trees an acre, and as individual trees, they seem far healthier than before. For one thing, the outer coating of their needles has increased in toughness, which helps discourage foliage-eating insects. For another, their nonwoody tissues are producing greater quantities of resin, which affords protection against bark beetles. Best of all, there is no longer any need for mechanical thinning, as low-intensity prescribed fires can safely...
...blowups would be ludicrous, say scientists, for these seemingly catastrophic blazes serve important ecological functions. Among other things, lodgepole pine saplings do not flourish beneath the shade of mature trees and thus are dependent on fires to clear sun-filled openings. Moreover, many lodgepole pines package their seeds in resin-sealed cones that can be opened only by intense heat. "What you have to keep asking yourself is what range of fire frequency and severity a particular forest has experienced," says Tania Schoennagel, a University of Colorado researcher who studies postfire recovery. "Using forestry practices to mimic these fires...
...yourself how old it is; Tom Dixon, a British product designer and creative director of the houseware shop Habitat, predicts it's under three years old. After that, it's likely to have been chipped or cracked. Using a material made from bamboo fiber and water-soluble resin, Dixon devised a line of biodegradable tableware that can be recycled when its shelf life is finished. The first item, a dishwasher-safe cup, made its debut at Milan's furniture fair last week. The cup slowly degrades as it is used and washed. After about four years, it will begin...
...Today, there are few living witnesses to the devastating effects of smoking opium, the resin of the same poppy plants from which heroin is derived. In the early 1950s, newly communist China took draconian steps to rid its population of addicts, but the vice lingered for another decade in the expatriate-Chinese communities of Southeast Asia. Thailand was the last place in the world with licensed opium dens. In 1959 those licenses were revoked; the Heng Lak Hung on Bangkok's Charoeng Krung Road?said to be the world's largest opium den, with more than 5,000 users...
...fakes so, as in most Asian antiquities markets, caveat emptor. With opium habiliments, shop owners don't always deceive their customers on purpose. Many are clueless as to what is real and what is a reproduction. For instance, if an "opium pipe" has a bowl made from wood or resin or anything else that's flammable, chances are it's a very cheap fake. Also, most pipes made of bone are reproductions, as animal bone was considered unsuitable for pipes...