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News tagged with grass

Jumping gene enabled key step in corn domestication

Corn split off from its closest relative teosinte, a wild Mexican grass, about 10,000 years ago thanks to the breeding efforts of early Mexican farmers. Today it's hard to tell that the two plants were ever close kin: Corn ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Sep 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Out Of The Woods For 'Ardi': Scientists Rip Habitat Claim for 'Breakthrough of the Year'

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ardipithecus ramidus - a purported human ancestor that was dubbed Science magazine's 2009 "Breakthrough of the Year" - is coming under fire from scientists who say there is scant evidence for he ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 27, 2010 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists sequence genome of grass that can be a biofuel model crop

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists and their colleagues at the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute today announced that they have completed sequencing the genome of a kind of wild grass ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 10, 2010 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Biologist solves mystery of tropical grasses' origin

Around 30 to 40 million years ago, grasses on Earth underwent an epic evolutionary upheaval. An assemblage capitalized on falling levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide by engineering an internal mechanism to concentrate the ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 08, 2010 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Diet secrets of 'the Royals' -- Elephant tail hair isotopes show cattle out-munch pachyderms

Two weeks after the rains begin, an elephant family named "the Royals" usually switches to a grass diet to bulk up for pregnancy and birth. But when they wandered off their African reserve one rainy season, ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Maps of Miscanthus genome offer insight into grass evolution

Miscanthus grasses are used in gardens, burned for heat and energy, and converted into liquid fuels. They also belong to a prominent grass family that includes corn, sorghum and sugarcane. Two new, indepe ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Climate change helps then quickly stunts growth, decade-long study shows

(Phys.org) -- Global warming may initially make the grass greener, but not for long, according to new research conducted at Northern Arizona University.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (18) | comments 163 | with audio podcast

Time of year important in projections of climate change effects on ecosystems

(PhysOrg.com) -- Does it matter whether long periods of hot weather, such as last year's heat wave that gripped the U.S. Midwest, happen in June or July, August or September?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Grass to gas: Researchers' genome map speeds biofuel development

Researchers at the University of Georgia have taken a major step in the ongoing effort to find sources of cleaner, renewable energy by mapping the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus, a large perenn ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 10, 2012 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Dry conditions spurred advanced photosynthesis

The need to conserve water played a vital role in driving plants to evolve a specialised form of photosynthesis, scientists have shown.

Biology / Evolution

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Australia -- land of the koala, kangaroo... and elephant

Elephants and maybe rhinoceroses could be introduced to Australia to chomp on an invasive African grass that also causes wildfires, according to an idea reported in a scientific journal on Wednesday.

Biology / Ecology

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 16

Could lemmings be involved in regulating our climate?

The mention of lemmings usually evokes images of small rodents throwing themselves off the top of cliffs in acts of mass suicide; however, their reputations might no longer be determined by hearsay as a new ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 18, 2011 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (4) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Genome-scale network of rice genes to speed the development of biofuel crops

The first genome-scale model for predicting the functions of genes and gene networks in a grass species has been developed by an international team of researches that includes scientists with the U.S. Department ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Plant defences - the mystery deepens

New research has brought us a step closer to untangling the complex reasons why certain plant species triumph over others.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 21, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Mutant maize genes increase viability of switch grass for biofuel

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how the use of mutant maize genes inserted into switch grass may increase their biofuel viability.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Oct 11, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast weblog

Grass

Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae (or Gramineae) family, as well as the sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae). The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns (turf) and grassland. Sedges include many wild marsh and grassland plants, and some cultivated ones such as water chestnut (Eleocharis dulcis) and papyrus sedge (Cyperus papyrus). Uses for graminoids include food (as grain, sprouted grain, shoots or rhizomes), drink (beer, whisky), pasture for livestock, thatch, paper, fuel, clothing, insulation, construction, sports turf, basket weaving and many others.

For more information about Grass, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.