Turns out this cool idea, where nature's services are given an economic value, can also justify things like reimbursing farmers for letting their land lie fallow. Although I have only heard this from an ag economist so don't take my word for it.
2. Chloroplasts gene transfer AKA Animals that are also plants!!!!
I wrote a grant for my class last semester proposing to study why some genes stay in the chloroplast genome while other genes (involved in making the same protein complex) get moved to the nuclear genome. And the latest word from Science News: a sea slug has made a similar switcheroo. The sea slug nuclear genome has genes for making chloroplast-specific proteins, and the sea slug uses those genes and makes those proteins, dammit.
So all animals could one day photosynthesize. And there would be peace upon the land.
i think wiley might be an animal that is also a plant. that or he is just turning green/growing mold.
ReplyDeleteHe might just be a particularly ambulatory plant.
ReplyDelete