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ONGOING POLYPLOID EVENTS. "The apparently diploid species A. thaliana, a model species because of its small genome, has undergone three rounds of polyploidization since the divergence of angiosperms, and the existence of natural cultivars with double the expected number of chromosomes reveal that the process is ongoing." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

POLYPLOIDY FREQUENCY. "Polyploidy is widespread and is thought to have influenced all angiosperms, having occurred at the base of both the seed plants and angiosperms and within most lineages thereafter, sometimes surprisingly frequently." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

READING THE SIGNALS. “Today, effective brain-machine interfaces have to be wired directly into the brain to pick up the signals emanating from small groups of nerve cells. But nobody yet knows how to make devices that listen to the same nerve cells that long.” https://lnkd.in/dSnTTfk View in LinkedIn

ANGIOSPERM HYBRID FREQUENCY. "At least 25% of species form interspecific hybrids, resulting in introgression of characters between species and, rarely, the formation of homoploid hybrid taxa. This process results in complex, reticulate patterns of evolution in many angiosperm groups, making it difficult or impossible to circumscribe species boundaries." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

FLOWERS AND POLLINATOR PROCESSES. "When considering the consequences of interactions between angiosperms and their pollinators, it is vital to consider two predominant processes influencing angiosperm diversity: interspecific hybridization and polyploidy (or whole-genome multiplication." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

MEMORY ENGINE. “Dr. Gary Marcus, a psychology professor at New York University, tells Big Think that we should develop a "Google-like" chip to implant in our brains that would use our neurons like a search engine and enhance human memory.” https://lnkd.in/dZVxp_b View in LinkedIn

BLOCKING THE BUZZ. "RNA interference on only two loci can block the production of both benzyl acetone and nicotine, resulting in fewer visits and nectar removal by pollinators, which has fitness effects (for example, altering seed set), but it also alters damage by herbivores, and nectar theft by ants." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn

ENORMOUS EVOLUTIONARY GAP. "This Botanical Briefing reviews how the integration of palaeontology, geochemistry and developmental biology is providing a new mechanistic framework for interpreting the 40- to 50-million-year gap between the origination of vascular land plants and the advent of large (megaphyll) leaves, a long-standing puzzle in evolutionary biology." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

VARIABLE RESPONSES. "Different flower visitors can vary in their response thresholds for the repellent effect; for example, in Nicotiana attenuata flowers, moths responded more strongly to the presence of nicotine (repulsion) and benzyl acetone (attraction) in nectar than hummingbirds." https://lnkd.in/dHD-ddW View in LinkedIn