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PRIMARY KNOCK-ON EFFECTS. "But in the late Palaeozoic, the evolution of large leaves required the co-evolution of the root and vascular systems for improved water delivery and transport to sustain higher transpiration rates." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

PROBLEM SOLVED. "Large leaves of late Devonian/ early Carboniferous plants attained transpiration rates sufficiently high to maintain temperatures well below the lethal threshold, despite intercepting more solar energy." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

WHOPPING INCREASE IN STOMATA DENSITIES. "By the time large laminate leaves became widespread in late Devonian/early Carboniferous fossil floras, the concentration of atmospheric CO2 had fallen, and stomatal densities had increased by up to a 100 times the value of early vascular land plant axes." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

INCEPTION. “We want to tell you about a recent project that we've been working on in lab that we've called Project Inception. They should make a movie about this. Where they plant ideas into people’s minds, so they can control them for their own personal gain. We'll call it: Inception.” https://lnkd.in/d9qh8PB View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend contemplation of the humble leaf. Taken in an evolutionary context, it has survived massive changes on the planet, adapted and successfully exploited those changes, and in the process nurtured whole ecosystems and global cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Undoubtedly, the leaf is continuing to adapt to changes on planet Earth. It richly deserves the role as a classic image of life on Earth. View in LinkedIn

DARK USE. “The U.S. military wants soldiers that have superhuman eyesight, controllable augmented muscles that turn untrained novices into expert killers, and more. The report, titled Cyborg Soldiers 205: Human/ Machine Fusion and the Implications for the Future of the DOD, reads like the framework for a dystopian novel set in a near future where injured soldiers are cybernetically enhanced, but come home to an America terrified of cyborgs.” https://lnkd.in/deGnthG View in LinkedIn

THE UP INNOVATION. "Deriving from the apical vegetative meristem flank, the abaxial surface is as old as land plants themselves, so genes specifying adaxial identity constitute a key innovation in leaf evolution. Plants appear to have evolved a complex hierarchy of transcription factor activation and depression, with the HD-ZIP (homeodomain–leucine zipper) gene family promoting adaxial leaf surfaces and others promoting abaxial differentiation." http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/96/3/345.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

FUTURE APPLICATIONS. “Now the researchers are working on applying that technique to reconstructing the imaginary—images seen by the mind’s eye or the internal speech that narrates your thoughts. These scientists too envision helping people with locked-in syndrome or ALS communicate, perhaps by using a device that would speak their thoughts aloud.” http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-bright-approach-to-brain-implants-1453480543 View in LinkedIn