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FACTOID!!
White tree frogs have such big appetites that they sometimes eat rats.


Greening the desert


Greening the desert
Researchers in Japan have long been working on a way of helping plants to better survive in desert climates. They have now developed a technique which neutralises the active oxygen species that kills plant cells, and hope that this discovery will make it easier to grow food and fruit in desert areas. The scientists use an enzyme-producing gene from bacteria which lives in the human colon. This enzyme is injected into a plant where it turns the active oxygen into water. This technique has so far been used only on tobacco plants in the lab and the scientists are now considering which type of plant would be best for experimentation in the field.
18 JULY 1998, P. 21
New Scientist
18 JULY 1998, P. 21

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