Registering History: When Cape s Fires Raged
Robert Leaversuch
Forest fires have always posed a threat to life on Cape Cod and still do. The danger is rooted in our natural environment, but by the late 19th century it was greatly exacerbated by more invasive human practices.
Indigenous, colonial and modern inhabitants in turn have adopted fire as a weapon for clearing our once-prolific vegetation to help them hunt, cultivate, harvest wood and shortcut travel. By around 1880, some two-thirds of the original landscape, including much of the woodlands, had been displaced by farms, fields, settled areas and the expanded reach of new means of transport. The remaining one-third had evolved into a secondary growth consisting mostly of pitch pine and scrubs entangled in thick, dry mantles of undergrowth.
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Genetically modified grass saves soils destroyed by military target practice
GMOs to the rescue! A A
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A common species of prairie grass can help clean soils of dangerous chemicals released by military-grade compounds, a new paper reports. The only catch (at least, in the eyes of some), is that we need to genetically modify it for the task.
A plot of switchgrass. Image credits Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center / Flickr.
Genetically modified (GM) switchgrass (
Panicum virgatum) can be used to purge soils of RDX residues, according to new research. RDX belongs to the nitramide chemical family, is flavorless, odorless, and