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They have modified leaves called “Pitchers” that lure and trap insects. They will actually digest the insects they trap and use them for subsistence!

Pitcher plants thrive in nutrient poor soils, like the sandy soils that are burned with fire routinely at Green Swamp.

There is a nature preserve in North Carolina called “Green Swamp Preserve”. It’s famous for being home to many carnivorous plant species. I visited today. While, I did not see any Venus fly traps, but I did see some Pitcher Plants. Everything is a little dormant right now.

I think of this incredible moment in American history every year on this night

Measles is an extremely infectious disease that can cause pneumonia, encephalitis, developmental delay and death. This is completely preventable. Please ensure you and your family are vaccinated

The Immune Response

GMOs often get a bad rep, often lumped in with “Roundup Ready” crops. But not all GMOs are the same. In fact, Hawaii nearly lost its entire papaya industry to a virus. Here’s how GMO technology helped bring Hawaiian papayas back from the brink:

Because nobody else will…

The papaya story reminds us that GMOs aren’t limited to “Roundup Ready” traits or virus resistance. These tools can also help build crops that are more drought tolerant, higher yielding, and more nutritious. Used thoughtfully, biotechnology can help agriculture feed a changing

Today, PRV-resistant papayas make up most of Hawaii’s production and most commercially sold papayas in the US. The success became a global template for fighting plant viruses and a reminder that biotechnology isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s a tool. It is a tool's application

The GMO papaya was not the first genetically engineered crop. But it was one of the earliest and most important real-world “save-a-crop” GMOs. Unlike many GMOs designed for farm efficiency, this one existed to prevent extinction of an entire industry.

This approach is called pathogen-derived resistance, and it worked astonishingly well. New papaya varieties like Rainbow and SunUp were released. Farmers replanted. Orchards recovered. The industry stabilized. Hawaii’s papayas were saved.

Using the CaMV 35S promoter, researchers inserted the coat protein gene from PRV into the papaya genome. This didn’t make papayas sick. Instead, it activated the plant’s natural RNA-based defense system, allowing papaya trees to recognize PRV and block infection before it could

A solution was needed, or Hawaii’s papaya industry would disappear. That solution came from an unexpected place: another virus. The Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) contains powerful genetic machinery known as the 35S promoter, which allows genes to be efficiently expressed in

The Hawaiian papaya industry was on the verge of collapse. Importantly, PRV does not make papayas unsafe to eat. Instead, it destroys their commercial value. Before PRV, Hawaii produced ~50 million pounds of papayas per year. After the virus spread, production crashed to ~26

First, some background. Hawaii is the primary producer of papayas in the United States. In the 1990s, Hawaii’s papaya industry was devastated by the Papaya Ringspot Virus (PRV). PRV is a highly contagious plant virus spread by aphids (plant lice). It causes severe yield losses

GMOs often get a bad rep, often lumped in with “Roundup Ready” crops. But not all GMOs are the same. In fact, Hawaii nearly lost its entire papaya industry to a virus. Here’s how GMO technology helped bring Hawaiian papayas back from the brink:

Reminder: #VAERS accepts anything. Using reports without investigation is an error, and treating the numbers as meaningful is one, too. An example.

SEICHE UPDATE: Today Lake Erie dropped 4 FEET from where it was last night! The seiche peaked at 37.9 inches below the Low Water Datum at 1:42pm, and now it's starting to slowly rebound as winds settle down. Currently it's 3 feet below the LWD so there's still time to go see it!

Seiche otw 🫡