Chemists at MIT have hacked a periwinkle plant to produce anti-cancer and hypertension-fighting drugs. The chemical engineers modified the plant’s existing chemical assembly line, tweaking genes to create chemical components of the medicines. The researchers engineered mutant forms of a gene and inserted them into plant cell cultures, causing the plant to produce chemical compounds it would never produce in nature.

Plants are essentially chemical factories, capable of fusing molecules to form virtually any compound. With enough tweaking, we could coax them to build everything from medicines to fuels to super-strong building materials to revolutionary soda pop. If we can control how plants grow, we can do almost anything.

Link to MIT story

Photo: Date Palms from Wikipedia

A team of Swiss and Israeli scientists recently discovered a 2,000-year-old stash of desiccated date seeds near the Dead Sea and, in a fit of horticultural madness, planted them. Against all odds, one of the ancient seeds sprouted, becoming the oldest known seed to germinate. 

The date pits were found among the heat-blasted ruins of the Masada Fortress in Israel. The area was once legendary for its delectable dates, but the trees of yore have long since disappeared. Scientists believe that the recently revived date palm is related to the mythical trees—it’s genetically distinct from any contemporary date species. The plant’s genes could unlock the secrets to breeding more resilient varieties of date palms. 

Link to NewScientist article.