This Flower changes color when Radiation levels are dangerous

Originally posted by muzzleflash
I keep thinking about the subject it's fun.

Just imagine, we could grow parts for machines from designer plants, like growing a hard material into cogs or beam shapes so that we could build something with it.

Think of growing all of your car parts, and then running the vehicle on sunlight and photosynthesis.

What about weapons? Instead of landmines you could use plants that have proximity detection sensors designed into them and when someone gets close it would shoot out poison gas or it could fire out all kinds of poison spines.

However I see many problems with creating computers with organic materials. Conducting electricity would become an issue. But there is the DNA style computers which could be at least partially organic.

I will have to think about that more and see what I come up with.
So maybe not every single technology need can be filled by plants but I am sure we can get at least 90% of them easily covered.

From the looks of your posts, you work for monsanto, don't you?

I skimmed over this thread as I am in a hurry.

Does anyone know where you can buy them? I live in TN...can one just go to Lowes and pick one up or???

Originally posted by Another10Pin

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Think of the irony ... Just imagine all of the feats we could accomplish with advanced knowledge of genetics and organic chemistry.

edit on 29-3-2012 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

Yes. Just think . GMO Foods

That's unfair I suppose I was misunderstood due to lack of context.
I was clearly referring to alien civilizations and to 20,000 years into the future or whatever. Something totally unrelated to primitive and corrupt Earth society or life today.

A prudent course for Earth would be to create a type of passport system for any "alien" genetic organism, and it would have to be closely contained if there is any risk of it becoming an invasive species to Earth ecology.

I see no wisdom in screwing with Earth's biosphere and am actually against such foolish actions and would expect any legitimate genetic science would be conducted off world and in cooperation with advanced cultures who could guide us more feasibly through the incredibly difficult process.

Also on a side note I would expect that there is a inter-galactic code that is against creating self-replicating AI weapon systems, otherwise the AI would have taken over the galactic community already.

But yes I agree we should not allow such creations to ever become invasive species on Earth, I agree 100%.
But you cannot fanatically resist technology either , you have to find balance.

There would have to be systems in place to prevent the misuse of the technology and if they failed, the tech is so powerful that of course it would destroy the human race and possibly all life on Earth. But so do nuclear weapons and guess what nukes exist all around us. You and I can be anti-nuke all we want, and I personally am, but the reality is that we have to find intelligent ways of dealing with these problems that exist and aren't going away anytime soon. We also have to anticipate and prepare for future problems that will arise as well, such as biological technology.

It's like a gun. We can't uninvent it, so we must learn temperance and responsibility or suffer the consequences.

Originally posted by Another10Pin


From the looks of your posts, you work for monsanto, don't you?

Speculating and writing science fiction has nothing to do with Monsanto.

When did I say we should destroy every farmer in the world and create mega-farms where we have GMO plants that we hardly know anything about which produce toxins within the food and poison everyone in the world?

When did I hire a mega-army of lawyers in order to destroy decent people's lives world wide just for fun because I can and love being evil?

Never....

So what are you saying that anyone who ever wrote a sci-fi story is an evil mastermind? That means just about every video game and fantasy or fiction novel ever written is a work of great evil and blood thirsty malevolence.
Seriously?

Very offensive low blow to call someone monsanto. Very low blow.

You know my genetics professor was just telling the class about this plant today in a powerpoint at my college.

Neat.

reply to post by muzzleflash


If I have misinterpreted your posts, my apologies.

Originally posted by MamaJ
I skimmed over this thread as I am in a hurry.

Does anyone know where you can buy them? I live in TN...can one just go to Lowes and pick one up or???

If you shop around online I am sure that you will be able to find it available for mailorder, as a bulb or bare root it should be easily transported.

_________________

The specific species is radescantia ohiensis
KU 7 clone, a blue/pink heterozygote (bluejacket)
source

photo

It is a wild outdoor plant, native to southern Canada and u.s.
wiki

______________________

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
The Spiderwort flower is a category of 'survival plant' all of its own. When radiation levels are dangerous to roughly human standards, the blue/purple stamen hairs in the center of the flower change color to pink. And it grows hardy

NICE! but hey..

i'm finding conflicting info on your report about the colors....
you say they're blue-purple then change pink when radiation is around....

but this site says the opposite!!!!!! this is something you should update your OP to if true... haven't researched enough to find out who's right... you .. or the site i'm reading from...

link - www.sierrapotomac.org...

One species of spiderwort has found a very unusual scientific application ... as a radiation monitor. The stamen hairs of this spiderwort are each a chain of single cells, like beads on a sting. The stamen hairs grow by the successive addition of cells to the chain. In this particular species, the cells of the stamen hairs are usually pink. But, there is an occasional blue cell. The blue color is the result of a single point mutation in the cell's genetic material. The likelihood of this mutation occurring is proportional to the radiation to which the cell is exposed. So, counting the number of blue cells in the stamen hairs gives an estimate of the radiation to which the flowers were exposed. Since the cells in each hair grow sequentially, the location along the stamen hairs of the blue cells tells when the radiation exposure occurred. This species of spiderwort was once planted around a nuclear power plant in Japan to monitor the release of radioactive material from the nuclear plant. Not only did the spiderworts tell how much radioactive material was released and when, they also told how the wind dispersed the radioactive material."

jus pointing this out there... VERY important regarding this obviously.. it's like.. green means stop red means go! .. imagine if we had that one screwed up!!!

again.. thanks for showing me this! and yeah.. it's edible.. mmmmm .. mutato-flower soup!!

reply to post by prevenge


Interesting point. And of course, when talking radiation we must factor in the sun's radiation. Perhaps? There are a number of blue petalled plants, that I am aware of, lilacs being one, some varieties of Geranium (cranesbill cultivars rather than the less hardy ornamental varieties) that fade to pink over time. Is this the same principle may be?

That's very interesting, they're a beautiful plant too. Though if I saw it turn pink I'd be pretty freaked out. Sure it can detect radiation but one you know....what is there to do about it? I'd almost not know, then have to sit there and know that there's some dangerous radiation surrounding me. Not everyone can just get up and move somewhere far.
It'd be nice if these plants could somehow counter radiation as well....