Vanishing bee syndrome threatens U.S. crops – Honeybees are dying off in record numbers – some farmers report losses of up to 95% – and no one knows why. Because bees pollinate many agriculturally important crops, Colony Collapse Disorder as it’s officially called, could result in billons of dollars of lost revenue and more expensive produce for the consumer.

Plant growth dictated by its skin? - Answering a question long debated in plant biology, recent evidence published in Nature this week suggests that the driving force for plant growth is in the epidermis, or skin, of the plant, and not the tissues underneath. The Chory group at the Salk Institute has reported that the epidermis responds to signals both internally and externally to drive growth in plants. A short review in ScienceNow is also available.

Reducing the effects of acid rain – Acid rain leaches calcium, an essential mineral for plants, from the soil. Calcium is required by plants to build cell walls, for example, so deficiencies can be devastating to plant growth. Plants tend to stop growing when calcium levels in soil drop, even when there is sufficient calcium to continue growth. A recent report in Science describes how calcium is regulated in plants, which may lead to strategies that trick plants into continuing to grow even in soils containing low calcium levels.

News briefs:

Media: Mrs. Darwin’s dairies go online

Agriculture: U.S. bans farmers from planting unapproved GMO-tainted rice

New discoveries: Botanists identify two new species of North American bamboo; Progress toward artificial photosynthesis