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How Wood Is Made

  Arboreal Artistry: The Amazing Talents of Wood Forming CellsĀ  By Margaret Helder As the major component of trees, wood seems useful and even beautiful in finished products, but scarcely biologically dramatic. Yet recent research on the development of wood portrays an elaborate ballet which proceeds inside young developing xylem cells. This performance culminates in […]

Wood Buried Under Ocean Floor Thousands of Miles at Sea

Wood chips hundreds of feet deep in ocean sediments have been found. How did they get there?

Latest Bio-Inspired Technologies Will Improve Life

The world will be a better, more sustainable place if we can imitate how nature handles and organizes its materials.

How Flamingos Stand on One Foot

Mysteries of the universe unfold: how can flamingos sleep while standing on one foot? And why is it good to know?

Weekend Biomimetics Showcase

The focus in biology these days is on design. Here's evidence.

Celebrate Independence from Darwin

With so much great science news about design, who needs to maintain allegiance to King Charles?

Want a Wood-Plastic Bowl for Your Wood Stew?

Scientists are realizing that components of wood have many practical and healthful uses.

Design Inspires Scientific Advances

When you see cutting-edge science in materials and methods, you are likely to read "Inspired by Nature."

Invisible Subs and Other Tricks Inspired by Life

Working scientists seem less focused on evolution and more on design these days, figuring out how animals and plants do amazing things.

Inventions Inspired by Mother Nature's Designs

Biological solutions to physical challenges are inspiring new technologies.

Would Wood Evolve?

The woods. We call them by their primary substance: wood. But would wood evolve from plants lacking woody stems? Was there some evolutionary pressure to force plants to grow tall to reach the sun, so that lucky mutations found a way to produce lignin and the other building blocks of wood? What other mutations did the blind evolutionary algorithm have to find to organize the components into trunks for trees? Two discoveries, a fossil and a mechanism, offer evolutionists a way to enhance their woody story.
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