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Banana to be Sequenced
GodsMadClown writes "New Scientist
reports
that a global consortium plans to sequence the genetic code of a wild banana from east Asia. Because bananas are triploidal instead of diploidal, they are only able to reproduce asexually, which means that it adapts slower than organisms reproducing sexually. 'One rule of joining the consortium is that any invention developed through the project and protected [by patent] will be made available to smallholders through a royalty-free license,' says Emile Frison, director of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain."
When my alarm clock went off this morning, BBC Radio 1 news was in full soothsayer mode, foretelling how bananas will be wiped out by disease in ten years if nothing is done. Horrified, I hit snooze.
According to a trivia game I was playing the other day, the banana is a herb, not fruit. Go figure.
Hey Emile Frison, is that a banana in your pocket or are you just the director of the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain?
Stanley Feinbaum, professional journalist and master debater! God bless the USA!
There's evidently an australian children's show called "Bananas in Pajamas," which has some rather nightmarish [angelfire.com] homoerotic(?) overtones.
You're not kidding; in fact the theme song goes "Bananas in pajamas are coming down the stairs."
Powerful fruit indeed.
Now we can finally update that tired knock-knock joke:
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Remember that there are still wild sexually reproducing bananas out there
You wouldn't have a link to their site, would you?
-Esme
I think I'd go mad.
Bananas even.
Summation 2