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STUDY: Plants Can Detect the Sound of Water

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Pseudoscientific claims that music helps plants grow have been made for decades, despite evidence that is shaky at best. Yet new research suggests some flora may be capable of sensing sounds, such as the gurgle of water through a pipe or the buzzing of insects. In a recent study, Monica Gagliano, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Western Australia, and her colleagues placed pea seedlings in pots shaped like an upside-down Y. One arm of each pot was placed in either a tray of water or a coiled plastic tube through which water flowed; the other arm had only … Read more

The Influential Roots of Genre Fiction

Roots

The roots of genre fiction can be found in everything from mythology and folklore to narrative poetry and Victorian gothics and beyond. With this in mind, we asked our panelists: Q: What genre roots have you found to be most influential and inspiring for you and your own writing? Usman T. Malik is a Pakistani writer of strange stories. His fiction has won a Bram Stoker Award and has been nominated for the Nebula. He resides in two worlds. I grew up reading in Urdu first, so childrens magazines Bachon Ki Dunya, Bachon Ka Bagh, Jugnoo and Mazhar Kaleem M.A.s … Read more