RTFA: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/07092…

Many plants form internal communications networks and are able to exchange information efficiently. Chat networkMany herbal plants such as strawberry, clover, reed and ground elder naturally form networks. Individual plants remain connected with each other for a certain period of time by means of runners. These connections enable the plants to share information with each other via internal channels. They are therefore very similar to computer networks. But what do plants want to chat to each other about?

Insane. Plants can be like animals… in the same way that fungus is marginally more animal-like than single-celled organisms.

RTFA: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/05/appendix.purp…

Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That’s the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week. For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function. Surgeons removed them routinely. People live fine without them. And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn’t removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000 Americans were hospitalized with appendicitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Interesting.

RTFA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6979891.stm

Investigators say the virus that led to the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey had probably been present in a pipe on the Pirbright laboratory site.

Health and Safety Executive findings, given to the BBC, identified biosecurity lapses at the nearby site.

It said the pipe, which runs from pharmaceutical firm Merial to a plant operated by a government-run lab, may have been damaged by tree roots.

Merial said it could not comment until the report was officially published.

It said it “cannot speculate on pipes or anything else”.

It is believed the pipe may have been damaged by tree roots before flooding pushed virus traces to the surface.

It is not known how the virus found its way on to farmland a few miles way following the flooding on 20 July.

Damn! These are sensitive systems, people.