[HN Gopher] Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm with paper...
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Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm with paper made from
bananas
Author : rbanffy
Score : 167 points
Date : 2022-03-01 15:20 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| gz5 wrote:
| >In a field trial, researchers added abamectin, a pesticide that
| kills nematodes, to the paper. They also planted potatoes in
| banana paper without abamectin as a control.
|
| Kudos to the NC state team for setting up this control, and
| digging into the results, especially when the purpose of their
| experiments was different (their intent was to find a better way
| to deliver pesticides).
|
| It is amazing how many times this happens - unintended or
| unanticipated results from an experiment, often peripheral
| results, which turn out to be extraordinarily interesting
| (usually for a different purpose as the original experiment), if
| observed and followed-up on with rigor and innovation.
| hammock wrote:
| Fun fact: abamectin an analog of ivermectin, differing only by
| a single double-bond. It is used in both agriculture and
| pharmaceuticals.
| mabbo wrote:
| I'm reminded of the discovery that grapefruit impacts how drugs
| are processed by the body.
|
| If I'm remembering correctly, the scientists were trying to
| find a way to see if alcohol impacted some drug, but wanted the
| measurement to be blind. So don't participants would need to
| drink alcohol without being sure if they had or not. The author
| and his wife spent a lively evening trying to find some kind of
| mix that hid the alcohol and found grapefruit to be very good
| at it.
|
| Then when the actual study ran, they had participants take the
| drug or a control as well as vodka with grapefruit or just
| grapefruit. And to their surprise, the grapefruit had a massive
| effect regardless of the vodka!
| ilamont wrote:
| Yes. The VW emissions scandal comes to mind:
|
| "But vindication implies that we are out to get somebody. And
| we weren't. We had no idea that this was out there."
|
| https://www.npr.org/2015/09/24/443053672/how-a-little-lab-in...
| pfdietz wrote:
| One example of this was a study of how electrical currents
| affect bacteria. E. coli were grown in a medium through a which
| a current was being passed. Weird effects were seen, and
| eventually this was traced not to the current, but to a
| chemical that was being produced at one of the platinum
| electrodes. And thus was discovered the biological effect of
| cisplatin, today a standard chemotherapy drug for many kinds of
| cancer.
| gz5 wrote:
| Nice one - didn't know that. Penicillin is maybe the most
| famous example? The Wizard and the Prophet (Mann) and How
| Innovation Works (Ridley) also show how combinations of these
| types of discoveries (many of them in different fields, being
| studied for other purposes, etc.) over multi-year periods
| often results in world-changing level outcomes.
| datashaman wrote:
| The discovery of LSD is another.
| mnw21cam wrote:
| The very best scientific breakthroughs are announced with the
| words "Huh? That's weird!"
| joekim wrote:
| Also, a good signal for programmers to dig deeper into
| strange software behavior.
| mark-r wrote:
| If a C or C++ programmer did that they'd never find their
| way out of the rabbit hole.
| vmception wrote:
| Which suggests the funding going directly to cancer research
| remains the waste energy done in vain. When its just random
| other research that winds up having the most efficacy.
| dmos62 wrote:
| I don't see a logical path from one to the other.
| pfdietz wrote:
| There was a lot of research between "discovering this cool
| chemical has an effect on bacteria" and "it's now the
| standard treatment curing 85% of testicular cancers."
| shard wrote:
| The numbers don't work out, or am I misunderstanding something?
|
| > These microscopic worms... cutting harvests by up to 70%. > The
| new technique has boosted yields fivefold in trials with small-
| scale farmers in Kenya
|
| Seems like there are factors beyond the worms in Kenya, unless
| they are really saying that they are getting over 150% yield
| after the banana tree paper is used?
| [deleted]
| mrlonglong wrote:
| This is exactly the sort of thing we need to develop and reduce
| our excessive use of pesticides as it's already having a
| deleterious effect on wildlife that we need such as bees.
| summari wrote:
| rmason wrote:
| I am wondering if this approach could work on soybean cyst
| nematode which is a huge problem worldwide. Farmers can currently
| plant seed that is highly resistant to the nematodes but they
| yield less. If seed companies could figure out a way to automate
| wrapping the seed would this possibly be a solution?
| kyleblarson wrote:
| Somewhat related but I was watching Idaho Public TV the other
| night and found it interesting that high school students get a
| school vacation during harvest season and comprise a large
| percentage of the harvest workers in Eastern Idaho:
| https://www.capitalpress.com/high-school-students-key-to-eas...
| jxramos wrote:
| that's pretty interesting. Reminds me of this statement a
| coworker of mine said when the California wildfires returned
| last year. He shared with us that up in Oregon, the state he
| recently moved to, they recruit a ton of volunteers and local
| men to go to town on any fire that pops up and take care of
| business so things don't get out of control. That's a very
| different response from California where I think everyone waits
| for the officials to take care of it as far as I can see.
| EdwardDiego wrote:
| In NZ, most fire brigades outside of urban areas and bushfire
| response are volunteer based. Which requires a lot of
| understanding employers - it wasn't uncommon in my rural town
| during our high fire risk season for our teacher to sprint
| out the classroom when his pager went off, then the principal
| would cover for him.
| hammock wrote:
| All depends on how rural your area is / the availability of
| services. Many places don't have fire service of their own,
| or they have volunteer service that doesn't necessarily work
| around the clock.
| ilamont wrote:
| Similar vacation scheduling happens in northern Maine around
| the potato harvest.
|
| https://bangordailynews.com/2016/10/08/news/aroostook-county...
| dan353hehe wrote:
| I lived in south east Idaho during some of my high school years
| and worked for a local potato farmer. During the fall break, I
| would work 18 hours a day driving potato trucks, and pulling
| dirt clods from conveyor belts.
|
| If the work was not done by the end of the break, you could get
| excused from school for as long as needed to finish. Kind of
| weird priorities for the area if you ask me.
|
| And yes, it was just as glamorous as it sounds.
| misterprime wrote:
| How were the earnings? Sounds like it might be some pretty
| solid income for a highschooler.
| buscoquadnary wrote:
| My wife is from the area and she did "spud harvest" as it
| is called. You are correct it is a pretty good income, my
| wife would regularly walk away with 3-4k which considering
| just a week of work isn't bad.
|
| Heck I've thought about taking a week off to do spud
| harvest, take a chance to get out of the office and do
| something physical for once.
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