What is Digg?77 Comments
- Strell, on 10/12/2007, -4/+36Emo grass would cut itself.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27Now I'll never have to go outside again!
- Nezzari, on 10/12/2007, -7/+32Sadly, this would have solved the immigration problem a long time ago.
Just kidding (I'm spanish) - panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Pretty short sighted if you ask me. There will no doubt be cross-pollenation, which eventually will find it's way to some farms. What then?
- gahal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Emo grass.
Ok perhaps not true emo grass, but thats the first thing I thought of. - kodek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10But what happens once it stops growing, and...let's say, part of it catches on fire?
- orthodonticjake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10There was a Ray Bradbury short story about this. I think it was in Dandelion Wine. It concerned an old man protesting the installation of new non-mowing grass. He said it would take away half of summer; there would be no need to be outside and there would be no smell of freshly cut grass in his afternoons... I have to say that, after reading the story, I agree with him. It's a summer feeling, and it's worth the work.
- santaclaws, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Yeah, that'd be real smart to introduce into the wild
- johndi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Lawn grass is already an invasive species. It's nowhere near the original state, and is one of the oldest cultivated plants. In the USA we have 3 times as much grass planted as corn, and over 50% of domestic water is used to maintain a nice lawn. Are you're worried that we will mess up the natural order of an unnatural thing?
- theotherme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5cool, but i was really looking for a lawnmower/webserver
- Bokista, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I cite Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:
Walter Donovan: Well, Marcus, we're on the verge of the greatest discovery in the history of mankind.
Marcus Brody: And you're meddling with powers you can't possibly comprehend. - johndi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Not having to cut the grass will be nice. I like the increased crop yield part too. If they can get this to work on vines, bushes, or trees I can see better tasting fruit down the road. It's amazing where science is taking us. Imagine what this could do for vineyards.
- pozzoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Why? Aren't there any "inmigration problems" in spain?
I'm Argentinian BTW... So I guess I'm part of spain's inmigration problem. :D - fastfood15, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5if you stopped the growth of grass that would be cool for like a day, but then entropy would takeover the plant and it would pretty much fall apart. Not to mention the fact that if the plants arent growing then there would be no need for the energy produced by chlorophyl and that might result in either the grass losing its greeness or the plant would start growing lumps to store energy. Which would be weird
- theotherme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'd rather see a roomba for my lawn, at least I could install Linux on it.
- elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is a bad thing! I LOVE cutting the lawn! It's when I do my best thinking!
- sirmasterboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Nooo u guys got it all wrong. The Grass grows to a certian height then stops, so if u wreck it, it regrows back to some optimum height. Trust, me i've seen this everywhere.
- pozzoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5A gene like this wouldn't survive in the wild... Darwin anyone?
It's nature we are talking about, a robust system selected in a thousand of years of evolution process not some unstable house of cards.... - dirtyword, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3yeah, wouldn't it be great if plants stopped growing someday?
- vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Bah. Nothing 100 square feet of concrete couldn't fix.
- habitat2050, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3NSA must be spying on me. I came up with this idea about 3 years ago but due to my lack of education in horticulture i kinda gave up on it. Also the magnetic hammer was another one of my ideas but home depot crushed those dreams.
- qster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Just get some sheep instead.
- nstern2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah just paint it green and be done with it.
- samk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The title and description are inaccurate, as is the title of the original article.
The point is to slow down the growth of grass, allowing you to mow it less often.
If you created a new grass that didn't grow, your seeds would never turn into grass.
And if you were able to stop the growth of existing grass completely, your lawn would look awful pretty quickly. When you walk on it, you bend and break the blades of grass. The weather takes its toll too. The cycle of growth and cutting "repairs" all the ongoing damage it receives from man and nature. - mushoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I'm with Pozzoe. I've never seen a spaniard cutting lawns.
@op Funny joke. Lame attempt at saving face. - danieltko, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I'm not offended. (I'm Caucasian)
- pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I would LOVE to have a beautiful yard all the time.
Unfortunately I'm disabled and I can't get out and do all the hard work it takes to maintain a manicured yard nor can I afford to pay someone to do it for me.
This would be wonderful for people that have physical limitations.
I say bring it on.. - Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Oh, this would be awesome, especially for people like me who are allergic to grass @_@
- Rmplstltskn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Whoa...like body hair.
- vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2http://www.friendlyrobotics.com/
Here you go. Robot lawn mowers. Kind of nifty. - lifeskillz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3wow, now there's a smart idea. let's make people even lazier and give them less reason to be outside. oh, wait, and let's prevent one of the most basic pathways of nature too. we are really onto something here...
- Badaudio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i dont know whats your problem flaming is for childrens
- gader, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Now I can finally use my John Deere all year for what is was meant...to pile crap on top of in my garage.
- johndi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Read the rest of the article, they are looking at using it to increase crop yields.
- everfalling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3are we so ***** lazy that we spent all that money to find out how to GENETICALLY keep the grass from growing so we dont have to mow it? jeez. talk about taking the long way around the problem. Plus, what if this was used as a chemical weapon for killing crops? a corn feild that doesn't grow? sorry, but just cause you can doesn't mean you should.
- positron, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
"The lack of humility before nature that's being displayed here, uh... staggers me."
"God help us; we're in the hands of engineers." - CynicalBastard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2yeah, you better be careful: you might get 'outside' on you
BTW, you have kids so why are you mowing? - jaxun, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The up-side: reduction in emissions from 2 stroke engines (although I have no data to quantify the existing impact).
The down-side: one less opportunity every week to "go out behind the shed" and burn one. - account, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This would be neat if there was something for humans to use on their hair. All I would have to do is wait until I like my hair, then apply some shampoo-like chemical and I would never have to get another haircut.
- sirmasterboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yea kinda like that, never thought of that...
- Teaboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd miss the smell of freshly cut grass.
- Genma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it's already happened, thanks to Monsanto and Co., related article:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.04/turf.html
the race is on, here's hoping the institutes get a patent granted before Monsanto claims ownership of another genome. to me it's a great idea to have a no-cut lawn that only grows to a certain height, we shouldn't have to worry about cross-pollenation since they will most likely distribute sterile versions of seed. if it ever dies off or gets damaged all you would have to do is plant some more and regrow it, instead of all the constant maintenance. - bigpeeler, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Dang straight...I'm moving into a condo tomorrow. Digg.com is amazing in it's accuracy.
- Lewie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'll hop on that crazy train %)
- ExplosiveNixon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I literally buried a lawnmower because it would not work properly and I hate mowing the lawn so much. If they go through with this, all of my problems will be gone.
- Tryforceful, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Hmm.. what about grass that grows only to a fixed mass, let's say? So it grows to 4", slows to a halt, but if some caterpillars come and chow down, the blades'll replace what was eaten by growing again only in that spot? That sounds more useful, even if the digg article was falsely titled and we're just talking about slowing down the growth. Seems like if we're talking about bioengineering grass' growth patterns, it would only be a hop/skip/jump away from there to do this, right? [let the flow of rebuttals come forth:]
- nosmelc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well they're not quite 2 yet so I'm cutting them some slack for now. I think I will at least wait until they can reach the throttle. :)
Aside from that, my point was there are many things that most people would rather do than cut their lawn.
I love the outdoors but that doesn't mean I like to mow my lawn. - tehfink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1interesting article on the origin of the american lawn:
http://online.wsj.com/PA2VJBNA4R/article_print/SB111516450144323944.html - SniperX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Astroturf/fake grass already exists.
Interesting find nonetheless. - CadMasterAdam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FTA
"By manipulating the steroid pathway%u2026we think we can regulate plant stature and yield," said Joanne Chory
[can anyone say "6' high 2' Dia Cola's"?]
oh hell's yah! -
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