It also carried 24 young willow trees, or saplings.

Why, you might ask, would astronauts want to take willow trees into space?  Perhaps to ‘spruce up’ the moon?  Add a little greenery to all of that barren blackness?

The trees are part of an 30 day experiment to see what impact gravity (or the absence of gravity) has on the growth of trees.

Why does this matter?  A fine question indeed.  At this point, scientists are just trying to understand why trees grow the way they do. There are no immediate plans to start planting forests in space.

The space shuttle mission is the last one for 2009.  There are only 6 more shuttle missions scheduled.

Link to original article below:

CBC News – Technology & Science – Atlantis carries Canadian trees into space.

Boston subway driver saves woman  

At a subway stop in Boston, Massachusetts, passengers waiting for the subway helped save a woman’s life.  A woman had fallen onto the tracks.  She wasn’t injured, but a speeding subway car was rolling down the tracks and she wasn’t able to get out of the way.

Luckily, people starting pointing, shouting and waving their arms to try to get the subway driver to stop.  The subway driver, Charice Lewis, slammed on the brakes.

Lewis was afraid she had actually driven over her, but the subway car stopped just in time.  Lewis said, “…my train, it did roll over her and I was just expecting the worst. I thought I killed her. I thought she was going to be missing some limbs,” Lewis said.

“So to see her crawl from under there and nothing was wrong, I was just like, thank God. I was like, oh my God, she is so lucky.”

Lewis is being called a hero for her actions, but she says that it was the people on the platform who were flapping their arms that really deserve the credit.

Adapted from the article below:

CBC News – World – Boston subway driver saves woman.



A Canadian organization called the Alberta Research Organization has created a new product that is being sold to house building companies in China.

China has a growing population, but they are running out of trees for building houses.  That’s where the straw comes in.  The straw is combined with resin (a sticky material that is hard yet flexible when it dries) to form ply-wood-like panels which are 4 feet by 8 feet.  The plant where they are being made can produce 5,000 sheets per day, enough to build between 30 and 35 houses.

Here are some benefits of the product:

1)  No trees have to be cut down

2) Wheat straw is plentiful in China

3) Wheat straw is a waste product from harvesting wheat (it’s the stalk – usually it’s just burned to clear the field for the next round of planting)

4) The panels are thought to be more flexible than the usual brick and mortar, and they will therefore stand up better in earthquakes.

Link to original story below

CBC News – Money – Canadian technology could help China’s housing.

RELATED ISSUE:

STRAW BALE HOUSES