Tag Archive for 'Wax'

Structural color in wax bloom produces blue appearance on fruits across a wide phylogeny: (A) undamaged highbush blueberries growing on the plant; (B) blueberry with (i) unmodified wax, (ii) mechanical wax removal, (iii) chloroform wax removal, (iv) surface application of (almost) index-matching oil, (v) surface application of water, (vi) outer skin peeled to reveal flesh, and (vii) underside of peeled skin; (C) transmission optical microscopy of peeled blueberry skin from internal edge showing red pigmentation in epidermal cells. Scale bar - 200 μm; (D) (i and ii) a selection of plum (Prunus domestica) fruits with different cell pigmentation, (i) with wax intact and (ii) with wax removed. Image credit: Middleton et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk4219.

Study: Tiny Structures in Wax Coating of Blue-Pigmented Fruits Give Them Their Blue Color

Feb 7, 2024 by News Staff

Many visually guided fruit-eaters have eyes highly adapted for blue sensitivity, which makes it perhaps surprising that blue pigmented fruits are not more...

Modern-day straw beehive in a tree in Nigeria. Image credit: Dunne et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22425-4.

West Africans Hunted for Honey 3,500 Years Ago

Apr 15, 2021 by News Staff

Historical and ethnographic literature from across Africa suggests bee products, honey and larvae, had considerable importance both as a food source and...

The jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) in King Canyon Wash, Saguaro National Park West, Arizona, the United States. Image credit: Katja Schulz / CC BY 2.0.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Jojoba Plant

May 26, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has for the first time mapped the entire genome of the jojoba plant (Simmondsia chinensis). The jojoba (Simmondsia...