Long before today's commercial whiskey industry, American farmers were distilling spirits from an extraordinary diversity of corn. Some of those old varieties have nearly disappeared, while others survive in gardens and seed collections. We're exploring the forgotten history of American moonshine—and the heirloom corn that may have helped shape it.
A parasitic wasp and a zombie-making virus team up to hijack a caterpillar's behavior, turning it into a bodyguard for the very creatures that have been feeding on it. Sound too crazy to be true? It isn't. This week, we're wrapping up our series on tomato hornworms and their archnemesis, the braconid wasp. And in some of the creepiest science yet, we'll discover how this tiny wasp manages to manipulate a creature many times its size.
Halloween is almost here, so this week we're sharing a little garden science that's part nature documentary, part horror film. Tiny wasps laying eggs inside living caterpillars, larvae feeding on their hosts from the inside out, and a virus that helps orchestrate the whole gruesome affair. Fortunately, this horror story has a happy ending—at least for you and your tomatoes.
