The Snow Bacteria and Potatoes by Kamila Moravcikova

Have you ever thought about the snow? I don't mean the pure enjoy of watching it falling down, of all the things around getting white, you preparing ski and other winter stuff. I mean, take a look at a snow flake. I know it's beautiful, so fragile, so sophisticated, so cold. We all know what's snow (for those who doesn't - it's type of precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes. It's composed of small ice particles, it's a granular material, has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure). But why am I thinking about snow when the spring is about to come back to bring some light and sunshine? The deal is, the scientist found out that there's something more in the snowflake & it's called Pseudomonas syringae and it's a bacteria. Surprisingly, it doesn't live in snowflake just because of not finding better place to call home & this guy has something important to do, its job is to cling the moisture in order to condense. Seems like we have to thank this bacteria for doing such a job, doesn't it? Actually, the scientists and researchers are not absolutely sure whether they should Pseudomonas leave where it is or to get rid of it. Is this bacteria a hero or just a loser? All this because of the its negative impact on plants such as beans or potatoes. Elimination can possibly lead into less snow or rain. And on the other hand, if we add a little bit of it, could we provoke more rain or snow? (of course, this addition is adequate in countries with tragic dryness and no potatoes around to be infected). Sounds like we can influence a weather a little bit. After all we have already gone through, could we?

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/ap_on_sc/snow_bugs;_ylt=AmVFRtjfMUnp5_WQ_SQToKGs0NUE

by Kamila Moravcikova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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