Science: Why . . .?

Scientific solutions from last week's University of Chicago meetings:

> Why do plants bloom faster when their flowers are picked? The dominant bud, explained Plant Physiologist John William Mitchell of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, apparently produces a hormone which inhibits growth of the other buds on the same stem. If it is snipped off, the uninhibited buds can burst into bloom.

> Why are there evergreens in the South, oaks in the North? Botanist William Spinner Cooper of the University of Minnesota studied fossil tree pollens in peat, concluded that "in America the climate...

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