[geeks] RE: [rescue] OT: ADD - MOVING to geeks

[Jennifer Sharp]

I think he said that roses have a naturally acidic Ph and the blue
enzyme he was going to extract from a cornflower, which I think he
said was distantly related to the rose. But the cornflower has a very
basic Ph. And the blue enzyme could not exsist in such a acidic plant.
Or something like that. I could be completely wrong. I only got to
talk to the man for a minute when everyone came along and insisted
that he was boring me to death. Which he wasn't.

Jennifer Sharp

"Do not taunt Happy Fun Pregnant Woman."  -- James Sharp
-----Original Message-----
From: Joshua D Boyd <jdboyd at cs.millersville.edu>
To: geeks at sunhelp.org <geeks at sunhelp.org>
Date: Monday, July 08, 2002 11:28 PM
Subject: Re: [geeks] RE: [rescue] OT: ADD - MOVING to geeks


>On Mon, Jul 08, 2002 at 11:11:16PM -0500, Jennifer Sharp wrote:
>> He is making blue roses. He started explaining why it was so
difficult
>> to make them (something about Ph) but I didn't get to finish
hearing
>> all he had to say, James drug me away. He is a very interesting
man.
>
>I can imagine the trouble.
>
>The short of it is that the coloring comes from an enzyme.  There is
>no enzyme for blue present in roses.  So the splicing would be to
>produce it.  But then, once done, the exact coloring is controlled by
>environmental factors, such as pH, metalic ions, and other pigments.
>But, tweaking the pH can be tricky, most so than the other factors.
>You need to adjust it, but adjustments of even a tenth can cause the
>plant problems[1].
>
>Blue roses appear a lot in arabian mythology.  They generally are
used
>either as a sign or a source of (or item of) power.  I would imagine
>that there would be a large market for such a flower.
>
>But then, imagine being able to give a mythical flower to a SO or
>PSO.  That'd be worth an awefull lot of euros.
>
>
>--
>Joshua D. Boyd
>
>[1] Heck, minute pH changes cause us problems also.  It's just that
we
>resist it better than most simpler life forms due to complex
buffering
>systems.
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