Divot Mix

"You are meant to play the ball as it lies, a fact that may help to touch on your own objective approach to life." -- Grantland Rice

No-mow grass?

It's unlikely that there will ever be a putting green that never needs mowing, but a team of scientists is working on technology that might someday result in lawns and golf course rough that never grows but is always green.

Their goal is to map the critical hormone signaling pathway that regulates the stature of plants. In addition to lawns that rarely require mowing, the finding could also enable the development of sturdier, more fruitful crop plants such as rice, wheat, soybeans and corn.

In a paper published in the May 4, 2006 , issue of the journal Nature , Howard Hughes Medical Institute scientists report they have deciphered the signaling pathway for a key class of steroid hormones that regulates growth and development in plants.

"By manipulating the steroid pathway…we think we can regulate plant stature and yield," said Joanne Chory, a HHMI investigator at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Manipulation of plant stature has been a longstanding goal in horticulture, agronomy and forestry. The ability to precisely control plant size would have broad implications for everything from urban forestry to crop and garden plant development. Beyond perpetually short grass, trees could be made more compact for better growth in crowded cities and berry bushes could be made taller for ease of harvesting.

To chart the pathway, Chory and colleague Grégory Vert examined the molecular influence of a family of plant hormones known as brassinosteroids. As critical chemical messengers of plant development, they are found in low levels in virtually all plant cells, including seeds, flowers, roots, leaves, stems, pollen and young vegetative tissue.

"Without them, plants are tiny dwarves, with reduced vasculature and roots and are infertile," Chory explained. "They also regulate senescence or aging. Since brassinosteroids mainly regulate cell expansion, though, they are one of the most important hormones that regulate stature.

"We might be able to dwarf grass and keep it green by limiting brassinosteroids or increase the yield of rice by having more brassinosteroids in seeds," she said.

Through traditional methods of plant breeding, humans have been manipulating plant stature for thousands of years. In recent years, through the methods of genetic engineering, more precise methods for altering industrial plant strains have come into play.

But access to a pathway used by plant hormones to dictate size promises broader influence over the many genes involved in the process of growth. Levers that could be used to alter a hormone pathway to influence plant development and stature, according to Chory, include modifying the levels of the hormone, manipulating the chemical structures of hormones and recoding the signals sent along the pathway.

Mowing injuries increase nationwide

Mowing the lawn can be a weekly ritual of the spring and summer months for many Americans. However, each year nearly 80,000 Americans require hospital treatment from injuries caused by lawn mowers, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The researchers also found that the number of injuries is increasing, with the majority occurring in children under age 15 and adults age 60 and older. The most common injuries were from debris, such as rocks and branches, propelled by the mower's spinning blades. The study, published in the April 2006 online edition of the Annals of Emergency Medicine , is the first to examine the extent and mechanisms of lawn mower injuries nationwide.

"There is no reason anyone under 12 should ever be injured by a lawn mower," said David Bishai, M.D., Ph.D., MPH, senior author of the study and associate professor at the Bloomberg School. "If we would keep the kids off the lawn when mowing, and off the riding mowers we could greatly reduce the number of injuries each year." The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that no one under age 16 should use a riding mower, and no one under age 12 should use a push mower.

Bishai and co-author, Vanessa Costilla, a student with the School's Diversity Summer Internship Program, analyzed data of mower-related injuries requiring hospitalization from the National Hospital Discharge Survey from 1996 to 2003 and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from 1996 to 2004.

According to the results, more than 663,000 people were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for lawn mower injuries between 1996 and 2004. More than 80,000 people required hospital treatment for lawn mower injuries in 2004, which means about two out of every 1,000 injury-related emergency room visits is because of a lawn mower injury.

In addition to strikes from flying projectiles, the most common causes of injury for people over age 15 were non-specific pain after mowing and injuries occurring while servicing the mower. The most common injury requiring hospitalization was fractures of the foot.

Based on the study results, Bishai recommends some safety tips to follow to avoid lawn mowing injuries:

• Wear goggles, long pants and close-toed shoes with gripped soles
• Clear the yard of debris before mowing
• Keep everyone, especially small children, from the yard while mowing
• People with histories of chest, back or joint pain should reconsider mowing
• Use care and wear protective gloves when servicing mower or changing blades
• Many injuries occur while lifting mower--get help if needed
• Never service the mower while it is running
• Mow only in good weather conditions--avoid mowing in high heat
• Do not use riding mower on steep hills or embankments
• Do not carry passengers on riding mowers or tow passengers behind the mower
• Do not allow children under the age of 16 to operate riding mower
• Store lawn mowers in area with minimal traffic and not accessible to children

"These are machines with sharp blades spinning at 160 miles per hour just inches away from our feet and hands. Everyone needs to respect the dangers and use common sense," said Bishai.

Funding for the study was provided by the Student Diversity Office at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and grants from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Architects step back to old technology

No group has shown more interest and concern over the advance of technology in golf than the members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Their interest is understandable, as they are regularly asked to modify existing golf courses in response to modern clubs and balls.

So, when the society held its 60th annual meeting recently in Pinehurst, N.C., the members of the ASGCA donned vintage golf attire and played Pinehurst No. 4 using hickory shafted clubs and gutta percha balls to get a flavor of golf as it was played early in the game's U.S. history.

“Club and ball technology is an important issue for ASGCA and our members,” said President Greg Muirhead. “Playing with the old balls and clubs was fun, of course, but also gave us new perspective about just how much things have changed from the time when ASGCA founding member Donald Ross emigrated from Scotland.”

For more about ASGCA, including a current list of members and other available publications, visit http://www.asgca.org.