While drinking tree sap does not immediately sound appealing, Canadian producers are hoping that it will be the next must-try soft drink around the world. We have all heard of maple syrup, which is made by boiling down the sap of maple trees to produce a thick, sweet, golden-to-brown coloured syrup that is typically poured over pancakes. What is far less well known is that you can drink the sap itself, which is called maple water. Clear in colour, it contains just 2% natural sugars, so it is only slightly sweet. A small but growing number of producers in Canada are now selling this maple water in bottles or cartons, after first giving it a filter and pasteurisation to kill off any microbes. “People feel like they’re drinking the wild Canadian forest,” says Yannick Leclerc of Maple3, a producer of maple water drinks, based in Quebec City.
Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. And for an endangered owl breeding program in Canada, it’s also a dish best served dead. For the price of a coffee, spurned and disgruntled lovers can revel in the satisfaction of having a dead rat named after an ex, before it is fed to a northern spotted owl. The British Columbia-based breeder is running its 
It just might be Toronto’s most unlikely tourist attraction. It is pipsqueak-ish in size, not much taller than a single storey of a house. Its branches are scrawny and, at this time of year, empty of leaves, buds or nesting birds. It even has steep competition from its own neighbours just south of Trinity Bellwoods, such as the towering maple across the road and the elegant evergreen up the street. But this young Eastern Redbud is the little tree that could. The tree — its name is Rodney, the owners will tell you — has become an oddball local celebrity. Since being planted less than five years ago, Rodney has already gotten 
California is close to having two new state symbols — a famous slug and an expensive crab. UC Santa Cruz students and alums have something to celebrate. Their mascot, the banana slug, is about to become the official state slug. You can find the slugs in coastal lowlands, where they have a symbiotic relationship with redwood trees. Banana slugs cut down their competition by eating young shoots of other trees. Redwoods reciprocate by creating a cooler climate on the forest floor. But the slug isn’t the only new official state symbol. California will also have a state crustacean — the Dungeness crab.
An invasive tree species that is illegal to plant in Ohio has begun to bloom, and will soon fill the air with a distinctive odor that many liken to rotting fish. Callery pear trees – which come in multiple varieties including “Bradford” pear, “Autumn Blaze” and “Cleveland Select” – typically begin to bloom in the state in late March to early April, according the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The species was brought to North America from Asia in the 1900s with the goal of combatting fire blight, a bacterial disease among common pear trees. The tree quickly become popular in landscaping due to its adaptability, white flowers and shape. It has also since become well-known for another one of its qualities – its odor. The tree’s blooms typically have a strong aroma, which has been likened to a variety of unpleasant scents, including rotting fish, puke and animal waste.
Another questionably secured load in the bed of a truck along a San Antonio highway is stirring up conversation online. A truck was spotted carrying lumber upright with the pieces of wood skyrocketing, clearly taller than the truck itself. …A truck, avoiding state law which prohibits overhang of more than 3 feet either in front or back of a vehicle, opted to put their lumber load upright. Narrowly missing highway overhangs, the lumber appears to violate state law which says the overall height of a load hauled in Texas can’t exceed 14 feet …The beams, which protruded several feet above the back of the truck, were swaying in the wind, tied down only at a couple places at their base by a questionable and slacked set of ropes.
Have you ever wondered why pre-grated cheese doesn’t stick together in the bag? It turns out that the secret ingredient behind this is an added substance called cellulose. …A natural substance found in plants and trees, cellulose is commonly used in the food industry as a food additive. Even though it is considered safe for consumption, many have still questioned its health implications and the safe amounts that should be consumed. …“Cellulose is generally recognised as safe by the FDA when used in food,” Ipsita Chakraborty, senior nutritionist at Hungry Koala remarks. It is a non-digestible plant fibre – which means it passes through the human digestive system without being broken down. It can aid in digestion by contributing to bulk in the diet.
You can mend a broken heart this Valentine’s Day now that researchers invented a new hydrogel that can be used to heal damaged heart tissue and improve cancer treatments. University of Waterloo chemical engineering researcher Dr. Elisabeth Prince teamed up with researchers from the University of Toronto and Duke University to design the synthetic material made using cellulose nanocrystals, which are derived from wood pulp. The material is engineered to replicate the fibrous nanostructures and properties of human tissues, thereby recreating its unique biomechanical properties. …Prince’s research is unique as most gels currently used in tissue engineering or 3D cell culture don’t possess this nanofibrous architecture. Prince’s group uses nanoparticles and polymers as building blocks for materials and develops chemistry for nanostructures that accurately mimic human tissues.
The origin of the pumpkin jack-o’-lantern is found in Celtic Ireland and has always been wrapped up in Halloween, a festival known in the Irish language as Samhain. …In order to prevent unwelcome guests entering their homes at Samhain, the Celts created menacing faces out of turnips and left them on their doorsteps. …In modern times, pumpkins, rather than turnips, perform the same duties. …According to legend, the origin of the Halloween lantern can be found in the tale of a young blacksmith called Jack O’Lantern who made a pact with the Devil during a gambling session. He managed to thwart the Devil and extracted a promise from him that he would never take his soul. When he eventually died, Jack was refused entry to heaven on account of his drunken, lewd and miserly ways. The Devil, remembering his earlier promise, also refused to allow him into hell. So Jack was condemned to roam the dark hills and lanes of Ireland for eternity. His only possessions were a turnip with a gouged out centre and a burning coal, thrown to him by the Devil.
Researchers filmed five tree frogs making hundreds of jumps in the lab onto poles of various diameters—ranging from dime-size to the width of a toilet paper roll. The amphibians made split-second adjustments depending on the pole’s diameter and how far off course they had veered. They either sailed past their targets before grabbing on with a sticky-padded hand or foot at the last moment, or belly-flopped heavily against the surface and embraced it… Force sensors under the poles showed that landing on vertical surfaces puts the least stress on the leaping frogs’ bodies. This raises the broader ecological question of whether sticky-footed animals prefer a vertical landing zone when one’s available, the team says.
Spanish police have arrested five members of a drugs gang… whose members had hit upon a “very sophisticated method” to hide the drugs by impregnating 16 tonnes of wood pellets used as fuel for wood burning stoves with liquid cocaine, local paper Diari de Tarragona said. Police discovered that the pellets, which had entered the country legally from South America to Spain in sea containers, were stored for three months to “cool off” before being taken to a place where the drugs were extracted. The premises had been watched for months when a lorry with a foreign number plate arrived to pick up a load of pellets and police sprung into action. In all, 920 bags of pellets, each weighing 18 kilos, were found. 
NAV CANADA has become the first Air Navigation Service Provider worldwide to sign an agreement with Santa Claus to provide priority status on the night of December 24th to 25th for safe, orderly and expeditious gift delivery. NAV CANADA commits to provide top-notch, up-to-date technologies, advanced communication systems and modern carrot-efficient approaches to facilitate this high-speed flight serving millions of destinations. Based on this agreement, Santa Claus has implemented an ADS-B antenna to his sleigh and now complies with the Canadian ADS-B mandate which will ensure safe deliveries, especially from the North Pole. Rudolph, when reached for comment, said, “We’re all aware that my nose guides the sleigh, but it’s nice to know the folks at NAV CANADA support our operation with this great technology. I oversaw installation of the two-way antenna myself – and if anyone’s an expert on navigation, it’s me.” This is the first time in history that NAV CANADA and Santa Claus have reached a formal agreement.