Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm with paper made from bananas
>In a field trial, researchers added abamectin, a pesticide that kills nematodes, to the paper. They also planted potatoes in banana paper without abamectin as a control.<p>Kudos to the NC state team for setting up this control, and digging into the results, especially when the purpose of their experiments was different (their intent was to find a better way to deliver pesticides).<p>It is amazing how many times this happens - unintended or unanticipated results from an experiment, often peripheral results, which turn out to be extraordinarily interesting (usually for a different purpose as the original experiment), if observed and followed-up on with rigor and innovation.