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From: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: 4- and 5- leaved clovers: evidence for environmental disturbance?
Message-ID: <4066@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: Thu, 24-Sep-87 19:43:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: cit-vax.4066
Posted: Thu Sep 24 19:43:46 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Sep-87 14:35:34 EDT
References: <1341@vanhalen.rutgers.edu>
Sender: news@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu
Reply-To: palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu.UUCP (David Palmer)
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 24
Keywords: mutations, radioactivity, stern physics lab

In article <1341@vanhalen.rutgers.edu> pratt@vanhalen.rutgers.edu (Lorien Y. Pratt) writes:
>Hmm...Just now on my way past our "Stern Physics Laboratory" here at
>Rutgers, within the space of 30 seconds I found one 4- and two 5-leaved
>clovers.  This got me to thinking about how once somebody told me that
>such mutations (?) were evidence of impurities in the environment,
>perhaps radiation.  Is this true?  I know that we can conclude a lot
>about the environment from studying animal populations.  Is there any
>evidence that a layman can recognize (like these clovers perhaps)
>for environmental disturbances?

The existence of multiple 4-leafed clovers may mean that at one time
there was a single 4-leafed clover in that spot, and it reproduced.
I once found a patch with literally hundreds of four and five leaf
clovers in a few square meters.

If, however, you find a bunch of four-leaf clovers, and a two headed dog,
and a giant ant, and a fire breathing dinosaur, all in the same place,
worry.

		David Palmer
		palmer@tybalt.caltech.edu
		...rutgers!cit-vax!tybalt.caltech.edu!palmer
	The opinions expressed are those of an 8000 year old Atlantuan
	priestess named Mrla, and not necessarily those of her channel.