A fast-spreading fungus is ravaging the world's rubber trees.
But thanks to researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute
for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, there's now an
alternative: dandelions. Scientists have long known that the
weed's sap contains latex, but it's difficult to harvest because
dandelion ooze polymerizes — goes gummy — when
it hits the air. The Fraunhofer team overcame that sticky
problem by switching off a key enzyme. The new, improved dandelion
produces 500% more usable latex than the old weed does.