Do you remember Midori-San, the japanese blogging plant? Because it has a companion now! The latest in sociable vegetables goes by the name of AstroZ, and you can find out more about its life on its own twitter feed at @Astro_Zuc. This will seem ridiculous and whimsical because, let’s face it, it is. But there is a point behind this madness. After all, understanding how plants grow in zero gravity is going to be rather necessary for one day cultivating them there. Interestingly enough, an organism which evolved to spend its entire natural life standing upright, and uses gravity to decide where to grow its roots, seems to function perfectly well without any gravity to guide it. Perhaps a friendly passing botanist might be able to tell me why…

As for why this particular space plant has a twitter feed? Perhaps Don Pettit has spent too much time cooped up on a space station.