Beans use an immune receptor to call in airstrikes on caterpillars

When they're being eaten, bean plants release chemicals that draw in parasitic wasps.

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[JanneM]

I can't decide which is more amazing, the ability of the plants to detect being eaten by caterpillars and summon wasps to eat them, or the patience of the researchers to spend several years setting up and then running this experiment. Great article!

I don't think the general public realizes just how much effort goes into seemingly simple research results, especially in biology-related fields.

A simple-seeming "we found a gene that seems to do x" like this one is often the result of several years of work by several people. A result like this may be the entire PhD thesis for a grad student.