Plants clear the air. NASA researchers, looking for the best ways to clean the air in space stations, found that some plants are very effective at removing dangerous chemicals from the air. Now scientists in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, are experimenting a new type of honeysuckle that works as an urban air filter. The flower is cultivated to amplify its natural smog-sucking tendencies. Plants pick up air pollution out of the air with their ‘hairs’. The scientists have grown a “very, very hairy” honeysuckle. Plants planted in the right place next to traffic can reduce pollution from nitrogen dioxide by 40 percent and from particulate matter as much as 60 percent.
