In 2006, the company won the green light to close a Tyler, Texas, plant and the outdated Union City, Tenn.

WSJ: Goodyear, union begin contract talks for 6 plants

The infrared light that is reflected by a plant shows how efficiently photosynthesis occurs in that plant and can provide insight into its general health.

WSJ: Farmers Experiment With Drones

The device, which resembles the sawed-off head of a driver golf club, uses its Plant Care Engine (or PCE as its literature so abbreviates) to detect such important plant growth criteria as water, fertilizer, humidity, temperature and light.

ENGADGET: Switched On: The fork, the ficus and the flandoodle

The commanding officer of the Light Dragoons, Lt Col Sam Plant, said Sgt Davidson was "a simply superb soldier and a wonderful man".

BBC: Soldier killed in Afghanistan patrol blast named

Supermarket giant Tesco has recently been given a green light to build Britain's first ever straw-powered Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant to meet the electricity and heating needs of one of its distribution centres.

BBC: Time to encourage biomass growth

Dr John Morgan, head of the Forestry Commission's plant health service, said the work would help shed light on "the history and nature of the introduction of new pests like Chalara, and in helping to understand how we tackle the disease that's arrived and to understand what the risk of spreading is".

BBC: Ash fungus genetic data released

The new model will be based on the existing award-winning NV200 currently produced at the plant and will be an important and innovative addition to Nissan's global range of light commercial vehicles (LCV's).

ENGADGET: Nissan announces e-NV200 all-electric van, production slated for 2013

Moreover, the creators have already found a Minnesota-based firm willing to mass produce the nanobandages should they receive the green light, but the professors are hoping to build the new manufacturing plant in Ohio if at all possible, and have products on retail shelves "by 2008" at the latest.

ENGADGET: Nanofiber bandages slated to heal en masse next year