THE BEAT GOES ON

GARDEN CITY, MI—The recent successful fusion of human and tobacco cells has led to all sorts of bizarre speculation, not least of which is that scientists may soon be creating a race of “plant people.” According to some published reports, these plant people could work on farms, where they would pick their own fruit, serve as soldiers (risking life and limb, no doubt) and—get this—even work as philosophers, with giant trees spending centuries pondering the cosmos.