Ebony Ebony Ebony is a dense black hardwood, most commonly yielded by several different species in the genus "Diospyros", which also contains the persimmons. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely-textured and has a very smooth finish when polished, making it valuable as an ornamental wood. The word "ebony" comes from the Ancient Egyptian "hbny", through the Ancient Greek ("ébenos"), into Latin and Middle English. Species of ebony include "Diospyros ebenum" (Ceylon ebony), native to southern India and Sri Lanka; "Diospyros crassiflora" (Gabon ebony), native to western Africa; and "Diospyros celebica" (Makassar ebony), native to Indonesia and
Genetically modified tomato function of genes naturally present in tomatoes. Wild tomatoes are small, green and largely unappetizing, but after centuries of breeding there are now thousands of varieties grown worldwide. Agrobacterium-mediated genetic engineering techniques were developed in the late 1980s that could successfully transfer genetic material into the nuclear genome of tomatoes. Genetic material can also be inserted into a tomato cell's chloroplast and chromoplast plastomes using biolistics. Tomatoes were the first food crop with an edible fruit where this was possible. Tomatoes have been used as a model organism to study the fruit ripening of climacteric fruit. To understand the mechanisms