In July 2017, PlantingScience hosted a professional development workshop at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) in Colorado Springs, CO as part of the PlantingScience: Digging Deeper Together grant funded by NSF and lead by efforts from BSCS, BSA, and ASPB. The workshop included 24 high school teachers from around the country with 12 plant … Read more
Guest blog post from Tim Jeffers at University of California, Berkeley On a Saturday at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market, under a sign that says “Talk to a Scientist!”, you might get a chance to meet one of us, graduate students and young researchers of plant and microbial biology. We will have cool props and organisms … Read more
Rockville, MD (June 1, 2017) Fifteen students mentored by members of the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) were selected to receive the 2017 ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF). The $4,000 fellowship permits each student to devote full-time effort to his or her research project for a 10-week period during the summer. The award … Read more
Thank you to everyone who participated in Fascination of Plants Day 2017 on May 18! It was a great success and we are looking forward to the next event in 2019. Fascination of Plants Day is an international event organized by the European Plant Science Organization. Now in its 4th year, the event raises awareness … Read more
The ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program funds promising undergraduate students so they can conduct research in plant biology during the early part of their college careers over the course of 10 consecutive weeks. This year’s SURF recipients will present their research at Plant Biology 2018. Congratulations to these 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows … Read more
Please contact Mary Williams if you’d like to discuss submitting a Teaching Tool preproprosal. Investigating Darwin’s “abominable mystery” – the angiosperms, by Sonja Dunbar Flowering plants, the angiosperms, make up roughly 1/6th of the living species currently known. This teaching tool will explore the rapid diversification and success of the flowering plants.This tool will first … Read more
Today, May 18, is the fourth international Fascination of Plants Day! Fascination of Plants Day aims to get as many people as possible around the world fascinated by plants and enthused about the importance of plant science. Submissions for the ASPB Fascination of Plants Day Social Media Photo Contest (#PlantDayUSA) and Event Raffle were open … Read more
Guest post by Emily Larson @erlarson_phd and Maria Papanatsiou @m_papanatsiou, postdocs at the University of Glasgow, Scotland If there is one stereotype about some scientists that contains a shred of truth it is that we are definitely indoor kids – at least professionally speaking. We spend a lot of time hunched over benches in the … Read more
There’s a new Teaching Tool in town! It’s not easy being not green: the making of a parasitic plant – By Caitlin E. Conn and David C. Nelson. This Teaching Tool explores the biology and evolution of parasitic plants, and their impact on agriculture. In the last portion of the Teaching Tool, the molecular evolution … Read more
Cross-posted from Kelsey Wood with permission. Kelsey is a PhD student at U.C. Davis. How to make a DNA bracelet, from any organism and any gene! I study plant-pathogen interactions, so I chose to make a sequence from a wild tobacco gene that is important for plant defense against pathogens. What you’ll need: Four colors of … Read more
In Episode 36 of the classic comedy television show I Love Lucy, Lucy and her friend Ethel get a job wrapping chocolates in a candy factory. Their boss warns, “If one piece of candy gets past you and into the packing room unwrapped, you’re fired!” Naturally, as the candy conveyer belt moves faster and faster, … Read more
Have you got a passion for plant science that you are eager to share? Do you have a favorite paper, experiment, topic, or method that you like to share with undergraduates? Have you found a clever way to engage students and stimulate their curiosity? We want to hear your ideas for new content for The … Read more
Guest post by Kelsey Wood (@klsywd) a PhD student researching the genetics and genomics of plant-pathogen interactions at the University of California, Davis. I recently attended a Plant Pathology symposium on “Genomics Strategies for Developing Sustainable Disease Resistance for Neglected Crops in the Developing World“. The symposium was held at the University of California, Berkeley and … Read more
Guest post by Rosanne Quinelle, an Associate Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Science at the University of Sydney, Australia. Proficiency in any discipline requires exposure to both breadth and depth, where “breadth” is akin to acquiring the vocabulary and “depth” is akin to an understanding of the prevailing patterns, the rules of … Read more
The Plant Science Today blog is only a few years old and continues to gain readers. In 2016 more than 250 posts were shared, with contributions from many guest authors as well as ASPB staff. Here are the ten most widely read posts this year. Did you catch them all? From LUCA to lily, 12 … Read more
Digging Deeper: Developing a Model for Collaborative Teacher/Scientist Professional Development Are you passionate about science education? Would you like to build connections with high school biology teachers and their students? Are you excited about an opportunity to share what’s so exciting about plants and science with the next generation? Did you receive valuable mentoring as … Read more
November of this year marked the 50th anniversary of the official release of IR8, the “miracle rice” that changed the world. The rice, developed at IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) greatly increased yields compared to other varieties of the time, and is thought to have saved the lives millions of people who would otherwise have … Read more
ORI is the Office for Research Integrity, part of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services. ORI has a wealth of information useful for discussing the important issues surrounding research ethics and misconduct. Recently they have released a set of infographics on various themes, from “Tips for Presenting Scientific Images with Integrity” to “What … Read more
Frédéric Bouché, a postdoctoral research with Richard Amasino at the University of Wisconsin, recently caught our attention when he published a set of impressive visual abstracts to support his latest research papers. We invited him to share how and why he makes these images. -Editors When you work hard, and your scientific work is finally … Read more
The other day I was talking to a friend about the need to demystify plants, so that teachers feel as confident in their teaching of plant biology as they do about animal biology. I wonder if sometimes we teach plants too much in isolation, so it’s not always clear how plants relate to other organisms … Read more