Harnessing Plant Metabolism for the Bio-Based Economy

Mid-July and the verdant cool of New Hampshire’s White Mountains provided the idyllic backdrop for the Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Conference and its 150 attendees.  Organized by co-chairs Rick Dixon (U. North Texas) and Sarah O’Connor (John Innes Center), the meeting progressed from showing how our understanding of plant metabolism is changing to emerging … Read more

Conference Tweeting for Plant Scientists Part 1: Twitter basics

Twitter is quickly becoming the platform of choice for connections and communications at scientific conferences and beyond. The current culture of science, which values openness, accessibility and broad participation, is enhanced by the barrier-free Twitter environment; everyone has an equal right to participate in Twitter conversations. At several conferences this summer I’ve been asked for … Read more

Conference Tweeting. Part 2: Getting the most out of conference tweeting

New to Twitter? Start with Part 1: Twitter Basics Why do people Tweet from talks and conferences? One of the main reasons is to broaden access to science beyond those able to attend a conference, benefitting the science, the speakers, and the off-site participants. Science is moving towards a more open, democratic culture, with Twitter … Read more

President’s Letter: Addressing Global Challenges

Many global challenges facing people around the world are linked directly to plant biology. These challenges include ensuring the sustainable availability of food, fiber, energy, and fresh water for a predicted 9 billion inhabitants in the near future, with many resources already being stretched. Solutions to these and related challenges will depend on scientific innovation … Read more

Plant Biology (#plantbiology15) days 4 and 5. Too much happening.

This post covers two days of Plant Biology, 2015 in Minneapolis. Your correspondent took the night last night to attend the closing mixer/party and so decided to combine the last two days into one post. Once again, this is just to give a reader a sense of what went on at the conference, not exhaustive … Read more