One plant narrative 10,000 years of agriculture has transformed our world. Several thousand years after farming became widespread, people started using papyrus to write on to record information and communicate. Papyrus was displaced by paper and eventually large parts of human endeavor were all communicated on bleached plant fibers; great paintings, doodles and the written … Read more
Leonardo da Vinci compared the movement of water in nature to the movement of blood in an animal, and concluded that, “Water is the driving force of all nature.” Five hundred years later we still can recognize the truth in this statement. However, with groundwater resources dwindling and rainfall patterns becoming irregular, could nature’s driving … Read more
Because We’re Happy…about Plants “Hop into Healthy, Swing into Shape,” was the 2014 White House Easter Egg Roll theme designed to support the First Lady’s Let’s Move! initiative. The soundtrack for the healthy hubbub on the South Lawn was filled with cheering egg race fans, bouncing basketballs, the thrumming of busy, giggling kids – all … Read more
If you were one of the many hundreds of kids and families at the ASPB booth during the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, DC (April 25-27) then you got the chance to dig in to the roots & shoots of plant biology. Booth visitors could: Dissect big seeds (lima beans) to find the … Read more
Recently, I was invited to attend a workshop at the University of Exeter, organized by George Littlejohn*, Tom Howard and Lizzy Dridge, a post-doctoral Research Fellow in Professor Nick Talbot’s group, Independent Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer respectively. The aims of the workshop were to help Early-Career Researchers (ECRs: e.g., graduate students and post-docs) make best … Read more