The National Science Board (NSB) met on August 9 and 10, 2016, under its new leadership of Maria Zuber (MIT) as Chair and Diane Souvaine (Tufts University) as Vice-Chair. During the meeting, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director, France Córdova and a number of Assistant Directors presented an update on the ten “big ideas” for … Read more
Last month we asked “How do you keep up with the literature?” (cross-posted on the ASPB blog and Plantae). Several of you shared your tips, thanks! Here we’ve compiled the replies we received from you. Follow specific journals One tip is to follow the Twitter or Facebook pages of your favorite journals (in case you … Read more
We put out a call for some short write ups for the minisymposia at Plant Biology in Austin, TX. We’d like to grow this kind of digital coverage in the future, so if you’re interested in doing brief write ups of concurrent session talks at Plant Biology 2017, keep that in mind. Yao Luo, Research … Read more
One of the highlights of the 2016 Plant Biology Conference in Austin, TX was a panel discussion about the National Academies of Science review of genetically modified crops. ASPB had several members on this prestigious review committee, including Drs. Robin Buell, Neal Stewart, and Rick Dixon, who convened a special session to discuss the outcomes … Read more
Chemical genetics is a powerful complement to conventional genetics. Rather than knocking out gene functions, protein (or other) functions can be perturbed through the addition of small molecules. One advantage is that several related proteins can be affected at the same time, avoiding the difficulties that come from genetic redundancy. Another is that treatment regimes … Read more
When is a flower not a flower? When it’s an inflorescence (cue laughter). Plants in the family Asteraceae produce inflorescences that look like single flowers, but are actually made up of hundreds of individual flowers. In many species, their are two types of flowers. The ray flowers (also known as ray florets) produce an elongated … Read more
We put out a call for some short write ups for the minisymposia at Plant Biology in Austin, TX. We’d like to grow this kind of digital coverage in the future, so if you’re interested in doing brief write ups of concurrent session talks at Plant biology 2017, keep that in mind. Jennifer Robison (@OshnGirl), … Read more
We’re delighted to announce that the latest Teaching Tool in Plant Biology article “Carbon-Fixing Reactions of Photosynthesis” is published. This article picks up where the “Light-Dependent Reactions of Photosynthesis” left off. The Teaching Tool covers the core biochemistry of the carbon-fixing reactions of photosynthesis, as well as its variations, C4 and CAM. Finally, it addresses … Read more
This post From ‘Brain drain’ to ‘Brain circulation’: Global trends in international collaboration and researcher mobility was originally published on Editage Insights. The landscape of scientific research and publishing is fast changing. Scientific research is becoming increasingly global, and is no longer dominated only by the three science superpowers USA, Europe, and Japan. With China, … Read more
In the Plant Physiology publishing workshop held at Plant Biology 2016, the question arose of how people keep up with the huge number of papers being published. Mike Blatt shared the strategy used by his lab, which I’m familiar with as an honorary member. The lab group meets weekly, and two of every four meetings … Read more
Recently, we’ve been profiling first authors of Plant Cell papers that are selected for In Brief summaries. Here are the first-author profiles from the July issue of The Plant Cell. Fangwei Gu, featured first author of Arabidopsis CSLD5 functions in cell plate formation in a cell cycle-dependent manner Current Position: Communication Specialist at WuXi AppTec. … Read more
2016 is the International Year of Pulses, which the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has been celebrating throughout the year by releasing infographics, information and hosting events; see these and more news here and at #IYP2016. Pulses are “the dehydrated edible seeds of leguminous plants that produce from one to twelve grains of various … Read more
Have you explored LENS? It is a new way of viewing articles published by The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology (as well as other journals; this was designed originally for eLife articles). LENS is a really useful way to read articles online. You can view an article using the LENS viewer by either clicking on … Read more
At the 2016 Plant Biology conference in Austin, Texas, we had the opportunity to sit down with Michael Gonzalez to get tips on pursuing a career as a Plant Biology Consultant. Here are some of the tips and suggestions Michael shared with us. For more information, you can contact him at michael@mdgonzales.com. Getting Started: The … Read more
July 13 was the final day of Plant Biology 2016. Traditionally, it ends with the President’s symposium, and this year President Dixon’s theme was ‘Specialized Metabolism’, or all the things that plants make that aren’t strictly necessary for survival (though this could be debated). .@ASPB President Dixon along a out why specialized metabolites matter for … Read more
The final major symposium of the Plant Biology 2016 conference was organized by ASPB President Richard Dixon and covered various aspects of specialized metabolism in plants (note that the term specialized metabolism has largely supplanted the older term secondary metabolism, which carries with it an implication that it is not as important as primary metabolism; … Read more
We spent all four days of Plant Biology 2016 recording “Plant Science: How I Work” interviews and fantastic elevator pitches following the Communication Workshop: How to Create a Winning Elevator Pitch facilitated by Teresa Evans and Geoff Hunt. Here are a few to inspire you! We’ll share more in Plantae.org along with the How I Work … Read more
Long Distance and Cell to cell signaling. Major symposia 4 organized by Philip Benfey was on long and short distance signaling between cells in plants. Benfey started off with a remark that plant cells are constantly communicating with one another, with neighbors and cells in entirely different parts of the plant. He then said “social … Read more
I started The Pub Club after a series of conference experiences left me wondering, “Why don’t I get to have this all the time?” If you’re anything like me – and I think most of you are – graduate school is a lot of struggle and frustration sprinkled with those rare moments of excitement and … Read more
There’s been some great discussions and dialogue at @ASPB #plantbio16 around careers and applying for jobs. Specifically there has been great dialogue around preparing cover letters and CV’s to submit as part of an application process. During a couple of the conversations that I’ve been involved in, I’ve realized that there is considerable confusion … Read more