Plants don’t just grow straight up. They can move in loopy and zigzagging ways to get more sunshine. And studying these movements goes all the way back to Darwin in the 19th century.
Articles on Plant science
Displaying 1 - 20 of 26 articles
Cranberries add color and acidity to Thanksgiving menus, but they also have many interesting botanical and genetic features.
Botanizing is the practice of observing and appreciating plant life. Two plant scientists explain how it benefits people and the planet.
For the first time, researchers have shown plants making sounds that can be heard up to a few metres away – just not by human ears.
The days of freeze-fried astronaut ice cream are long behind us. What will humans eat on Moon colonies in the future? Carefully engineered space gardens could be the answer.
Carefully squeezing plant leaves can reveal how much water they contain – and touch could reveal many other hard-to-measure properties of plants.
Indoor plant factories have high energy costs since LEDs replace the sunlight outdoor plants get for free. Scientists found a way to dial back how much light is needed by breaking it into tiny bursts.
Plant blindness can be solved but it wont be easy.
If you want to live on Mars, you’re going to need to grow food. Seeds are naturally equipped to handle challenging Earth environments, but how well can they survive what they’ll encounter off-planet?
The globe is greening as plants grow faster in response to rising carbon dioxide. But a new analysis shows they aren’t using more water to do it - a rare piece of good news for our changing planet.
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Traditional botanists are in decline, but this isn’t the end of plant science.
The relentless pursuit of showy flowers for garden display – as seen at Chelsea Flower Show – has seen some odd uses of radiation and chemicals .
Modern agriculture is synonymous with monoculture. That lack of diversity is bad news for plants’ natural immune defenses. Researchers are figuring out how to help plants fend off microbes – without pesticides.
They’re good, they’re bad and they’re useful: we are still discovering what we can do with plant viruses.
Little is known about how parasitic plants live side-by-side with their hosts. But new genetic techniques may help scientists gain further insights.
Plants may not travel around as animals do, but they have evolved many strategies that allow them to cope and make the most of the environment they live in. Examples can be found everywhere. For instance…
Internal communications in plants share striking similarities with those in animals, new research reveals. With the help of tiny insects, scientists were able to tap into this communication system. Their…
Shoot branching in plants is triggered when a high concentration of simple sugar – produced through photosynthesis – is available…
Augmenting plants with nanomaterials could increase their energy production and enhance their uses beyond natural functions…
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Reader in Cell and Molecular Biology, Oxford Brookes University
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Ph.D. Candidate in Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M University
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Research Communications Manager, University of Oxford
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Research Scientist, John Innes Centre
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Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Environment; Executive Director, Global Carbon Project, CSIRO
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Lecturer, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Specializing in Education, University of Pretoria
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Chief research scientist, CSIRO
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Ph.D. Student in the School of Plant and Environmental Science, Virginia Tech
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Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO
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Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre