Recent Posts

What We're Reading: July 28th

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This week’s edition of What We’re Reading is guest edited by Dr. Bhavisha P. Sheth, who is currently working as a DST- Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), India. Her current research work focusses on Policy research…

From Plan to Plant

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How a genetically engineered plant is made The below article is written as an introduction to how genetically engineered plants are made for anyone without a science background and is made to be freely shared. _______________________________________________________________________________ One…

A Taste of CRISPR

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This week’s blog was written by Dr Craig Cormick, the Creative Director of ThinkOutsideThe. He is one of Australia’s leading science communicators, with over 30 years’ experience working with agencies such as CSIRO, Questacon and Federal Government Departments.   So what do you think…

From Light to Food – Organization of Photosynthetic Complexes

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MacGregor-Chatwin et al. map the cellular organization of photosynthetic protein complexes http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/5/1119 Life on Earth depends on photosynthesis, the source of all of our food, oxygen, and most of our energy. Two pigment-protein complexes called Photosystems I and II…

Maize Meristem Matters

Tsuda et al. explore the function of BLH transcription factors in maize meristems Plants have specialized tissues at the tips of roots and shoots called meristems. Meristem cells are what keep the plant growing; they are undifferentiated cells that continue to divide, providing new cells for growth.…

How Rice Seedlings Emerge from Soil

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Xiong et al. explore the action of plant hormones that control how rice seedlings emerge from the soil http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/5/1053 By Qing Xiong, Bao Ma, and Lu Xiang Flowering plants begin their life cycle as a seed beneath the soil surface. With adequate water and the right temperature,…

Funding Opportunity: NSF Solicits Proposals to Expand INCLUDES National Network

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On July 14, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) soliciting proposals to expand the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) program.  The DCL invites proposals for Early-concept…

Taproot Podcast S1E2: Normalizing Nomenclature and The Idealism of Youth with Carolyn Lawrence-Dill

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In this episode, Ivan and Liz talk with Carolyn Lawrence-Dill, an Associate Professor of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology as well as Agronomy at Iowa State University. We discuss a paper from her grad school days that has a great back story about how to bring a large number of people together…

Using Metabolism to Improve Maize Breeding

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Cañas et al. study the relationships between maize leaf metabolism and grain yield to identify putative markers for breeding http://www.plantcell.org/content/29/5/919 By Rafael A. Cañas, Peter J. Lea and Bertrand Hirel In crops, several metabolic pathways are involved in the control of biomass…