The long, long history of plant-pollinator interactions has led to a stunning variety of flower forms, including variations in petal color and iridescence. Color is caused by the accumulation of various pigments that selectively absorb certain wavelengths of light, whereas iridescence arises from surface structures that selectively diffract light (see Physics of Pollinator Attraction). In […]
Plants that respond to touch, like Mimosa pudica (aka the sensitive plant) are great ways to introduce children to the fascination of plants. If you haven’t had the chance to explore this plant, a touch to a leaflet causes the leaflets to fold into themselves, and recurring touches cause the leaf to drop away. Both […]
Review: The power and perils of de novo domestication using gene editing I’m excited by the ways that knowledge about plant developmental and metabolic programs is being used to make new varieties of plants. This excellent review describes some of these applications such as changes in fruit size or seed number. De novo domestication is […]
On the academic job hunt? Bookmark this article, which provides valuable information about what to do when your search is successful. The time between getting an offer and accepting it is the most critical time for you to negotiate to get the resources you need, such as space, equipment, institutional resources and support, and even […]
The earliest terrestrial plants had relatively small, simple forms. The evolution of water-conducting cells provided opportunities for increased size. However, water movement by tension (driven by evaporation) can fail when the water column breaks and is blocked by an air bubble called an embolism. Looking across the course of plant evolution, there has been a […]
Double fertilization, in which one sperm cell fertilizes the egg cell to form the embryo, and another sperm cell fertilizes the diploid central cell to produce the triploid endosperm, is a hallmark of angiosperms. Li et al. addressed a long-standing question: if only one sperm cell were present, would it have an equal probablity of […]
Modern rice is descended from a perennial grass, which through millennia of selection evolved into an annual “one-sow, one-harvest” crop. However, it has become apparent that perennial grains have the potential to decrease soil erosion and competition, as well as lower the labor required to produce food. Efforts to re-perennialize several crop species are ongoing, […]
Experimental or “wet lab” biologists look at data, develop a hypothesis to explain it, test the hypothesis, and repeat. Through these approaches, our understanding of life is continually being expanded and refined. A complementary approach involves developing mathematical models to explain observations, and then testing those models by tweaking them and comparing the outputs to […]
Strategies on how to maximize the moment as a junior faculty On the academic job hunt? Bookmark this article, which provides valuable information about what to do when your search is successful. The time between getting an offer and accepting it is the most critical time for you to negotiate to get the resources you […]