Category: Education

The story of how humans changed corn and how corn changed human history. Topics include domestication, hybrid vigor, genome sequencing, jumping genes, and biofortification. The Weed to Wonder site is a flexible "e-book" that can be viewed as a website, an app, or a printable PDF. The site features…

NPR (National Public Radio) story from 2012 discusses how drought kills trees. Read full article

In February 2016, Death Valley in California (the place where the hottest temperature ever was recorded) had a "superbloom" as millions of seeds of desert ephemeral plants germinated, leading to a massive floral bloom. See pictures and a video of this once-in-a-decade event. View full article

By Lou Del Bello If a few decades ago environmental and climatic changes were the remit of scientists and activists only, now concerns over the future of the planet have gone mainstream. Climate change and industrial pollution are now threatening the availability of food, and given the current…

PlantingScience is a learning community where scientists provide online mentorship to student teams as they design and think through their own inquiry projects. Engaging in the science process and becoming familiar with science practices enhances science learning. The ability to collaborate, discuss,…

An introduction to wheat stem rust, a disease caused by the rust fungus Puccinia graminis, and efforts to breed resistant wheat varieties. View full article

PLOS Genetics Review article by Marijn Knip, Maria E. Constantin and Hans Thordal-Christense (2014). Knip M, Constantin ME, Thordal-Christensen H (2014) Trans-kingdom Cross-Talk: Small RNAs on the Move. PLoS Genet 10(9): e1004602. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004602 View full article

Baulcombe, D.C. and Dean, C. (2014). Epigenetic Regulation in Plant Responses to the Environment. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology. 6:a019471. Comprehensive review article, open access, excellent overview of our understanding of epigenetic regulation in plants. Source: Cold Spring Harbor…