Plant Cuttings
431 posts
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Dragons, coconuts and skyscrapers…
Botanists aren’t always genetic engineers. This week Nigel Chaffey finds some have branched out into civil engineering.
Can kelp help halt human hubris?
If we hope kelp is going to mitigate climate change, then we might need to think again about over-fishing and kelp harvesting.
Iridoplasts, out of the shadows at last
Why can you find colourful plants, where they’re hardest to see? Iridoplasts, an overlooked plastid, improve photosynthesis and look great while doing it.
Super silk and mine-detectors
Modern materials get solve long-standing problems, when they get a helping hand from plants.
Latin name or scientific name, where do you stand?
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, said Shakespeare – who clearly hadn’t met any botanists.
Toxin-tainted submarine snow
Human pollution of the seas is turning a gentle rain of food in the marine abyss into something nastier.
The lachrymatory tale of the barnacle and the bacterium
For Valentine’s Day Nigel Chaffey finds a tale of an unlikely couple who have set up home together, though it ends in tears.
Tree rings stop cell division in plants
This week Nigel Chaffey finds he has a vision problem that needs more than a trip to the optician.
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