Plant Cuttings

Plant Cuttings

Plants, given a helping hand

I’ve been known to remind my students that just because testing demonstrates presence of e.g. ‘phosphate’ in a soil sample that doesn’t necessarily

Nigel Chaffey · 5 Jan 2016

Plant Cuttings

It’s all about technique

A close eye on microscopy.

Nigel Chaffey · 31 Dec 2015

Plant Cuttings

Location, Location, Location [Or, Why rice is thrice as nice (maybe…)]

Arguably, one of humankind’s greatest achievements is agriculture [“the art and science of growing plants and other crops and the raising of animals for food,

Nigel Chaffey · 29 Dec 2015

Plant Cuttings

Grounds for climate change optimism?

Waste coffee grounds can be treated to create a material with a high capacity for methane storage, potentially providing a renewable energy source.

Nigel Chaffey · 15 Dec 2015

Plant Cuttings

Altruistic plants?

Do faba beans altruistically help maize plants?

Nigel Chaffey · 8 Dec 2015

Plant Cuttings

Plant Science at the leading edge

Trichomes that are not aligned in a regular pattern on the leaves might help protect them from herbivores.

Nigel Chaffey · 1 Dec 2015

Plant Cuttings

Will a Martian save the Earth?

Plant scientists are essential to help provide solutions to three of the most important current and future threats to mankind’s existence on the planet – food security, water supply and climate change. But as universities close plant biology courses we have to ask: Where are those plant scientists t

Nigel Chaffey · 24 Nov 2015

Plant Cuttings

Plant-insect relationships, a double-edged sword

Flowering plants have had an intim­ate rela­tion­ship with insects for mil­lions of years. Indeed, this is often cited as an example of co-evolution , par­tic­u­larly with regards to the flowers and their pol­lin­a­tion by the insects. However, this has also given parasites millions of years to adap

Nigel Chaffey · 17 Nov 2015

Plant Cuttings

Chloroplasts: what are they for?

Taken at face value that is a pretty daft question. After all, it is well known that chloroplasts are for photosynthesis. True, but what about the

Nigel Chaffey · 10 Nov 2015

Plant Cuttings

Spice and quantity of life

A study of half a million Chinese participants found that those who ate chilli peppers at least twice a week had a 10% reduced mortality rate, while those who consumed them 6-7 days a week had a 14% reduction.

Nigel Chaffey · 3 Nov 2015

Plant Cuttings

Hungry for more plant-based news?

If you can’t wait until next month to get your fix of all that’s best in plant news (yes, in the Annals’ Plant Cuttings column – the one you’re read­ing now!), don’t worry there’s a new source to sat­isfy your crav­ing.

Nigel Chaffey · 27 Oct 2015

Plant Cuttings

Thinking outside the box?

How well will plants – and plant-like organ­isms – func­tion with rising concentrations of levels of atmo­spheric CO2? And how will the increases in temperatures – asso­ci­ated with cli­mate change/global warm­ing – affect them? Given the import­ance of mar­ine phyto­plank­ton organ­isms to global p

Nigel Chaffey · 13 Oct 2015