Plant Cuttings
The lingua franca of taxonomy
Image: Robert Ricker, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Encouraging students to face their fears and take up the challenge of confronting scientific names (no longer
Plant Cuttings
Come back, Paul. All is forgiven
Image: Paul the Octopus, Wikimedia Commons. Sadly, Paul – the ‘fortune-telling octopus’ – is no more, but since his exploits during football’s World Cup last summer,
Plant Cuttings
Cheers, mate!
Wikipebeer Image: Wikimedia Commons. A few years ago ‘-omics’ were all the rage in biology: metabolomics, genomics, transcriptomics, etc. And for traditional [a euphemism for old-
Plant Cuttings
Why cannabis is bad for you…
Image: Wikimedia Commons, based on data from: Gable RS. 2006. In: Fish M. ed. Drugs and Society: US Public Policy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 149–162.
Plant Cuttings
…and why aspirin is good for you
Image: L’Illustration, December 1923/Wikimedia Commons. Aspirin, one of the most famous plant-derived medicines, is often used as an analgesic (to relieve minor aches
Plant Cuttings
Rice
Image: Katsushika Hokusai, Watermill at Onden (1826–1833). Rice, or strictly speaking the hulls, has been proposed as a substitute for perlite – itself a substitute for
Plant Cuttings
Bark I
Image: Micael Maggs, Wikimedia Commons. As we try to draw a veil over some aspects of 2010 there are still ripples surrounding the headline-grabbing oil
Plant Cuttings
Pineapple
Image: Wikimedia Commons. Cotton, a soft, fluffy staple fibre that grows in a protective capsule around seeds of plants of the genus Gossypium, is converted into
Plant Cuttings
Bark II
Nanotechnology, the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale, and generally dealing with structures of 1–10 nm is one of the more
Plant Cuttings
Agriculture that’s out of this world
Researchers at the University of Arizona are investigating the feasibility of growing plants hydroponically on the Moon, utilising astronauts’ urine for water and burying greenhouses beneath the lunar surface for protection.
Plant Cuttings
Improving your image
Image: Lothar Schermelleh, Wikimedia Commons (adapted from Schermelleh et al., Science 320: 1332–1336). Gene sequences are all very well. But even the most committed of