Scientists Demonstrate How Auxin Reaches Its Destination
A team of researchers from the University of Freiburg have discovered how the plant hormone auxin is transported within the cell and how this signaling…
Plants
Biologists Give New Life to Museum Plant Collections
Using a hitchhiking weed, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen reveal for the first time the mutation rate of a…
Researchers Date the Origins of Photosynthesis to 1.25 Billion Years Ago
The world’s oldest algae fossils are a billion years old, according to a new analysis by earth scientists at McGill University. Based on this finding,…
Genetic Variability Supports Plant Survival During Droughts
In the first study to predict whether different populations of the same plant species can adapt to climate change, scientists from the Max Planck Institute…
MIT Engineers Create Plants That Glow
Imagine that instead of switching on a lamp when it gets dark, you could read by the light of a glowing plant on your desk….
New Sensors Reveal When a Plant Begins to Experience Drought Conditions
Researchers have developed sensors that can be printed onto plant leaves and reveal when the plants are experiencing drought conditions. Forgot to water that plant…
UW Study Reveals How Climate Change May Reshape Wildflower Communities
A new study from the UNiversity of washington shows that with a changing climate, Mount Rainier floral communities could ‘reassemble’ with new species relationships and…
MIT Develops Nanobionic Plants That Can Detect Explosives
By embedding spinach leaves with carbon nanotubes, engineers transformed spinach plants into sensors that can detect explosives and wirelessly relay that information to a handheld…
Scientists Reveal Chemical Code for Nitrogen Fixation
A team of scientists from Yale University reveal part of the chemical code that allows nature to transform nitrogen from the air into usable nitrogen…
Harvard Examines the Response to Light and Temperature Shifts in Northeastern Forests
Biologists from Harvard University are examining whether the earlier arrival of warm weather will clash with genetic programming of plants. Harvard scientists are taking a…
Scientists Discover a New Source of Greenhouse Gases
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry reveal that lichens, mosses and cyanobacteria produce large amounts of nitrous oxide. Inconspicuous creatures surprise with a…
New Research Shows Plants May Use “Language” to Communicate
New research from Virginia Tech reveals that plants may use a newly discovered molecular language to communicate with each other, opening the door to a…
Pitcher Plant’s Ingenious Way of Trapping Ants
The carnivorous pitcher plant lures insects to their doom with drops of nectar. South American pitcher plants have developed an ingenious insect-trapping mechanism to keep…
An Invasive Grass Species Spreads Wildfires Quicker
New research indicates that an invasive species of grass is making wildfires in the western USA larger, hotter and more frequent. A variety of grasses…
Roots Show Similar Growth Patterns in Space
Long periods in space can be detrimental to human biology, but it wasn’t exactly known how the lack of gravity affected plants. A new study…
Inherent Complexity of the Wheat Genome
An international team has produced a rough draft of wheat’s DNA sequence. The draft identifies many of its genes and makes it possible to identify…
High Levels of Anthocyanins Give Black Dahlias Their Color
There are more than 20,000 varieties of dahlias, including white, yellow, deep reds, and magenta-colored flowers. The rarer black dahlias are especially alluring to horticulturists….
African Fruit Gets Iridescent Hue from Cell Structure, Stays Intense for Years
The fruits of Pollia condensata, which are found predominantly in Africa, have an iridescent hue that stays intense for years after the parent plant has…