Always keen to promote free stuff – especially when it is about plants – this column is pleased to advise that videos of several of the presentations from the inaugural conference of the UK’s fledgling PSF (Plant Science Federation – which meeting was covered in a recent series of posts) are now available online. So [...]

What do you make of this: ‘In the 18th century, not yet 30 years old, she became the first woman to travel around the world. Along the way she helped collect thousands of plant specimens, some of which were new species. And she did it all dressed as a man’? Sounds incredible, I know but [...]

I didn’t do modern history at school so my impression of the industrial revolution is largely a mish-mash of pop history and some misremembered Industrial Archaeology courses. What I do recall is that the emphasis in the Industrial Revolution is firmly on the Industrial side. Agriculture existed as a place for people to leave to [...]

The growth of plant cells is generally related to loosening of the cell wall, which allows cell expansion driven by osmotic water uptake. Dvorakova et al. demonstrate a correlation between over-expression of genes encoding members of the family of hybrid proline-rich proteins (HyPRPs) and enhanced elongation of tobacco BY-2 cells. The results suggest that HyPRPs, [...]