Make Your Garden a Powerhouse for Pollinators
Home gardens are by far the biggest source of food for pollinating insects, including bees and wasps, in cities and towns.
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Plant DNA shared through horizontal genome transfer
We now know more about plant DNA and how plants share genetic material with one another. Welcome to the horizontal genome transfer!
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Watching Plants with Project Budburst
Join communities across the world in observing plant life cycles – any plant, any place, any time – by participating in Project Budburst.
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Relaxed Queen Bees Have More Offspring
Queen bees produce different proteins when they are stressed, and this new discovery could change how we monitor hive conditions.
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Safety Concerns Surrounding Pesticide Use
Hazards posed by pesticides to human health and the environment have long been a bone of contention, leaving people confused and in need of clear guidelines.
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Springtime Plants and Sheltering in Place
Springtime plants are proving their worth more than ever as most of the world continues to shelter in place from COVID-19.
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Spring in the Time of Coronavirus
As we shelter in place this spring, how can we retain our connection to Earth and to celebrate the Spring Equinox as so many have done before us?
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Wounding Leaves Produces Sweeter Organic Strawberries
By Radhika Desikan Do you like your fruit to be organically grown or conventionally grown? This has been a choice available to consumers since the first half of the 20th century in response to raised awareness about agriculture’s dependence on synthetic chemicals. With increasing scientific discoveries of novel chemicals that protect and help plants grow, there was also increased knowledge about the possible dangers of having these chemicals in food crops. This resulted in farmers growing crops without the use of agrochemicals, leading to the movement of organic farming. There…
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Parasitic Plant Has Edge in Evolutionary Arms Race
By Cameron Duke (@DukeofCam) The relationship between a parasite and its host can be a contentious one. Their interests are in direct conflict with one another, so each is always trying to circumvent the other’s plan. This is often thought of as an evolutionary “arms race.” In this ongoing competition, a parasite evolves a more efficient way to prey on the host, and the host adapts in response. These successive adaptations can lead to complex life cycles and intimate species-specific relationships. New research out of Penn State, conducted by Michael…
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Genome Revelations: How Green Plants Evolved
By Jacqueline Mattos (@mattosjacq) Plants are ancestral organisms that have evolved over millions of years, leading to the broad diversity we see today. Green plants evolved from a common ancestor into approximately 450,000–500,000 species today. There are many gaps in understanding of their diversification that scientists still struggle to fill. In a recent paper published in Nature, researchers from the One Thousand Plant Transcriptomes Initiative reviewed and analyzed genomic data from 1,124 plant species and provided the most complete evolutionary relationship tree for green plants to date. Genomes, transcriptomes, and…
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