The Quiet Branches is taking a mini-vacation for most of July. I’ll be posting dispatches and plant stories from the annual Plant Biology conference organized by ASPB in Minneapolis, MN this year, July 26-30. So do check back here for plant stories I encounter while there (follow along with the conference at #plantbiology15). In the meantime, … More Vacation.
Good coffee has arrived on the International Space Station (ISS). An Italian designed espresso machine designed to fill a pouch with espresso will be installed on the ISS. They do have coffee in space currently, but it is apparently the instant stuff that tastes terrible, but works. I’m by no means a coffee snob and … More ISSpresso.
Quiet Branches started off with a broad definition of how plants show up in our lives. Two weeks ago, I wrote about translating research into practical products. And highlighted the many ways biotechnology shows up in our lives every day, in some critical (feeding the world) and fun ways (color changing petunias!). The video from … More Norman Borlaug.
Here is a list of small molecule (chemical) signals used by most/all plants: Auxin Cytokinin Ethylene Abscisic acid Gibberellin Salicylic acid Jasmonic acid Brassinosteroids Strigolactones Don’t worry about what these names mean or what these things are for now. I’ll be writing posts about them in the coming weeks. Hormones In human growth and development, … More Plant hormones: Auxin.
The history of science is vast. And even though the term science is recent in human history, humans have always been tinkerers and explorers. The history of plant science is no less interesting or complex. It is obviously is bigger than a single blog post. So here, I’ll give a highlight reel and get into … More History of plant science.
What is a plant? And why care about them or study them? These may seem like obvious questions. They’re the green things. Some of them we eat and we’ve been selectively breeding crops for ~10,000 years. As you’re reading, I invite you to think about where plants show up in your own life. There is … More What is a plant?
