If you’re not sure who he is, Robin Ince is the sane voice on the Infinite Monkey Cage, the BBC’s science/comedy show. When Brian Cox goes off on one of his surreal rants about Physics being the best science* it’s Robin Ince who pulls him back to reality. A person looking at things sensibly doesn’t sound like the basis for good comedy but, a bit like Douglas Adams, Robin Ince is a normal person in a bizarre world.

The show is about how weird the world is. Despite the frequent description of Robin Ince as grumpy, at its heart the show is actually very positive. Ince argues that now is the greatest time to be alive. Partly this is because not only do we know more about the universe than ever, our we also have a better idea about our ignorance. There is so much we don’t know that we could now investigate. Another reason for wanting to be alive now is that if you were alive in the fifteenth century you’d probably be dead.

Actually reviewing all the jokes, and critiquing how accurate he is about orchids would be missing the point. It’s a comedy show. Is he funny? Yes. But even if you have no sense of humour and are an expert on evolution, he’s still worth watching. The show uses Powerpoint. That means he has to be able to perform with Powerpoint or everything falls flat. Much as I like sites like Presentation Zen you can learn a hell of a lot on how to capture the audience by watching someone like Robin Ince. Like Dave Gorman he works with, and not against, Powerpoint.

It’s not a simple thing to copy, the presentation works holistically. You can’t simply watch the show and then lift ideas wholesale. What you can see is the difference talking with excitement and enthusiasm about a subject can make. I’ll be keeping an eye on his website so I can catch him again next time he comes close to Radnorshire.

The video below Science versus wonder? is a very compressed exploration of similar themes to the show.

* I’ve used Science to confirm that Physics is not the best discipline. I took a survey of scientists in the Annals of Botany office, and no one put Physics top.

The post Robin Ince – The Importance of Being Interested (at Ludlow) appeared first on AoB Blog.

Understanding the production of L-ascorbic acid (L-AsA), its cellular roles and its accumulation in fruit has advanced considerably over the last decade. The importance of irradiance on fruit relative to leaves, in tomato, suggests that there is little linkage between leaves and fruits in the supply of L-AsA. While manipulation of kiwi vine temperature supports fruit-based production, others have observed variability in long-distance phloem L-AsA transport from leaves to developing fruit. In apple, fruit L-AsA concentration is dependent on production which declines with maturation, despite L-AsA accumulating with increasing fruit weight. Tomatoes show pectin polymer degradation as a source of precursors for L-AsA synthesis and accumulation via L-galactonic acid. What is clear are species differences in the mechanism by which total fruit L-AsA production is modulated during development; in some fruits, e.g. strawberry, melon and tomato, it remains constant while in others, e.g. apple and orange, it declines). An explanation of how total fruit L-AsA is modulated during fruit development may differ with species. L-AsA is detected in leaf phloem, but what remains unclear is what contribution long-distance transport from potential sources, such as leaves, makes to the pattern and amount of AsA that accumulates in fruit tissues at maturity.

A new paper in Annals of Botany aims to determine the role of green leafy tissues in the development and growth of fruits and how these processes influence L-AsA production and accumulation in fruit. It uses black currants (Ribes nigrum) as a model plant because its fruit have high L-AsA concentrations and there is some knowledge of the pattern of biosynthesis and accumulation of L-AsA over time. What remains unclear is the location of fruit L-AsA synthesis and under what circumstances, if any, does fruit growth compete with L-AsA production.

Linking ascorbic acid production in Ribes nigrum with fruit development and changes in sources and sinks. (2013) Ann Bot 111 (4): 703-712. doi: 10.1093/aob/mct026
Understanding the synthesis of ascorbic acid (L-AsA) in green tissues in model species has advanced considerably; here we focus on its production and accumulation in fruit. In particular, our aim is to understand the links between organs which may be sources of L-AsA (leaves) and those which accumulate it (fruits). The work presented here tests the idea that changes in leaf and fruit number influence the accumulation of L-AsA. The aim was to understand the importance of leaf tissue in the production of L-AsA and to determine how this might provide routes for the manipulation of fruit tissue L-AsA.
The experiments used Ribes nigrum (blackcurrant), predominantly in field experiments, where the source–sink relationship was manipulated to alter potential leaf L-AsA production and fruit growth and accumulation of L-AsA. These manipulations included reductions in reproductive capacity, by raceme removal, and the availability of assimilates by leaf removal and branch phloem girdling. Natural variation in fruit growth and fruit abscission is also described as this influences subsequent experimental design and the interpretation of L-AsA data.
Results show that fruit L-AsA concentration is conserved but total yield of L-AsA per plant is dependent on a number of innate factors many of which relate to raceme attributes. Leaf removal and phloem girdling reduced fruit weight, and a combination of both reduced fruit yields further. It appears that around 50% of assimilates utilized for fruit growth came from apical leaves, while between 20 and 30% came from raceme leaves, with the remainder from ‘storage’.
Despite being able to manipulate leaf area and therefore assimilate availability and stored carbohydrates, along with fruit yields, rarely were effects on fruit L-AsA concentration seen, indicating fruit L-AsA production in Ribes was not directly coupled to assimilate supply. There was no supporting evidence that L-AsA production occurred predominantly in green leaf tissue followed by its transfer to developing fruits. It is concluded that L-AsA production occurs predominantly in the fruit of Ribes nigrum.

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Le programme LANDSAT a été créé par la NASA au milieu des années 60 à des fins civiles d’observation de notre planète. Sept satellites ont été lancés entre 1972 et 1999 et un huitième doit l’être en 2013. Des millions d’images ont pu être capturées par ses instruments, pour des visées scientifiques ou économiques d’observations de l’agriculture ou encore du changement climatique.^[1] Ces satellites photographient tous les 16 jours l’intégralité de la planète depuis 41 ans et ont été les témoins privilégiés de bien des changements à la surface de notre bonne vieille planète.

Le projet TIMELAPSE, créé par Google, a permis d’agréger les photos prises depuis 30 ans en différents points de la planète pour présenter des cartes interactives, saisissantes par les transformations qu’elles présentent. Celles-ci sont co-publiées sur le site du géant de l’internet et par le prestigieux magazine TIME.^[2]&[3]

En plus de leur beauté, ces cartes nous amènent à réfléchir sur l’impact de l’Homme sur sa planète et son milieu de vie, sans cesse en accélération. On peut par exemple y voir verdir le désert Saoudien devant nos yeux ébahis, ou constater notre impuissance face à la déforestation galopante en Amazonie.^[2]&[4]

Dans un contexte où le changement climatique est une notion qui a rencontré beaucoup de difficultés à s’insérer dans les programmes scolaires (il vient juste d’être introduit dans les programmes scolaires officiels américains alors qu’il est actuellement question de le retirer du programme national britannique, et si en France depuis 2004 l’éducation à l’environnement et au développement durable est enseignée, elle reste morcelée entre les filières et disciplines sans connaître une approche globale), ^[5]&[6] ces images ne peuvent que nous amener à la réflexion…

Bibliographie

[1] Wikipédia, Programme Landsat, http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_Landsat

[2] Garric A., Voir la Terre vieillir en 30 ans, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://ecologie.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/05/10/explorez-comment-la-terre-a-evolue-ces-30-dernieres-annees/

[3] Kluger J., Time and Space, TIME, http://world.time.com/timelapse/

[4] GIF Google, https://plus.google.com/photos/+GoogleEarth/albums/5875822979804092129

[5] Garric A., Les salles de classe anglo-saxonnes, nouvelles cibles des climatosceptiques, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/10/les-salles-de-classe-anglo-saxonnes-nouvelles-cibles-des-climatosceptiques_3174945_3244.html

[6] Mougey A., En France, L’enseignement sur le climat est morcelé, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/10/en-france-l-enseignement-sur-le-climat-est-morcele_3175062_3244.html

The Earth is growing old too!

The LANDSAT programm was created by the NASA in the middle of the 60s in the main purpose of getting a dynamic view of Earth by satellite imagery (in the public domain). Seven satellites were launched between 1972 and 1999, and an eighth satellite should be launched in 2013. Millions of images have thus been captured by these instruments, for scientific as well economic aims in order to get up to date pictures of agriculture, forestry, cartography,… all over the world, representing a unique resource for global change research.^[1] These satellites have taken pictures for 41 years, with one picture every 16 days of the entire planet, and have been the privileged witnesses of a lot of changes on the surface of our good old planet.

The TIMELAPSE project, created by Google, aggregates photos taken for 30 years on various spots of the planet to present interactive and surprising maps of the transformations they show. These maps are co-published on the internet giant’s site in collaboration with the prestigious TIME magazine.^[2]&[3]

Besides their beauty, these maps make us think about the human impact on Earth and our living environment, constantly accelerating. For example, we can see the Saudi desert turning green in front of our stunned eyes, or we can evaluate our powerlessness in front of the galloping deforestation in Amazonia.^[2]&[4]

If we think about the fact that the climate change topic has met many difficulties to be taught at schools and universities (it has just been introduced into the American official courses of study while it is currently questioned to remove it from the British national school curriculum; in France, education to environment and sustainable development is taught since 2004, but it remains split between diploma and disciplines without taking into consideration any global approach),^[5]&[6] these images should drive us to think urgently of the future of our planet…

Bibliography

[1] Wikipédia, Programme Landsat, http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_Landsat

[2] Garric A., Voir la Terre vieillir en 30 ans, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://ecologie.blog.lemonde.fr/2013/05/10/explorez-comment-la-terre-a-evolue-ces-30-dernieres-annees/

[3] Kluger J., Time and Space, TIME, http://world.time.com/timelapse/

[4] GIF Google, https://plus.google.com/photos/+GoogleEarth/albums/5875822979804092129

[5] Garric A., Les salles de classe anglo-saxonnes, nouvelles cibles des climatosceptiques, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/10/les-salles-de-classe-anglo-saxonnes-nouvelles-cibles-des-climatosceptiques_3174945_3244.html

[6] Mougey A., En France, L’enseignement sur le climat est morcelé, Le Monde, 10 mai 2013, http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2013/05/10/en-france-l-enseignement-sur-le-climat-est-morcele_3175062_3244.html

The post La Terre, elle aussi, vieillit ! / The Earth is growing old too! appeared first on AoB Blog.

Correct identification of Napier grass accessions is a prerequisite because the existing germplasm information is scanty and cannot be relied upon for crop improvement, since cultivar discrimination has predominantly relied on morphological and agronomic features and is the major cause of inconsistency in identification. Consequently, a number of Napier grass cultivars have been in circulation, often with more than one name. Molecular markers have proven useful in distinguishing among morphologically related individuals within cultivars of the same plant species. Thus the genetic assessment of various Napier grass accessions from the Eastern Africa region is important for correct cultivar identification in order to exploit them fully in crop improvement strategies.

A new study in AoB PLANTS assessed the genetic variation between and within Napier grass collections comprising 281 accessions from selected regions in Eastern Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia). The methodology developed in this study was able to discriminate among different Napier grass accessions and could be useful in screening cultivars.

Genetic diversity in Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) cultivars: implications for breeding and conservation (2013) AoB PLANTS 5: plt022 doi: 10.1093/aobpla/plt022
Napier grass is an important forage crop for dairy production in the tropics; as such, its existing genetic diversity needs to be assessed for conservation. The current study assessed the genetic variation of Napier grass collections from selected regions in Eastern Africa and the International Livestock Research Institute Forage Germplasm-Ethiopia. The diversity of 281 cultivars was investigated using five selective amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers and classical population genetic parameters analysed using various software. The number of bands generated was 216 with fragments per primer set ranging from 50 to 115. Mean percentage polymorphic loci was 63.40. Genetic diversity coefficients based on Nei’s genetic diversity ranged from 0.0783 to 0.2142 and Shannon’s information index ranged from 0.1293 to 0.3445. The Fst value obtained was moderately significant (Fst = 0.1688). Neighbour-joining analysis gave two distinct clusters which did not reflect geographical locations. Analysis of molecular variance showed all variance components to be highly significant (P < 0.001), indicating more variation within (91 %) than between populations (9 %). Results suggested moderate genetic differentiation among Napier grass populations sampled, which could imply a high germplasm exchange within the region. The AFLP markers used in this study efficiently discriminate among cultivars and could be useful in identification and germplasm conservation.

The post Grass is not glamourous, but it is important appeared first on AoB Blog.

It’s well-known that plants can affect how the brain works. Take the right plant in the right dose and you can have an altered perception of reality. But if plants can affect the brain, can they also affect the part of the body that a lot of people think with as well? What plants could be aphrodisiacs?

1. A Plant that looks like a thingy

Eagle-eyed people throughout the centuries have spotted that some plants look like body parts. The Doctrine of Signatures was the belief that the plant was carrying a label saying, “This plant is good for this body part,” due to the intervention of a God that didn’t want to keep explaining what a certain plant was for.

Paris, Daunay and Janick have found aubergines (eggplants) and mandrakes were said to have aphrodisiac properties. You can download the full paper, with images from historical sources from the Annals of Botany. There’s no medical evidence to suggest they biologically work as an aphrodisiac. At best they might help with glaucoma. Culturally, you might start something with an amusing shaped carrot or a couple of melons.

2. Mondia whitei

Also known as White’s Ginger, Mondia whitei is found across sub-Saharan Africa. It is used in quite a few ways, usually to aid digestion or appetite, but the roots are used as a cure for impotence. The evidence it might be useful comes from rats. This isn’t a research project due to sympathy for lovelorn rats. Rats are often used as subjects for tests on what become human medicines as biologically we’re quite similar.

The effects seen in the rat experiments might well have human correlates. Experiments have found Mondia Whitei improves human sperm motility.

3. Nutmeg

In the 1960s and 70s a staple of low-budget British comedy films was the potion that would invigorate even the most stubborn libido. What if it existed? Research says that it does. It’s nutmeg. Before you leap for joy when you read what a versatile spice nutmeg is, there is a catch. The experiments were all done on rats.

Experiments showed that nutmeg was almost as successful as Viagra in rats, with male rats mounting around three to five females in a night in the laboratory. The control sample only managed once or twice. So far these results haven’t be replicated in humans in lab conditions.

At least not any lab I’ve been invited to.

4. Tribulus terrestris

If you didn’t know that rats are used as a proxy for humans you could conclude that scientists have a worrying thing about rats. You can pick up Evaluation of the aphrodisiac activity of Tribulus terrestris Linn. in sexually sluggish male albino rats, if you’re worried about your rat (not a euphemism). It looks at treatments with extracts from Tribulus terrestris, sometimes called Land caltrops. They measured mount frequency, intromission frequency and a penile erection index to determine the success of the treatments. They found that testosterone rose with no significant effect on sperm count. It looks good for rats, but it’s not confirmed for humans.

If it’s rats that are the key interest in your love life then you may need more help than a dose of Tribulus terrestris.

5. Ginseng

People could have been using Ginseng to improve sex since 3500 BC in China. Once again it’s the doctrine of signatures to the rescue. However, there might be some science that correlates with this. The power of ginseng comes from Ginsenosides. These have been tested and found to affect the corpus cavernosum, which is sponge-like erectile tissue that both men and women have in different forms. And for a change the report I’m linking to isn’t in rats.

No, the experiments were in rabbits.

6. Horny Goat Weed

Horny Goat Weed is another example of Chinese medicine. We’re back to rats again. The effect of the plant was said to have been discovered by a Chinese goat herd who spotted the effect while out tending his flock. Experiments have shown it’s effective in aged rats. It’s been sold in the UK by Gillian McKeith. Given her track record you might want to hold off using it till there are more reliable studies on its effect on humans.

7. Saffron

Saffron, made from the dried stigmas of the Saffron crocus has been tested for treating fluoxetine (Prozac) induced sexual dysfunction in both men and women. Pound-for-pound saffron is already more expensive than gold.

8. Ptychopetalum

Ptychopetalum, a small tree or shrub found in Brazil, doesn’t sound too promising but its alternative name is Potency Wood. You’d expect it to have more aphrodisiac uses than you can shake a herbally-assisted stick at. Actually there are hints it might do a lot more. It combats stress in mice. It can make your eyes sexier. It’s used to treat fish poisoning. After all that its short duration effects in rabbits seem rather disappointing.

9. Chocolate

The Cacao bean from Theobroma cacao eventually ends up as chocolate. It’s a traditional valentine’s gift, but is it an aphrodisiac? Some people have argued that it’s the chemical cocktail in chocolate that gives it a sexual buzz but there have been few tests to see if this is true. But one has been done.

A team in North Italy systematically interviewed over a hundred women to see if there was a connection between chocolate and sexual satisfaction. The results were significant. There was a correlation. However, there was also a correlation between eating chocolate and age. Younger women ate more chocolate. When the team corrected for the effects of age, there was no significant difference.

No one has yet done the obvious follow-up test. Remove the chocolate and then find out how grumpy everyone becomes.

10 Maca

Sadly I can’t access the full paper, so I can’t say if this includes reports and marks from their partners.

11. Coffee

Finally we have a bonus. There’s one plant that shouldn’t make the list. In a slightly worrying question I wondered if there was nothing that couldn’t be an aphrodisiac. Pubmed has just one result for Coffee aphrodisiac and that’s in Romanian. I can’t tell if it is or isn’t an aphrodisiac. But anecedotal evidence suggests “Do you want… coffee?” is a powerful signal. Or it might just be turning into Anthony Head is an aphrodisiac.

Book eyes. Photo by Cjcj/Sxc.hu. Licensed from Sxc.hu
Immoral Aubergines. Image from Paris et al. “The Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae illustrated in medieval manuscripts known as the Tacuinum Sanitatis”
Mondia whitei. Photo by Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc licence.
Nutmeg. Photo by W.A. Djatmiko. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-sa licence.
Tribulus terrestris L.. Photo by lalithamba/Flickr. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by licence.
Ginseng. Photo: Eugene Kim/Flickr. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa licence.
Epimedium grandiflorum var. thunbergianum. Photo by Kenpei/Wikipedia. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-sa licence.
Crocus. Photo by Niall McAuley/Flickr. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa licence.
Ptychopetalum. Photo David Kenfack. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc licence.
Theobroma cacao. Photo by Kai Yan, Joseph Wong/Flickr. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-nc-sa licence.
Maca root. Photo by Gust4vo/Wikipedia. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by-sa licence.

We’re celebrating Fascination of Plants Day today on AoB Blog. As the day progresses these links will become live:

• 09:00: Welcome to Fascination of Plants Day
  What is Fascination of Plants Day? And more importantly, what happens when you pull apart a cell with lasers?
• 13:00: What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz
  A review of the book that reveals how a plant senses its environment. It reveals how a plant can ‘see’ by sensing light, or how it can ‘talk’ to other plants. But is it fascinating?
• 17:00: Will Martian cuisine have a terrifying secret?
  The colonists for Mars One will venture into a hostile environment farther from their families than any human has gone before. It’s a difficult life, but one that might be harder still when they see what’s for lunch.
• 21:00: 10 Plants used to spice up sex
  After a busy day I’m off to make some… coffee.

The post 10 Plants Used to Spice up Sex appeared first on AoB Blog.

The target first launch is 2016. It’s highly ambitious and it’s no surprise that many people think this will not happen. The project does seem to depend on people giving a large amount of money to the project very quickly. My concern was a throwaway line in the press conference, that the colonists would grow their own food. Mars One currently has 80,000 applicants. So far, the number of successful offworld farms less than one. Growing food is not a solved problem. If humans are going to move off-planet, then botanists will have to find edible life on another planet, even if they have to put it there themselves.

There is ongoing research into the problem. Gene Giacomelli has a prototype lunar greenhouse. The greenhouse doesn’t look that the big domed greenhouses of pulp sci-fi. It’s built to work underground, and there’s plenty of underground on earth that could use it too. Even if you don’t have your greenhouse underground, it could still be in the shade in an urban environment. You don’t have to travel to another world for real world applications.

The early settlement of Mars might be the salad days of colonisation, but what will go in that salad?

Another thing that bothering me is that plants evolved to work in 1g. Mars is around one-third of Earth. How will this affect the physiology of the plants? It’s the kind of puzzle that you’d want to solve on the Moon first. If something went wrong you’d want the nearest pizza delivery to be a few days, not the months on Mars. While no one has experimented in low gravity, there is research from microgravity. The botanist’s favourite plant, Arabidopsis, has been to the International Space Station.

If you’re wondering what the research looks like by the time it gets into print, you can read Cytochemical Localization of Reserves during Seed Development in Arabidopsis thaliana under Spaceflight Conditions by Anxiu Juang et al. for free at the Annals of Botany. The paper reports on a few Arabidopsis plants went up on STS-68, and it seems they were perfectly happy. The same team later published Influence of Microgravity on Ultrastructure and Storage Reserves in Seeds of Brassica rapa L., which you can also read free at Annals of Botany. For Brassica rapa L., a relative of the turnip, these results weren’t so positive, with seed quality suffering in orbit. Another report, in the Journal of Experimental Botany (and free access at the time of writing) Ultrastructure of potato tubers formed in microgravity under controlled environmental conditions by Cook and Croxdale found that space potato tubers were indistinguishable from their earth-bound relatives.

It is possible that the inhabitants of future worlds may get the pleasure of potatoes but never know the joy of digging up a turnip in an amusing shape. This has consequences. The colonists won’t just have to cope with the lack of a breathable atmosphere outside, and the isolation from their families. They might also face a life without Cornish pasties.* I’d like to travel to space, but some sacrifices are simply too great.

* Cornish pasty is a geographically protected term. Any pasty made on Mars, which is between 55 and 250 million kilmetres away from Cornwall, won’t legally be a Cornish pasty.

Photo: Terraforming by Jan Tik. This image licensed under a Creative Commons by licence.

May 19: Edited to change the title after it was pointed out re-writes meant secret was the wrong word. It’s now surprise.

We’re celebrating Fascination of Plants Day today on AoB Blog. As the day progresses these links will become live:

• 09:00: Welcome to Fascination of Plants Day
  What is Fascination of Plants Day? And more importantly, what happens when you pull apart a cell with lasers?
• 13:00: What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz
  A review of the book that reveals how a plant senses its environment. It reveals how a plant can ‘see’ by sensing light, or how it can ‘talk’ to other plants. But is it fascinating?
• 17:00: Will Martian cuisine have a terrifying secret?
  You’ve just read this. Nip down to Greggs (or nearest local equivalent) to get a pasty WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
• 21:00: 10 Plants used to spice up sex
  Spice is a bit of a give-away that some plants have been used as aphrodisiacs but you might be surprised at what common plants have been used to ignite desire.

The post Will Martian cuisine have a terrifying surprise? appeared first on AoB Blog.

For example the chapter What a Plant Sees is clear that plants don’t see like you or I. However, they do respond and react to light. Chamovitz talks about human eyes and the various kinds of rhodopsin and photopsin in the eye. He then talks about sensors in a plant and in what ways they’re similar and in what ways they’re different. When he was talking about all the different sensors in Arabidopsis, my initial reaction was that there’s a lot more going on with light than in my eye. The next page, Chamovitz writes that while a human eye and plant’s sense of light aren’t the same, in some ways you can say that a plant has a more complex understanding of light.

A similar thing happened in the chapter What a Plant Smells. Here Chamovitz talks about reactions to chemicals in the atmosphere and in particular those given off by damaged leaves. This has been proposed as a way that plants ‘talk’ to each other. My own feeling reading this was that it could be an internal signal for the plant and other plants receive it by being close to the injured plant. This would be something almost like eavesdropping on an internal monologue and not intent. A couple of pages later Chamovitz raises this very possibility and then goes on to explain various experiments done to test if this is what’s happening.

If this kind of foreshadowing happened once then it could be coincidence. But with it happening again it’s clear that the narrative has been very carefully planned. Yet it doesn’t feel contrived. There’s no sense Chamovitz is holding anything back to create a ‘ta-dah!’ moment. In fact I was struck by the clarity of the writing.

The hook of looking at correlates for human senses for plants could easily risk fixing the evidence to a convenient narrative mould. This doesn’t happen. What a Plant Hears demonstrates this. Everyone has heard of the experiments that plants prefer Mozart to Motorhead. Chamovitz argues that while they have results, these are bad experiments. He shows why they may get results, and why other experiments suggest that plants are entirely deaf. This is the only part of the book where I could suggest something is missing.

There is recent research showing plants avoid noisier parts of a city. In fact what is happening is that their seeds are dispersed by animals, so the plants themselves are not reacting to the noise. It’s the animals carrying them. It’s another example of an apparent reaction to sound that isn’t. But given that the news story I’ve found dates from November 2012, and the book came out well before that, it’s not a fair criticism. In fact it points to how active a research area Chamovitz is covering.

The book concludes with a discussion of if or how plants are aware. This includes a discussion of the controversial idea of plant neurobiology and Trewavas’s paper Aspects of Plant Intelligence (which you can read free). By the time you get here this could be essential reading if you want to eat salad without guilt.

I picked up the Kindle version and whoever formatted it did a much better job than many science books I’ve read on it. There are no regular typos where it looks like someone simply hasn’t checked the formatting. It does end at 56%, which is mildly jarring on a Kindle. In a paper book this would reinforce how well referenced and noted the book is.

All in all, for this non-botanist, it was an excellent read. Once I finished the book I had a look to see if Chamovitz had any other pop-science books out. That’s a good result.

You can search for a copy in a local library at WorldCat or read more reviews at LibraryThing or GoodReads.

We’re celebrating Fascination of Plants Day today on AoB Blog. As the day progresses these links will become live:

• 09:00: Welcome to Fascination of Plants Day
  What is Fascination of Plants Day? And more importantly, what happens when you pull apart a cell with lasers?
• 13:00: What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz
  That’s this entry, you could read it again, but you’d be better off reading the book.
• 17:00: Will Martian cuisine have a terrifying secret?
  The colonists for Mars One will venture into a hostile environment farther from their families than any human has gone before. It’s a difficult life, but one that might be harder still when they see what’s for lunch.
• 21:00: 10 Plants used to spice up sex
  Spice is a bit of a give-away that some plants have been used as aphrodisiacs but you might be surprised at what common plants have been used to ignite desire.

The post What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz appeared first on AoB Blog.

Today is Fascination of Plants Day. To celebrate we’ll have a few posts out today. At midday we have a review of What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz, a book that shows how fascinating plants can be. At 17:00 there’s news of why the people applying for the Mars One reality programme had better like salad.

First up we go inside a cell to look at Golgi bodies, which move through the cell over the surface of the endoplasmic reticulum. Is there a physical connection? The answer should be easy to find, you just find a Golgi body and tug. But what do you use to tug a Golgi body? Lasers!

We’re celebrating Fascination of Plants Day today on AoB Blog. As the day progresses these links will become live:

• 09:00: Welcome to Fascination of Plants Day
  That’s this entry. Hello!
• 13:00: What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz
  A review of the book that reveals how a plant senses its environment. It reveals how a plant can ‘see’ by sensing light, or how it can ‘talk’ to other plants. But is it fascinating?
• 17:00: Will Martian cuisine have a terrifying secret?
  The colonists for Mars One will venture into a hostile environment farther from their families than any human has gone before. It’s a difficult life, but one that might be harder still when they see what’s for lunch.
• 21:00: 10 Plants used to spice up sex
  Spice is a bit of a give-away that some plants have been used as aphrodisiacs but you might be surprised at what common plants have been used to ignite desire.

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Several widespread tree species of temperate forests produce recalcitrant (desiccation-sensitive) seeds, but the ecological significance of this is largely unknown. Using Quercus ilex (holm oak) woodlands in France as a model system, Joët et al. study relationships between winter climate and the water status and viability of seeds in the spring. They find that percentage germination and normal seedling development are tightly linked to the water content of seeds after the winter period, indicating that in situ desiccation is a major cause of mortality: cumulative rainfall and maximum temperatures during winter dramatically influence the water status and viability of seeds. They conclude that seed desiccation sensitivity is a key functional trait that may influence the success of recruitment in temperate recalcitrant seed species, particularly within the context of future climate change.

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Nitrogen is an essential macronutrient for plants – i.e. they cannot complete their life cycle without it – and it is needed in relatively large amounts. Although it is abundant in the atmosphere – N₂ (‘dinitrogen’) comprises about 80% of the Earth’s invisible gaseous envelope mantle – that molecule cannot be used directly by plants. Instead they rely on oxidation of nitrogen to NO₃^– – ‘nitrate’ – since that is the form in which most plants absorb the nitrogen they need from the soil. Although some imaginative plants, like legumes, can supplement their nitrogen intake using NH₃ produced by symbiotic microbes (that ‘fix’ N₂ directly from the atmosphere), I thought that such inorganic N sources were about it as far as root-routed plant N-sources went. Astonishing news then that ‘quaternary ammonium compounds [think inorganic ammonium – NH₄⁺ – but with organic groups replacing each of the four hydrogens] can be abundant in some soils and are taken up as intact molecules by plants’, because these are organic N-compounds.

Charles Warren demonstrates that ‘two ecologically disparate species’ (an understatement if ever there was!) – non-mycorrhizal Banksia oblongifolia and mycorrhizal Triticum aestivum (wheat) – take up intact molecules of betaine, carnitine and acetyl-carnitine. Two key findings of the study are that ‘the pool of small, nonpeptide organic-N in the soil solution is chemically diverse and not dominated solely by protein amino acids’, and that plants have an ‘even broader palate than is suggested by most of the literature on organic N’(!). I’m grateful to that article for putting me straight on the fact that other soil-sited organic N-sources – such as intact amino acids – can be used by plants as well. All of which suggests one has to be very careful in assessing the N-status of soil as a suitable growing medium for plants – have all possible plant-usable N-sources been considered and quantified? Maybe N is not in such short supply as frequently stated…? Maybe we don’t need to add as much expensive N-fertiliser to achieve decent crop yields as purveyors of N-fertiliser might like us to believe…? Certainly, time to update those plant mineral nutrition lecture notes (again…).

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