In a famous cartoon, a fish morphs slowly into a human as it forsakes water for dry land. With sly humor, this doodle actually captures a pervasive narrative of evolutionary history: the oceans are life's cradle, with life gaining the continents only later. Seemingly, the... click to read more

Whether or not you like your sprouts, plants will likely form a major component of your diet: cereals, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, chips, etc. all come from plants. Rice, maize and wheat alone make up 60% of the world's food intake. Not only are plants... click to read more

Throughout the growing season seemingly benign clouds pass over millions of acres of crops and inadvertently rob plants of their productivity, costing untold bushels of potential yield. Researchers recently reported in the journal Science that they have engineered a solution and increased the productivity of... click to read more

All plants must sense, and respond to, their environment. This perception is of crucial importance to developing seedlings. Initially, they must grow in subterranean darkness in order to reach the surface - a process known as skotomorphogenesis (development in the dark). Once at the surface,... click to read more

Many plants, including staple crops, need insects to reproduce. Changing climate and human interference threaten the sensitive relationships between plants and their pollinators. Many aspects of these relationships are not well understood. However, this knowledge may be crucial to sustain and increase crop production to... click to read more