Plant science news, articles and features | Page 3

plants

Plants make up about 80 per cent of all living matter on Earth by mass. They capture energy from sunlight in a process called photosynthesis, taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing oxygen. Humans grow some plants on an enormous scale to provide us with food, drugs, fuel and building materials. We have modified plants through artificial selection for thousands of years, and now use genetic technologies to create plants with chosen characteristics.

**VIDEO AVAILABLE. CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE.** Swiss researchers have developed a new kind of wood that glows in the dark. Scientists at Empa's Cellulose & Wood Materials lab in St. Gallen, Switzerland, combined balsa wood with a bioluminescent fungus. White rot fungus D. tabescens was used to craft the material which aims to develop a multifunctional and sustainable light source to address societal needs. The team sees a future where advanced materials are ???smart,??? capable of self-healing, adapting to their environment, and changing state. The biohybrid wood, described as an

Life

Bioluminescent Christmas tree glows with festive cheer

When exposed to air, an eerie green light is emitted by these neatly arranged chunks of hybrid living material, created by impregnating balsa wood with fungus

News

$Evident Image of the Year global winner: Cross-section of a Cosmic Orange aster flower with pollen grains maturing inside anthers. Captured by Igor Siwanowicz of the United States. Igor Siwanowicz of the United States was selected as the global winner for his striking cross- section image of a Cosmic Orange Mexican aster flower that vividly depicts pollen grains maturing inside anthers. To create this image, Siwanowicz embedded isolated florets in agarose, sectioned on a vibratome and stained with Calcofluor White and Congo Red dyes. The sample was dehydrated, cleared and mounted in methyl salicylate. Siwanowicz chose to image this flower to observe how aster florets are organized before the flower opens. ?I was lucky to pick my flower buds at the right stage of development, with the pollen grains almost fully mature but still bound together in a mass,? Siwanowicz explained. ?I think this image shows the true beauty of a common flower that most of us take for granted by extending it well beyond what we can see with the naked eye. The beauty of natural form and design is present on very different scales, sometimes almost in a fractal manner?as we continue to zoom in, the form may lose familiarity but also become a new emotional experience.?$