The full title of Mary Shelley’s acclaimed 1818 novel “Frankenstein” is “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus”. Well, fictional frightening-fellow fabricator Dr Frankenstein may have been the modern Prometheus of his day, but I’ve just chanced upon the 21st century version. Nothing to do with hard-copy science fiction of the late Georgian period, this truly modern Prometheus is science fact-based and exists virtually as an on-line Wiki

This item concerns uses of botanical bits-and-pieces in ways that Nature never intended. But having also brought forth Man, that natural entity has given that creation’s ingenuity free rein and he has come up with some weird and wonderful reimaginings of botanical structures. Exhibit 1, pollen as a more environmentally-sympathetic alternative to graphite in lithium […]

One of the great hopes of the 1980s (and as far back as the 1940s) was that one plant species would be typical of all plants and could be used as a model for the entirety of plant biology. The plant chosen for that singular honour was thale cress – Arabidopsis thaliana (e.g. Maarten Koornneef […]

A relative of a notorious fungus that infests beans may have positive advantages for some other plants.

Nigel Chaffey discovers Nature has its own taxes.

Always on the look-out for interesting and/or quirky plant stories, I was really pleased to have chanced upon this delightful item amongst one of the many sources I scour continually on your behalf to unearth such phyto-relevant material. And, believing it to be an up-to-date item – since it was brought to my notice on […]

When it’s an eelgrass. OK, this needs some explanation. A popular notion is that the kingdom Plantae is essentially synonymous with the term land plants. And that is understandable; after all, this group of organisms is arguably all about the conquest of the land and adaptations to a terrestrial existence by entities that had previously […]

Can anybody doubt how marvellously dynamic a plant cell is when one watches videos of such phenomena as cytoplasmic streaming? And plant cells aren’t limited to mass movements of organelles within the cytoplasm, individual organelles can also undergo various movements, too, e.g. Golgi, mitochondria and peroxisomes. Who said plants were boring or ‘don’t do anything’? […]

A question with a long history, but not always a long enough bibliography, as Nigel Chaffey learns.

Not only can you take flowers apart, with a 3D printer you can put together flowers the way YOU want.

The Botanical Accuracy weblog, curated by Lena Struwe (Botanist of New Jersey (USA) is a phenomenon, and a revelation!

If students were ever to ask me “Sir [I do like to think they would show due deference and respect when addressing their professors…], where do you find new species?”, the simplest, honestest, straightforwardest answer is “Everywhere, dear Student, everywhere”. Whilst that might seem a little rude, bordering upon as it does a wise-guy response, […]