As a confirmed botanophile, I neither need to be told nor reminded that trees – and plants more generally – make one happy. But I also acknowledge that there are people who might not agree with that notion. So, for those who are still not yet convinced of the positivity-promoting potential of plants – and […]

Now that’s an eye-catching headline, isn’t it? The thought of mushrooms and toadstools – that famously don’t produce oxygen, unlike green plants with their oxygenic photosynthesis – adding oxygen to the planet’s atmosphere. What? How? Tell me more… Well, and as you probably suspect, it’s not direct activity of the fungi that generates the oxygen, […]

It has been said that humans try to understand plants for two reasons: Either to kill them better – e.g. if they are considered to be weeds that compete for resources with our crop plants – or to exploit them for human advantage. In the latter category using plants to clean up the mess that […]

Where have all the flower-pollinating insects have gone?

One of the most ancient forms of life on the planet might be more common than we thought.

You can help save the planet with a tweet.

Nigel Chaffey continues his exploration of the unexpected health benefits of some foods.

… and now to … dinosaurs (!). Dinosaurs? Well, we did say at the outset of this mini series of articles that ‘seeds and animals’ was a very old association. Unlike the other animal associations mentioned already in this collection, it’s not possible to get direct evidence of seed dispersal by dinosaurs because they are […]

Nigel Chaffey starts a series celebrating the human life-sustaining potential of plants…

NIgel Chaffey returns with another tale of asyníthchory, this time involving fish.

Confusingly, a second second messenger is not a third messenger.

The fight against pathogens in plants is moving to less familiar states of matter.