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In June 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will elect a new Director General, an individual who will be central to global development for the next decade.
Two recent Escherichia coli outbreaks, a United States government shutdown and the imminent departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union bring into focus the fragility of global food supply systems.
The belated arrival of the Antirrhinum genome sequence brings this classic model plant into the genomic age and opens up increased avenues for plant biology research.
We live in uncertain times, but the changing of the year provides a time not only to look back on the year that has passed, but also to look forward to what might happen in the year to come.
Despite depressingly common misconceptions, fungi are not plants. However, the alliances made between these two forms of life could be an inspiration for the research communities that study them.
Plant science, like all specialist disciplines, has its own particular language. But when this lexicon is used in other contexts, we may find words do not mean what we think they do.
Just what do plants mean to you? To a plant biologist, they are objects of infinite fascination, but to many, plants are background — living wallpaper at best. However, the symbolic and cultural significance of plants is considerable, if often overused and undeserved.
A recent ruling against Monsanto highlights the many ways that glyphosate has not only embedded itself within agriculture, but also tied agribusiness, science and politics together in unprecedented ways.
Review by one’s peers has been a keystone of scientific progress since before the word ‘scientist’ was coined, but it can be an abrasive and dispiriting experience. How do young career-scientists think it can be improved?
In the last decade, high-throughput sequencing approaches have revolutionized the field of plant genomics. With the pace of technical improvement showing no sign of slowing what advances could be just around the corner.
The work of many plant biologists has garnered prizes and plaudits in recent months. But will we continue to see plant researchers overlooked for the ultimate scientific awards?
Gene editing techniques have the potential to substantially accelerate plant breeding. Now, officials in the United States and Europe are arguing that it is not genetic modification — and that is a good thing!
Part of the role of any country or state should be to provide a basic level of nutrition to all its citizens. A recent proposal in the United States may make this even more difficult to achieve.
On 28 March 2017, UK Prime Minister Theresa May signed the letter invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (EU) signalling the UK’s intention to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. How then, can scientific collaborations be maintained?
Sixty years ago, Francis Crick articulated the central dogma of molecular biology to explain the sequential information flow between genes and proteins. Nowadays our understanding of genes and the information they convey is no longer limited to the single-molecule level.
Breeding crops with a high yield and superior adaptability is vital to maintaining global food security. New technologies on multiple scales are re-engineering traditional plant breeding to meet these challenges.
The sciences and arts are often described as two separate cultures, but fruitful collaborations across this divide highlight the artificiality of such distinctions.
Cities need green spaces to maintain the well-being of their citizens. But is the realization of their value making them more private luxury than public commons?
The recent International Botanical Congress in Shenzhen was the largest meeting in its history. That a gathering rooted in the superficially traditional science of taxonomy is thriving in the age of genomics and biotechnology shows the strength and adaptability of modern botany and botanists.
