A day in the life…

Well, dissident Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn did it (with Ivan Denisovich), that Swinging Sixties phenomenon, the mop-topped beat combo that is The Beatles did it with typical inventivenesss and musicality – and probably a ‘little help from their friends’* – and now labs are getting in on the act. Welcome to The Node’s ‘a day in the life of a …’ series. The Node was launched in June 2010 by Development, a leading research journal in the field of developmental biology, and its publisher, The Company of Biologists, as a non-commercial information resource and community site for the developmental biology community, and ‘a place to share news about and with the developmental biology [which includes plant and non-plant-based work… – Ed.] community around the world’. Designed to give insights into the working of the labs – and the people – that try to unravel development, it has already showcased Narender Kumar, graduate student, in an arabidopsis lab at Louisiana State University (USA), and Dr James Lloyd in a moss lab at the University of Leeds (UK). I’d like to think that these insights into the more human sides of plant development research might help to inspire the next generation to get involved in plant biology research and rise to the challenges of the 21st century that so often revolve around food and energy security – solutions to both of which conundra will have important botanical dimensions.

* The Rolling Stone magazine voted the Beatles’ A day in the life to be that group’s best song, and the 28th best song of all time.

[And if you’d like to read more about plants in the lab., check out the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry’s ‘Plants in the Lab’ website, which ‘by bringing beautiful and interesting plants and flowers into the laboratory setting and then explaining what some of the molecules produced naturally mean to chemists, we are hoping to challenge the familiar divide between nature and laboratory’. Talking of Bristol University, who’s our favourite Trollope-loving botanist? Melville Wills Professor of Botany Alistair Hetherington (whose botanical life story is told in Current Biology.) And for the day when you have to leave the lab – maybe to go to another one..? – Natalie Butterfield has the ‘perfect lab leaving list’ for you. – Ed.]