Author - Alun Salt

Black Plants at Sunset. Photo (cc) Tambako the Jaguar

Astrobotany on the web

A couple of Astrobotanical stories have caught my eye in the past week. I renewed my subscription to SciAm Digital today and read the story Black Plants and Twilight Zones. It’s subscription only, but if you read...

I’m stealing this presentation

I’m stealing this presentation

The social web isn’t just limited to blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Slideshare is a great place to look for presentations on all sorts of things. I’ve been particularly impressed by this presentation about how...

RockMelt Screenshot with Facebook bar on the left

RockMelt: First Thoughts

I use different browsers for different things. My online banking is through Safari. My work is increasingly on Chrome, though I also use Camino for AoBBlog. Opera is the browser I use for home, but not for Facebook...

PhD Tales visits NMSU

Clearly I haven’t been procrastinating as much as I should as I’ve only just caught up with PhD Tales. It turns out that Jorge has been visiting the Chile Pepper Institute at NMSU. Both videos are...

The secret escapes, Botany is interesting

The secret escapes, Botany is interesting

The Phytophactor has a post on the appeal of Botany, and it’s something that needs saying. Plants are interesting, but your typical school student has little way of finding that out. He does point to a solution...

Blogger goes bananas (in a good way)

Blogger goes bananas (in a good way)

I’m just writing a quick post here to point to another blog post at Vaviblog by Jeremy Cherfas on the recent paper Did backcrossing contribute to the origin of hybrid edible bananas?. Banana domestication...

In defence of weeds

In defence of weeds

Richard Mabey has a piece for his new book on weeds in the BBC’s Magazine. Mabey argues that weeds show the reslience of nature. Is Japanese Knotweed just “a plant whose virtues have not yet been...

Like Peas in a Pod. Photo (cc) Phil Price.

Are there online communities?

There’s thoughtful post up at Civil War Memory by Kevin Levin, Can You Afford Not To Use Social Media? Some of his thoughts are similar to discussions we had about what would be possible with AoB Blog. Some less...

Buttercups. Photo (cc) Marilyn Peddle.

How old is my meadow?

I was a bit fed up after hearing the UK government announce further cutbacks to the science budget today, so I thought I’d delve into the recent Free Access issue of Annals of Botany from Sept 2009 to see...