As large swathes of the Earth’s land area become unsuitable for agriculture, e.g due to salinisation (), there is growing interest in finding alternative spaces and places to cultivate plants. And when it comes to...
Author - Nigel Chaffey
Nigel Chaffey
Beer IS good for you! [or Antibiotics: good for what ale’s you]
Famously, stories abound that certain sportsmen have had their beer drinking endorsed by medical professionals () as a form of medicine. Apocryphal (a euphemism for ‘probably not true’) as those modern tales may be, a...
Improving your image
Image: Lothar Schermelleh, Wikimedia Commons (adapted from Schermelleh et al., Science 320: 1332–1336). Gene sequences are all very well. But even the most committed of gene-genies/gel-jockies will usually admit that...
Wood-destroyer sequenced
Image: Gerhard Schuster, Wikimedia Commons. In a beautifully understated opening sentence – worthy of Watson and Crick’s famous 1953 seminal paper describing the structure of DNA – Robin Ohmi et al. (Nature...
Lucky heather? No, clover!
Swift – Image: Paweł Kuźniar, Wikimedia Commons. Work by Rebecca Tashiro et al. (Crop Science 50: 1260–1268, 2010), which identifies a gene that converts 3-leaved white clover (Trifolium repens) into 4-leafed...
The gift that goes on giving…
Image: Hans Hillewaert, Wikimedia Commons. Think of all the energy expended in planting fresh cereal grain every year to ensure just one season’s crop. Then think of all the energy expended in repeating the process each...
Plants plugging the gap
Image: Richard Wheeler, Wikimedia Commons. Engineers – and artists – have often sought inspiration from the natural world. Take for example the story of the discovery of Velcro by a Swiss gentleman when he observed how...
Ignore the small things at your peril…
Image: Gordon T. Taylor, US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. H. G. Wells dramatically demonstrated how mankind’s future may depend upon the action of small organisms in his War of the Worlds where...
Dating the Pharaohs
Image: Jeff Dahl, Wikimedia Commons. No, not a sensationalist virtual reality TV show for some so-called celebrities seeking to marry into the family of the ancient rulers of Egypt. Rather, work that attempts to ascribe...
It’s an ill wind …?
Wood (aka ‘the really hard stuff inside trees’) is as ancient a building material and engineering solution as they come, but new uses are still being found for timber in the most unlikely of applications. Take for...
Plants combat plants
Question: when is a cannon not a cannon? Answer: when it’s a ‘high-pressure long-range deodorant spray’(!). For such is the description of the cannons currently being deployed in China to combat the malodorous...
