Vergil’s Green Thoughts: Plants, Humans, and the Divine by Rebecca Armstrong, 2019. Oxford University Press. When I first heard about Vergil’s Green Thoughts by Rebecca Armstrong, I was eager to obtain a...
Category - Plants & People
Nigel Chaffey
Grow your own Martian salad
A Martian diet might aid your health on Earth (but there are probably better interventions you should try first)
Alun Salt
Tackling plant blindness: Botany by stealth…
School lessons devoted to plants may be off-putting to those students who are already plant-averse. So, why not smuggle bits of plant information into lessons on topics as diverse as Geography, History, Art &...
botanyone
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...
New botanic initiative is the ‘Size of Wales’
An interesting twist on an old cliché has been launched at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. In the UK the size of Wales has long been recognised as a useful measure of any disaster area (earthquakes, combat zones...
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...
The Rich History of Eggplant or Aubergine
Eggplants in the 14th Century An interesting website, Zester, explores the culture of food and drink – including a range of different species with potential for exploitation, as well as recipes about...
Editor Pat Heslop-Harrison
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...
Death by Powerpoint, Internet Science Nerds, and #Solo10
As the undergraduates I teach will testify, I’ve railed many times against ‘Death by Powerpoint’. Somewhat amazingly, a few talks at the Science Online 2010 Conference Solo10 did combine this...
Dissemination and Science On-line #solo10
I am with about 150 people interested in “science communication on-line” at the British Library in London this week. Journals are all about the communication of science results, and the not-for-profit...
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...
Don’t Be So Cerebral?
I’m following my introduction to Don’t Be Such a Scientist with a look at the first chapter of the book. It opens with Randy Olson’s four organs model of communication based on the Head, Heart, Gut and...
Thoughts on Don’t be Such a Scientist by Randy Olson
As well as developing the social media presence for the Annals of Botany, I’ve also started work on writing press releases for some papers in the journal. From following various blogs I’m aware that...
