Plants and Pipettes

We begin this week with a looooong discussion about the movie “Little Joe”. It’s fun (talking about the movie, not the movie itself. Don’t watch it). Also we have new research about epimutagenesis, grain-free ice cream and the benefits of weeds. 

• Oxytocin – Wikipedia 
• Little Joe (film) – Wikipedia 
• Bypassing reproductive barriers in hybrid seeds using chemically induced epimutagenesis | The Plant Cell | Oxford Academic
• Imprinting of the Polycomb Group Gene MEDEA Serves as a Ploidy Sensor in Arabidopsis
• Exclusive: Kew treehouse contest winners revealed 
• TikTok for physics: influencers aim to spark interest in science
• Weeds Act 1959 
• Grainy ice cream is unpleasant. Plant-based nanocrystals might help | Science News
• Interaction between Cymbidium aloifolium and Apis cerana: Incidence of an outlier in modular pollination network of oil flowers 
• Your Houseplants Really Can Impact Indoor Air Quality, Depending on The Pollutant 
• Potted plants can remove the pollutant nitrogen dioxide indoors | SpringerLink 
• Medicago’s homegrown, plant-based COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada | CBC News
• You Can Buy A GMO Pink Pineapple That Looks Like It’s Made Of People | IFLScience
• Evolutionary Biology and Gene Editing of Cat Allergen, Fel d 1 | The CRISPR Journal

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

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Kat Austen is an artist and researcher based in Berlin. Kat was so kind to talk to us about her work about microplastics in trees, her view on science and art and her upcoming projects. Welcome to Plants and Pipettes: Kat Austen!

• How I made musical instruments from lab equipment to create empathy with the Arctic 
• DIY Science Podcast: 003 – Kat Austen on DIY science, art practice, and creating empathy with the environment
• The Paper: Microplastic inclusion in birch tree roots – ScienceDirect
• Kat’s website: Kat Austen
• Follow Kat on Twitter: Kat Austen FRSA (@katausten) / Twitter
• Stranger to the Trees on Vimeo

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

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Have you heard of fynbos? This week, we discuss how the fynbos ecosystem withstands turning into a forest, what problems arise from academic bullying and why you’d pump nectar out of a flower. 

• Fynbos plants hold their ground with the world’s thinnest roots | Science News 
• Audouinia capitata (L.) Brongn.
• Smokey the Gardener | Science News
• Fynbos – Wikipedia
• Biome boundary maintained by intense belowground resource competition in world’s thinnest-rooted plant community | PNAS
• The tale of two international women in 20th century plant science | John Innes Centre 
• Irma Andersson-Kottö – Wikipedia 
• Anna Atkins | `ADIANTUM CUNEATUM (FROM THE CONSERVATORY AT CHATSWORTH)’ | MutualArt
• The opinion piece about bullying in academics on twitter
• Gender Paygap Bot on Twitter
• The largest population of a rare, protected orchid found in a military base in Corsica — ScienceDaily 
• Structural dynamics of real and modelled Solanum stamens: implications for pollen ejection by buzzing bees
• Structural dynamics of real and modelled Solanum stamens: implications for pollen ejection by buzzing bees (on biorXiv)
• Pollinators like their flowers with a dash of salt | Science | AAAS 
• An extinct rat shows CRISPR’s limits for resurrecting species | Science News

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

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Joram is sick again but it won’t stop us from talking about plants. This time, it’s more plant adjacent: we’re talking about a weird new way some bacteria do photosynthesis. Also lots of clever animals and a tale of paleobotanical experiments.

• 2.4-Å structure of the double-ring Gemmatimonas phototrophica photosystem 
• A Mysterious Desert Bacterium Has Evolved Its Own, Unique Ability to Photosynthesize
• photosynthetic bacteria
• New technology fused with photosynthetic life offers path to green energy — ScienceDaily
• Electrochemically Driven Photosynthetic Electron Transport in Cyanobacteria Lacking Photosystem II | Journal of the American Chemical Society
• Building artificial nerve cells: Organic electrochemical neurons and synapses with ion mediated spiking — ScienceDaily
• Organic electrochemical neurons and synapses with ion mediated spiking | Nature Communications
• Science and Culture: Artists join paleobotanists to bring ancient plants to life—and pique viewer interest
• The Mesozoic terminated in boreal spring | Nature
• The Reign of the Dinosaurs Ended in Spring: Revelations From Bones of Fish That Died When the Asteroid Hit
• Rats can estimate their timing accuracy — ScienceDaily
• Standardised bioassays reveal that mosquitoes learn to avoid compounds used in chemical vector control after a single sub-lethal exposure | Scientific Reports 
• Magpies help each other to evade science
• Altruism in birds? Magpies have outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

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In this episode, Joram learns about wuthering heights and Tegan learns why chickpeas are believed to giggle in Germany. Also there is talk about red nectar, flammable litter and really old trees.

• Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights 
• Kate Bush – Wuthering Heights – Official Music Video – Version 2 
• Nesocodon mauritianus – Temperate House | Kew Gardens
• Red nectar from a plant could be source of new dye
• Convergent evolution of a blood-red nectar pigment in vertebrate-pollinated flowers | PNAS
• Archana Sharma
• Cytology of Amaryllids as an Aid to the Understanding of Evolution
• Fixity in Chromosome Number of Plants
• Archana Sharma: An Indian Woman Botanist, a Cytogeneticist, Cell Biologist and a Cytotoxicologist
• Dr. Archana Sharma: The Pioneering Indian Botanist | #IndianWomenInHistory
• Archana Sharma (botanist) – Wikipedia
• The History and Challenges of Women in Genetics: A Focus on Non-Western Women
• A history of women in plant science | John Innes Centre
• Biases in ecological research: attitudes of scientists and ways of control | Scientific Reports
• Herbicide residues in soil affect hormone levels in crop plants
• Frontiers | A Glyphosate-Based Herbicide in Soil Differentially Affects Hormonal Homeostasis and Performance of Non-target Crop Plants | Plant Science 
• Rare Breed of Ancient Trees With Incredible Lifespans Help Keep Their Forests Alive
• Old and ancient trees are life history lottery winners and vital evolutionary resources for long-term adaptive capacity | Nature Plants
• Jerusalem artichoke – Wikipedia 
• Sporangium Exposure and Spore Release in the Peruvian Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum peruvianum, Pteridaceae)
• Pteridophytes: Ferns
• Widespread decline in winds promoted the growth of vegetation
• Frontiers | Litter Flammability of 50 Southeastern North American Tree Species: Evidence for Mesophication Gradients Across Multiple Ecosystems | Forests and Global Change
• Evidence of local adaptation in litter flammability of a widespread fire-adaptive pine
• Scientists Teach Cockatoos to Play ‘Golf’, Showing Off The Birds’ Clever Tool Use

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

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This week, we’re talking about the link between the constructor of fountains, Neptune, and a small seagrass in the Mediterranean sea. Also more on X-ray microscopy and a discussion on who deserves to be on the author list (it’s Joram).

• Terrestrial-type nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between seagrass and a marine bacterium 
• Nitrogen uptake, assimilation and remobilization in plants: challenges for sustainable and productive agriculture 
• Neptune’s famous fountain in Rome. 
• X-ray microscopy enables multiscale high-resolution 3D imaging of plant cells, tissues, and organs  
  • Volume rendering of a barley inflorescence
  • ENHANCE 
• Great display to promote new David Attenborough Show
• Why flowers close at noon? A case study of an alpine species Gentianopsis paludosa (Gentianaceae) – Hou – 2022 – Ecology and Evolution – Wiley Online Library
• Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought | Science News
• Living Science: Authorship then and now | eLife
• Popular press portrayal of issues surrounding free-roaming domestic cats Felis catus

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

Support Us!

Hi! Heads up, there is a long spoiler for Don’t look up at the beginning. Did you know that we have chapters to quickly skip ahead? Now you do. Also, we talk about a very poisonous plant and how to move owls!

• The paradox of toxic nectar and pollen in death camas | Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine
• Don’t Eat the Death Camas…or ‘Death’ Anything | Nature’s Poisons
• Zygacine – Wikipedia
• Co-dependency between a specialist Andrena bee and its death camas host, Toxicoscordion paniculatum | SpringerLink
• Neurotoxic alkaloid in pollen and nectar excludes generalist bees from foraging at death-camas, Toxicoscordion paniculatum (Melanthiaceae) | Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | Oxford Academic 
• Using animation to mediate scientific discourse | Nature Microbiology 
• Janet Iwasa – Wikipedia 
• Molecular Animation: Where Cinema and Biology Meet – The New York Times 
• SARS-CoV-2 Visualization and Annotation Project — The Animation Lab 
• PCA Art Exhibit
• Recognizing pioneering Black plant scientists in our schools and society: Trends in Plant Science
• #blackinbotany – Twitter Search / Twitter
• Black History Month 2022: What is it and why is it celebrated? | Arts and Culture News | Al Jazeera
• MMitchell (@mmitchell_ai) / Twitter 
• Keynote Talk: Margaret Mitchell, PhD – Bias in the Vision and Language of Artificial Intelligence
• Climate change is causing UK plants to flower a month early – BBC Science Focus Magazine
• Huge genetic database includes over 9000 species of flowering plants 
• Scientists pass the halfway mark in completing the plant tree of life | Kew
• Kew Tree of Life 
• How to read a phylogenetic tree – Artic Network 
• Tobacco publishing ban for researchers at industry-owned firms
• DNA-free CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing of wild tetraploid tomato Solanum peruvianum using protoplast regeneration | Plant Physiology | Oxford Academic
• Bamboo plant causes devastating £100,000 damage to horrified neighbour’s home – Mirror Online
• Fake poop helps evicted owls settle into new neighborhood | AP News

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

Support Us!

We all have goals this year. Joram’s goal is to befriend a crow, but only if Tegan doesn’t stab him with her fantastically hard claws first. Yes, this is a plant podcast, we promise.

• Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana
• New Evidence Challenges The Idea That Mutations Are Entirely Random 

• A Newly Discovered Fossil Could Be The Answer to Darwin’s ‘Abominable’ Mystery
• To New Beginnings: Riboproteogenomics Discovery of N-Terminal Proteoforms in Arabidopsis Thaliana
• Hidden talents of mosses and lichens – The Global Plant Council
• Top 10 species new to science in 2021 | Kew
• 14 Things You Need To Know About Wolverine’s Claws | ScreenRant
•  Frontiers | The Toughest Material in the Plant Kingdom: An Update on Sporopollenin | Plant Science
• (PDF) LANGUAGE DISCRIMINATION BY LARGE-BILLED CROWS
• Twitter Thread on Crows by @ sabrinaschalz

Check out the Plant Book Club episode on Entangled Life!

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

Support Us!

We just read “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake and now we’re considering turning this little show into a fungal podcast. Before that happens, here is an episode of all things we love about fungi and plants together.

• Voyria sp.
• Root morphology, anatomy and mycotrophy of the achlorophyllous Voyria aphylla (Jacq.) Pers. (Gentianaceae) | SpringerLink
• Suzanne Simard – Wikipedia 
• Panellus stipticus – Wikipedia 

Check out the Plant Book Club episode on Entangled Life!

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

Support Us!

And we’re back from the winter/summer break/non-break. We are talking about a perfect tomato, smoke smelling trees and the science of listening to the environment.

• All-flesh fruit in tomato is controlled by reduced expression dosage of AFF through a structural variant mutation in the promoter | Journal of Experimental Botany | Oxford Academic
• Alterations in Structural Polysaccharides during Liquefaction of Tomato Locule Tissue | Plant Physiology | Oxford Academic 
• Evidence of nutrient translocation in response to smoke exposure by the East African ant acacia, Vachellia drepanolobium – Rabideau‐Childers – – Ecology and Evolution – Wiley Online Library
• Oxygen and nitrogen production by an ammonia-oxidizing archaeon 
• The Algae Expert who helped Crack Code in WWII – Plants and Pipettes
•  Half of top cancer studies fail high-profile reproducibility effor
• November: Flowering plants evolution | News and features | University of Bristol
• The Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution and the origins of modern biodiversity – Benton – – New Phytologist – Wiley Online Library
• Biophony
• New Caledonian crows keep ‘valuable’ hooked tools safer than basic non-hooked tools | eLife

We will be on a break for some time after this episode. We’re looking forward to talking to you about plant science again in the not-so-far future!

All views are our own. If you want to comment or correct anything we said, leave a comment under this post or reach out to us via twitter, facebook or instagram.

Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

Support Us!