With the Fourth of July weekend rapidly approaching, what better time to watch our new video on the dos and don’ts of cooking your favorite foods on the barbecue grill? The video features Shirley O. Corriher, an award-winning author whose latest book is BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking, and Sara J. Risch, Ph.D., noted food chemist and founder and principal in the consulting firm, Science by Design.

In this episode, find out how scientists are developing "greener" plastics using plant materials. By 2020, these bioplastics could provide an alternative for about a fifth of the estimated 200 billion pounds of plastics manufactures produce each year worldwide.

Don’t let the Pennycress plant’s wimpy name fool you — this flowery little plant is known as a “hyperaccumulator,” which can suck up toxic amounts of heavy metals and help clean up polluted land.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by DoKashiteru (via ccMixter.org); Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by Justine Angus, thanvannispen, cognito, dobroide, Erdie, theta4, belloq, Connum, mikejedw and batchku.

Learn all about the plant “machinery” behind photosynthesis, the process of how plants make their own food.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by DoKashiteru (via ccMixter.org); Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by Justine Angus, thanvannispen, cognito, dobroide, Erdie, theta4, belloq, Connum, mikejedw and batchku.

Plants are amazing cleaning machines, and scientists are using them to pull pollutants right out of the ground using a technique called phytoremediation.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by DoKashiteru (via ccMixter.org); Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by Justine Angus, thanvannispen, cognito, dobroide, Erdie, theta4, belloq, Connum, mikejedw and batchku.

A huge amount of plant material is produced every year when plants die or are harvested. In this podcast, we find out how scientists are using all of this plant matter to make useful biofuel.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by DoKashiteru (via ccMixter.org); Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by Justine Angus, thanvannispen, cognito, dobroide, Erdie, theta4, belloq, Connum, mikejedw and batchku.

A huge amount of plant material is produced every year when plants die or are harvested. In this podcast, we find out how scientists are using all of this plant matter to make useful biofuel.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by Yacht; Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by morganTJ, levinj, mikejedw, Halleck, Erdle, sukaton, lonemonk and Heigh-hoo.

A huge amount of plant material is produced every year when plants die or are harvested. In this podcast, we find out how scientists are using all of this plant matter to make useful biofuel.

Intro theme and various sound effects by Adam Dylewski; music by Yacht; Creative Commons licensed audio from freesound.iua.upf.edu includes sound by morganTJ, levinj, mikejedw, Halleck, Erdle, sukaton, lonemonk and Heigh-hoo.

Researchers from Utah are whipping up an alternative to the screws, nails and metal plates used today to repair bones. Instead of using metal hardware, they want to use glue. To do it, theyre calling on Mother Nature, where theyve found a tiny sea creature that could help.

What’s inside of one-sixth of the world’s population and is a thousand times smaller than the head of a pin? It’s Helicobacter pylori, the pesky bacterium behind ulcers and other unpleasant stomach diseases. In our latest episode, find out more about H. pylori, and how a scientist from Spain named Javier Sancho may have a new way to fight this common microbe.