A botanist sets out to study plants in the Amazon rainforest. For her first research project, she sets her sights on “red things”, so as not to stretch herself too far. She looks at red flowers and notices how hummingbirds drink their nectar; she studies red fruits and notices how parrots eat them.

She comes to some tentative hypotheses: perhaps red attracts birds. Then she notices the red undersides of the bushes in the undergrowth. Confusing! All she can say at the end of her project is that red tends to be caused by carotenoids, and also anthocyanins.

A researcher living in Canada reads her work. He looks out his window at the red maples of autumn. Ah, he says, carotenoids and/or anthocyanins. Makes sense. Science.

Of course, we can see that not much useful work has been done here. We don’t understand the function of fruit or [...]

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Outline:

(00:09) I

(01:21) II

(02:44) III

(03:17) IV

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First published:

Source:

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.