Balancing conservation and agriculture

Recently I was able to attend the annual science meeting at the John Innes Centre, and hear about some amazing science going on across the insitute. One talk topic particularly caught my interest- balancing food production with environmental conservation.

Dr Diane Saunders gave a really interesting talk about the delicate balance currently being investigated involving the Common Barberry Bush, the Barberry Carpet Moth, and the cereal disease wheat stem rust- which I am going to share with you in this post.

The truth about hay fever

It’s that time of year. The time when we don sunglasses to hide our streaming eyes, and are perpetually drugged up to or eyeballs with anti-histamines- but what is hayfever exactly and what causes it?

How do Plants know when to flower?

Spring has finally come, and everywhere you look flowers are beginning to bloom. But, how on earth do plants know its spring and that its time to start flowering?

Natures Medicine Box

Did you know that a lot of our most common medicines are plant-based in origin?

There is more to plants than Photosynthesis

Plant science. This is a area of science that I have grown to love, and one in which I would like to continue my scientific career. But for me, this wasn’t always the case.

How plant science will change the world — The Biochemist Blog

Before Christmas I was given the opportunity to write a post for The Biochemist Blog- check it out via the link below!

By Erica Hawkins, John Innes Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich Plant science is a lot more important than you realise. It has often been cast as cell biology’s less exciting sibling. What is the point of studying root growth, flowering or stomatal aperture? There are way more important things to be researching… aren’t there?

via How plant science will change the world — The Biochemist Blog

Tomatoes, Resveratrol and Humans

Hi everyone,

Since starting up on instagram I have had quite a few questions about my project- and about why I am working with human cells when I am a plant biologist! So, in this weeks post I am going to talk to you a bit more about my PhD research.

Out of this world plants

On Wednesday I attended (and volunteered at) a pint of science event- “An evening with an astronaut”. This was an amazing event with Dr Michael Foale (astronaut) and ISSET Director Chris Barber- which showed us about what it is like living in space.

Whats new in the world of Plants?

January so far has been an exciting month for plant science- here are three of my favourite plant stories that may have passed you by!

Plants that do more

Happy New Year everyone!!

To kick off the new year here is a post about some uses of plants that you may not have known about…

Phytoremediation:

Phytoremediation is a fancy way of saying ‘using plants to remove contamination’.