Event is in the Spiegeltent, pitched and ready outside the City Hall

Sheffield people - join us on Weds for an evening of psychoactive crops - history, biology and art - it’s a heady mix festivalofthemind.sheffield.ac.uk/2024/spiegel...

Science would be so much more pleasurable to read if we could revive introductions like this - why shouldn’t science be a little more poetic?

I asked my first year #botany students to find botanical anomalies in movies, comics, book, etc.

And WOW, they found a LOT!

Some of my highlights:

Some traits changed in a punctuated way at particular times, others more gradually through history. But some effects of domestication have had to be reversed by modern breeding

academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

2/2

Modern wheats differ quantitatively in many ways from their wild relatives - but when did these differences arise? New paper with Yixiang Shan uses a comparative approach to map these changes.

academic.oup.com/aob/advance-...

1/2

Sorry to hear about the passing of Neil Baker, a pioneer in photosynthesis research. Chlorophyll fluorescence approaches we now take for granted are based on his work www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2...

Come work with us!

We're hiring two postdoc research fellows working broadly on nature-based climate solutions, including mitigation and natural sinks.

If you'd like to chat about these, please get in touch.

tinyurl.com/mt8stvmr

@sheffieldpps.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social

Standing room only for Merlin Sheldrake’s talk today - lots of love for soil fungi here in Sheffield @sheffieldpps.bsky.social

🥳This paper from Besiana Sinanaj’s PhD on role of diverse symbiotic 🍄 in plant nutrition was published in @funecology.bsky.social today: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... It's her last day with us in Sheffield so this is a lovely farewell & thanks! short 🧵…

A Saturday mycorrhizal treat - I'm so pleased to share our latest findings from our research into the interactions between plants, mycorrhizal fungi and parasitic nematodes in
@NatureComms, open access link to the article here: rdcu.be/dw3NU

📜 Early human selection of crops’ wild progenitors explains the acquisitive physiology of modern cultivars

🧑‍🔬 Alicia Gómez-Fernández, Rubén Milla, et al.

📔 @natureplants.bsky.social

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#️⃣ (Feeds) #PlantScience #Crops #Agriculture #PlantBreeding #HumanSelection

It's come a long way,
But it's here to stay.
A constraint on the sensitivity of GPP to CO2.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The origins of maize were the subject of controversy for well over a century. Even in the 1950's botanists like Edgar Anderson weren't totally sure what continent it came from!

We published today a new model for maize origins (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). Let me tell you how we got here. 1/

Pretty amazing graphical abstract of a vascular plant anatomy class

The Royal Society intends to deliver a new mid-career Fellowship, funded by a £250 million Government endowment. To be launched in 2024, the Faraday Discovery Fellowships, will support scientists to pursue discovery-led ground-breaking #STEM research:
royalsociety.org/news/2023/11...

Few days to apply and become an integral part of our team @BlackInPlantSci . We are looking for a coordinator. All guidance for how to apply are at the university website. jobs.leeds.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?r…
We need you!#communitycoordinatoror. Please share

In her webiner today, Amanda pointed out that she has opportunities for two postdocs. She's wonderful - a real gem. Great work too!