Category: Plant Cells
Under Pressure: How Plants Grow – Part 2
Comfortably Numb? – When Wounded, Do Plants Experience “Pain”?
How Anti-Ebola Drugs Are Produced In Plants….And Why
“Farmaceuticals” and “Plantibodies” – Using Genetically-Engineered Plants to Produce Drugs and Vaccines
New Meanings For “Medicinal Plants”? Plants have been used by humans for thousands of years as a source of medicines, some effective, many not so much (except perhaps as placebos). The first botanists were likely shaman herbalists who possessed the knowledge of which plants would kill and which plants would…
How Stress Shapes Plants
To make complex organisms takes specialized cells. Animals and flowering plants require specialized cells with distinct abilities in order to accomplish higher order functions – such as vision or flowering. It’s somewhat like a symphony orchestra. The orchestra integrates different musicians playing different instruments. The characteristic sounds of the instruments…
Why Plants Tell Time
How Plants Tell Time
Plants That “Remember” (Part 2) – “Secret Life of Plants” Redux
A Brief Stroll Down Memory Lane Previously, we delved into the subject of “long-term” (weeks to months) plant “memory” by exploring what’s new on the subject of vernalization, that is, how some plants “remember” that they have experienced winter. In this case, a “cold” treatment of some plant species over…
Chloroplast Movement in Plant Cells: Stirring the Pot & Avoiding the Sun
Cellular Turbulence One of the fun things to observe using a light microscope is the movement of chloroplasts around the cell, especially in the plant Elodea. This movement is referred to as cyclosis or cytoplasmic streaming. Though you can’t easily see them using a light microscope, other organelles such as…
Under Pressure: How Plants Grow – Part 2
Comfortably Numb? – When Wounded, Do Plants Experience “Pain”?
How Anti-Ebola Drugs Are Produced In Plants….And Why
“Farmaceuticals” and “Plantibodies” – Using Genetically-Engineered Plants to Produce Drugs and Vaccines

New Meanings For “Medicinal Plants”? Plants have been used by humans for thousands of years as a source of medicines, some effective, many not so much (except perhaps as placebos). The first botanists were likely shaman herbalists who possessed the knowledge of which plants would kill and which plants would…
How Stress Shapes Plants

To make complex organisms takes specialized cells. Animals and flowering plants require specialized cells with distinct abilities in order to accomplish higher order functions – such as vision or flowering. It’s somewhat like a symphony orchestra. The orchestra integrates different musicians playing different instruments. The characteristic sounds of the instruments…
Why Plants Tell Time
How Plants Tell Time
Plants That “Remember” (Part 2) – “Secret Life of Plants” Redux

A Brief Stroll Down Memory Lane Previously, we delved into the subject of “long-term” (weeks to months) plant “memory” by exploring what’s new on the subject of vernalization, that is, how some plants “remember” that they have experienced winter. In this case, a “cold” treatment of some plant species over…
Chloroplast Movement in Plant Cells: Stirring the Pot & Avoiding the Sun

Cellular Turbulence One of the fun things to observe using a light microscope is the movement of chloroplasts around the cell, especially in the plant Elodea. This movement is referred to as cyclosis or cytoplasmic streaming. Though you can’t easily see them using a light microscope, other organelles such as…