What Do Suburban Lawns and the Vietnam War Have in Common? Answer: The herbicide 2,4-D. You may be familiar with this herbicide as an active ingredient in “Weed ‘n Feed®”, “Weed B Gon MAX®”, Turf Builder® With Weed Control”, etc.. During the Vietnam War, it was an active ingredient in…
Articles about photosynthesis in the popular press or online often make me cringe. Why? Because sometimes they lead people to think that the oxygen (O2) produced by photosynthesis is derived from carbon dioxide (CO2). Some even further compound their mistake by stating that plants actually convert CO2 into O2 at…
As previously mentioned….if most climatologists are correct, then parts of the Earth’s surface may experience increasing episodes of heat and drought as a result of global “weirding”. (see here and here and here for recent examples) Some of the effects of heat on photosynthesis were considered in part 1 of…
If most climatologists are correct, then parts of the Earth’s surface may experience increasing episodes of heat and drought as a result of global “weirding”. (see here for a current example) In a another post in this blog, I briefly explore the complex subject of how increasing atmospheric CO2 may…
The Power of Movement in Plants Most of a flowering plant’s development and physiology is regulated by plant hormones. The first of these chemical signals to be isolated and characterized was auxin. In the 1930’s, after the initial discovery of auxin by Frits Went in 1928, he, Kenneth Thimann, and…
What do a fungal disease of rice, dwarf plants, flowering, and beer have in common? Answer: They all may involve the action of the plant hormone gibberellin, a.k.a. gibberellic acid (GA). Let me explain….. This plant hormone was first discovered by Japanese scientists working on a rice disease called bakanae…
The eye of a honey bee (photo credits). Flowers look very different to insect pollinators, such as honey bees, compared to what we mammals see. As the photo on the left shows, bees have compound eyes. How a bee sees patterns as a result of its compound eyes is wonderfully…