tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45137582713989622582024-03-16T03:09:35.944+02:00The Daily PlantA surprising look at the plants around us and how they've influenced our world.Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-81988800793073978592023-04-02T11:34:00.002+03:002023-04-02T16:51:03.233+03:00Screaming plants<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">11 years ago I posted this April 1st blog about plants screaming when cut by a lawnmower </span><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://whataplantknows.blogspot.com/2012/04/screaming-plants-mean-no-more-fairways.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0JOjSMObD7D7N_vnVDKPL1lKgqvjsp1l4sl25y3LnwePj87_z8KS4zbVo" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">http://whataplantknows.blogspot.com/.../screaming-plants...</a></span></span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Some (including close friends) fell for it and I was even tracked down to be interviewed about the science, which led me to emphasize that this was an April fool's joke!</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But now we have our first evidence for "screaming" plants!</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now my friend and colleague Prof. Lilach Hadany at Tel Aviv University <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>published yesterday a landmark paper in CELL that shows for the first time that plants emit sounds that carry biological information!: <a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3?fbclid=IwAR2nsdTw6qfFQlszR7agsvObljjq9uFkv2EoAa3T88jH1TA08pYcrsKqnos" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00262-3</a></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtlQphGcLrH9p8L8ai6js_Dn1IY7JwMzBTnRH8mnMwAK7UdbwxrXjOSkX_Dh80Fj24pBjkHsYgVmhIjIOJdAJmNj5KEgitPQ5YcOYjvuiqXdy2RaCI5iQuRPyGhV8VDY0WpwGFtYHZ5nllzrrugd4U-0w_Tktx2PikUKYUoA0rlTfyaa2rkQWM6uy4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="375" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtlQphGcLrH9p8L8ai6js_Dn1IY7JwMzBTnRH8mnMwAK7UdbwxrXjOSkX_Dh80Fj24pBjkHsYgVmhIjIOJdAJmNj5KEgitPQ5YcOYjvuiqXdy2RaCI5iQuRPyGhV8VDY0WpwGFtYHZ5nllzrrugd4U-0w_Tktx2PikUKYUoA0rlTfyaa2rkQWM6uy4=w320-h320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here for example is what a tomato sounds like is it doesn't have enough water:</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://static.nytimes.com/podcasts/2023/03/30/science/30tb-plant-sounds-clip/Plant-Sounds-CREDIT-Khait-et-al-.mp3" target="_blank">thirsty tomato</a><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And this is what a grapevine sounds like after being cut:</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://static.nytimes.com/podcasts/2023/03/30/science/30tb-plant-sounds-grapevine/multiple-grapevine-cut.mp3" target="_blank">Grapevine after being cut</a><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'm proud to have has an influence on this research as its roots (all pun intended) can be traced back to my discussions with Lilach while I was writing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Plant_Knows" target="_blank">What a Plant Knows</a>.</span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">So this is NOT an April Fool's hoax. Plant's do emit sounds (But they don't scream <span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="đ" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t57/1/16/1f609.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span>)!</span></div>Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-65988868382690722242021-01-27T13:55:00.001+02:002021-01-27T17:16:42.308+02:00Combatting Plant Blindness<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><i>Tu
Bishvat</i>, the Jewish Arbor Day is a call against "plant blindness". When I say "plant
blindness", I'm not referring to a plant's visual acuity. Plants are
anything but blind. While plants may not see in pictures like you or me, they
are acutely aware of the surrounding light in their environments. Plants
discern between blue and red light, and use this information to know which
direction to grow. Your plants on the windowsill bend to the sunlight so that
they can absorb the light needed for photosynthesis, the energy-producing
metabolism of the plant. Plants actually know how to measure the length of the
night, the period between sunset and sunrise. Plants differentiate between the
ever-dimming scarlet light of sunset, and the brightening orange light of
sunrise, and use this information to determine when to flower. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">"Plant
blindness" relates less to the plants' abilities, as it does to ours: we
are often blind to plants.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">That's
not to say that we don't see plants. We see them all around us: Arazim and
Orenim in the forest, grass in our lawns, shkadia blossoms in harei jerusalem,
and rakafot and calaniot in the field. We see miles of wheat fields as we drive
south on Route 6. While we see plants as passive objects in our visual
landscape, we are blind to their complexity. The static plant world we
experience belies a dynamic plant community that includes perception, communication
and complex information processing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Why
are we blind to the complexity of the plant world? First, plant movements, with
the noted exception of a few rapid movers such as the Venus Fly Trap, occur
over long timeframes â too slow for our impatient eyes. Leaves slowly move up
and down in response to changes in temperature and light; stems dance in
various shapes ranging from circles to figure 8s, but only over a course of
several hours, so that only though time-lapse photography do we discern these
purposeful motions that characterize the plant world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Second,<i>
</i>we see only half of the plant world â the stems, leaves and flowers.
Underground, the other half of the plant world, the roots, are continuously
exploring, probing the soil for nutrients, signs of water, and differentiating
between friend and foe. The roots of some species are so advanced that they
grow away from their cousins, but will grow over, and steal resources from
roots of another species!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">So
to combat plant blindness in humans, we have to learn to appreciate the
complexity we can't see. We need to learn to see the beauty in the thousands of
meticulous scientific studies which have elucidated the ways plants sense their
environment, whether by seeing light, or smelling their neighbors, or listening
to insects. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">And
why should plants be so complex in their abilities to sense the environment? To
survive. As opposed to us, plants are literally rooted in one place. They can't
escape their environment. Humans and other animals respond to hostile
environments by running away, by seeking out more hospitable conditions. Plants
can't run away from stress. Held in place, they must suffer extreme changes in
temperature, drought and flooding, strong winds, and insect infestations. Their
survival is not based on the ability to escape, but rather to adapt. Thus plants
have to be very aware of changes in their environment so that they can quickly
respond and survive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Yes
plants are acutely aware of the world around them. They are aware of their
visual environment. They are aware of aromas surrounding them and respond to
minute quantities of volatile compounds wafting in the air. Plants know when
they are being touched and they are aware of gravity â they can change their
shapes to ensure that shoots grow up and roots grow down. And plants are aware
of their past â they remember past infections and the conditions theyâve
weathered, and then modify their current physiology based on these memories. And
most importantly they integrate all this diverse information to yield a plant
exquisitely adapted to its current environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">We
need to appreciate a </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">plants'
complexity, because there is one more thing we are blind to when it comes to
plants - We are blind to our dependence on them.</span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> We
wake up in our house made of wood from the forests of Maine, pour a cup of
coffee brewed from the coffee beans grown in Brazil, throw on a tee-shirt made
of Indian cotton, and eat a locally-sourced tomato and cucumber salad, with toast
made from wheat grown in Kansas. We drive our kids to school in a car with
tires made of rubber that was grown in Africa and fueled by gasoline derived
from Cycad trees that died millions of years ago. Chemicals extracted from
plants can cure cancer and reduce fever, or increase our appetite, calm our
nerves or block pain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And most
importantly, we breathe the oxygen produced by plants worldwide. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Our existence
is totally dependent on ensuring the continuation of plant life on Earth. So
doesn't it behoove us thie Tu B'shvat to be a bit more appreciative of plants?
To truly see them for what they are â complex and amazing organisms which not
only make us happy to look at, but which provide us with the gift of life.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-47826765425620393252018-04-01T01:25:00.000+03:002018-04-01T23:34:44.116+03:00The VQ of Plant Intelligence<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
April 1, 2018<br />
<br />
âPlant Intelligenceâ has been greatly debate by plant biologists and philosophers alike [1â9]. Yet throughout this debate, no measure of plant intelligence has been proposed.<br />
<br />
Indeed, if plant intelligence exists, it must be quantifiable similar to human intelligence [10].<br />
<br />
<b>Towards this end, the<i> Daily Plant </i>introduces the <i>VQ</i>, the "<i>Vegetal Quotient</i>", which will be the plant equivalent of IQ.</b><br />
<br />
We assume that some plants will have a high VQ, akin to genius plants, while others will be vegetally challenged, and have a relatively low VQ.<br />
<br />
To make the VQ statistically valid, we need your help. Please fill in the VQ form below. Just as Binetâs original test has been modified over the past century [10], we realize that this test is only a beginning. However with your help we can make the VQ as valid a description of plant intelligence as IQ is of human intelligence.<br />
<br />
If the form below does not work, click <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3imFptpvPdCGjKpSiyyxFUCCTh1oGlqn_vwtnabFMFqWDFA/viewform?usp=sf_link" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Much thanks for your help!<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Bibliography</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<!--[if supportFields]><span style='mso-element:field-begin'></span>ADDIN
F1000_CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY<span style='mso-element:field-separator'></span><![endif]--><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1) Alpi,
A., Amrhein, N., Bertl, A., Blatt, M.R., Blumwald, E., Cervone, F., Dainty, J.,
De Michelis, M.I., Epstein, E., Galston, A.W., Goldsmith, M.H.M., Hawes, C.,
Hell, R., Hetherington, A., Hofte, H., Juergens, G., Leaver, C.J., Moroni, A.,
Murphy, A., Oparka, K., Perata, P., Quader, H., Rausch, T., Ritzenthaler, C.,
Rivetta, A., Robinson, D.G., Sanders, D., Scheres, B., Schumacher, K.,
Sentenac, H., Slayman, C.L., Soave, C., Somerville, C., Taiz, L., Thiel, G. and
Wagner, R. 2007. Plant neurobiology: no brain, no gain? <i>Trends in Plant Science</i> 12, pp. 135â136.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(2) Brenner, E.D., Stahlberg, R., Mancuso, S., Vivanco, J.,
Baluska, F. and Van Volkenburgh, E. 2006. Plant neurobiology: an integrated
view of plant signaling. <i>Trends in Plant
Science</i> 11(8), pp. 413â419.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(3) Calvo, P. and BaluĆĄka, F. 2015. Conditions for minimal
intelligence across eukaryota: a cognitive science perspective. <i>Frontiers in psychology</i> 6, p. 1329.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(4) Van Loon, L.C. 2016. The intelligent behavior of plants. <i>Trends in Plant Science</i> 21(4), pp.
286â294.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(5) Marder, M. 2013. Plant intelligence and attention. <i>Plant signaling & behavior</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(6) Marder, M. 2012. Plant intentionality and the
phenomenological framework of plant intelligence. <i>Plant Signaling & Behavior</i> 7(11), pp. 1365â1372.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(7) Trewavas, A. 2016. Intelligence, cognition, and language of
green plants. <i>Frontiers in psychology</i>
7, p. 588.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(8) Trewavas, A. 2017. The foundations of plant intelligence. <i>Interface focus</i> 7(3), p. 20160098.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:
Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:HE'><span style='mso-element:
field-end'></span></span><![endif]--><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(9) Trewavas, A.J. 2012. Plants are intelligent too. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EMBO Reports</i> 13(9), pp. 772â3; author
reply 773.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(10) Binet, A., Simon, T. and Town, C.H. 1912. <i>A method of measuring the development of the intelligence of young children</i>. Lincoln, Ill.,: Courier.</span></div>
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="4800" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3imFptpvPdCGjKpSiyyxFUCCTh1oGlqn_vwtnabFMFqWDFA/viewform?embedded=true" width="760">Loading...</iframe></div>
Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-70782668137323719682015-11-24T23:12:00.001+02:002015-11-24T23:12:12.799+02:00DNA is DNA is DNA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few months ago I was interviewed by <a href="https://storypreservation.wordpress.com/">Story Preservation Initiative</a>. What started out as a nice interview about <i>What A Plant Knows</i>, developed into a discussion about how to feed the world, and then to a discussion about what are mistakenly called "GMOs", or what I prefer to call, the use of genetic engineering in agriculture. In most of the interviews connected to my book, I've shied away from going head on into my opinions on genetic engineering,mainly because i didn't want to shift the attention away from the book. But in this interview, when asked, I couldn't hold back any longer, and launched into a 10 minute monologue. Apparently, once I let loose, i couldn't stop.
<br /><br />While the interview was recorded as a discussion, it was edited into a monologue of over an hour, which you can access <a href="https://storypreservation.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/what-a-plant-knows/">here</a>. Below is the part pertaining to genetic engineering.
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</div>Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-81320384552613802582015-10-05T23:11:00.003+03:002015-10-05T23:11:48.080+03:002015 Nobel Prize highlights importance of botanical chemistry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
1600 years ago, a Chinese physician wrote in a book called "Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One's Sleeve", that soaking a plant now known as <i>Artemisia annua </i> in water, and then drinking the juice, can reduce fever. This text was rediscovered in the second half of the 20th century by a then obscure Chinese pharmacologist, Tu Youyou. Ms Tu was working on a secret project to find a novel cure for malaria. She found that artemisia extract was highly efficient in combating the malaria parasite. Her work led to the development of the drug artemisinin, which is now widely used in malaria treatment in Africa. Ms. Tu's role in the discovery of artemisinin remained hidden from the West for most of her life. But now at the age of 85, she has been recognized with the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her work<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03464/nobel-prize-medici_3464221b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03464/nobel-prize-medici_3464221b.jpg" height="248" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption">An illustration describing Ms Tu's work displayed during the press conference announcing the winners of the Nobel Medicine Prize. Linked from and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11912754/Nobel-Prize-for-Chinese-traditional-medicine-expert-who-developed-malaria-cure.html">The Telegraph</a>: Nobel Prize for Chinese traditional medicine expert who developed malaria cure. Photo: AFP </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /><br />This reminds us that many of our medicines have their roots in botany. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates described a bitter substance, now known to be salicylic acid, from willow bark that could ease aches and reduce fevers. Other cultures in the ancient Middle East also used willow bark as a medicine, as did Native Americans. Centuries later, we know salicylic acid as the chemical precursor for aspirin (which is acetylsalicylic acid), and salicylic acid itself is a key ingredient in many modern anti-acne face washes.<br /><br />The Pacific Yew is a conifer found primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Its thin scaly back would probably go unnoticed if not for the fact that it contains a chemical called paclitaxel, or more commonly known as the chemotherapy drug Taxol. Taxol was discovered in the mid 1960s as part of a large-scale program to identify natural products which might be used against cancer. In 1992 Taxol was approved by the FDA for use in fighting breast, ovarian and lung (and a few other) cancers. <br /><br />And what would life be like without the opium poppy, the source of morphine or codeine. The medicinal (and likely recreational) uses of opium poppy have been known for thousands of years. And the increasingly legal uses of cannabinoids in western medical protocols cannot be ignored.<br /><br />These are prime examples of how a deep knowledge of botanical diversity and chemistry can lead to incredibly important applications.<br /><br />Unfortunately, education towards and development of expertise in these fields over the past decades were not a priority for many universities, where plant biology outside of the study of model organisms was looked down upon. At Tel Aviv University we've recognized the importance of botanical pharmacology. As Dean of the Faculty of Life Sciences, together with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, we have initiated a search for a botanical pharmacologist whose position will be divided between our two Faculties, between plant biology and pharmacology. Such interdisciplinary research is critical for exploiting the medicinal potential hidden in plants.<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-39601338362093438582015-09-13T00:00:00.001+03:002015-09-16T00:22:20.086+03:00My take on feeding the world<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A few months ago I was interviewed by <a href="https://storypreservation.wordpress.com/">Story Preservation Initiative</a>. What started out as a nice interview about <i>What A Plant Knows</i>, developed into a discussion about global food security and the role of genetic engineering in agriculture. The interview was edited into a monologue of over an hour, which you can access <a href="https://storypreservation.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/what-a-plant-knows/">here</a>. Below is the part pertaining to feeding the world.
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Want the bottomline? (1) Increase yield per water unit; (2) reduce food loss from field to fridge and food waste from fridge to trash; (3) modify our diet; (4) adopt technology. <br> <br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-77654514779331493902015-09-07T22:58:00.001+03:002015-09-07T23:00:51.632+03:00Hawking Food Security in India<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Iâve found myself in many bizarre situations. None though perhaps surpasses what I did last week. I hawked Tel Aviv University programs at an Indian trade-fair aimed at the food industry.<br />
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I was the guest of the <a href="http://www.cii.in/" target="_blank">Confederation of Indian Industries</a> trade show called <a href="http://www.foodpro.in/" target="_blank">FOODPRO 2015</a>. I have been interacting with CII for almost two years as co-chair of the India-Israel Forum sub-group on Food Security. I was one of the guest speakers for the conference part of the event. That in itself is not so bizarre â Iâve given talks over the years to diverse audiences. But what was bizarre is that they asked us also to man a booth in the exhibition part of the trade-show. So one of the 250 exhibitors at Chennaiâs FOODPRO 2015 was the <a href="http://foodsecurity.tau.ac.il/" target="_blank">Manna Program for Food Safety and Security at Tel Aviv University</a>. At both #35, we handed out flyers about our summer program and sang the praises of Tel Aviv University. To our right in booth #36 was CoCo Rain â â100% pure tender coconut waterâ. To our left in booth # 34 was Chennai Food Testing, a chemical service lab. Across the aisle in booth 112, Kookmate had a large exhibit of industrial cooking machines including an automatic chipati maker. Other booths included spice grinders, chicken pluckers, and sweet coffee machines. Booth H43-A belonged to "Spanker International". We didn't spend much time there.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfDRNzZkQklNLQccS5t4boPGqcPhjUjCgrNmJ6cnwNKPW1GqAoRNG-P0YSU6Z73JeSE0bMMVhyphenhyphen9ZFFKK2_16RUntbZ3IgkHMvcV_2scbDsLnuX5q4-1fjgvsH2ut0CZ55-SEyOUX2r54/s1600/IMG_20150829_134252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEfDRNzZkQklNLQccS5t4boPGqcPhjUjCgrNmJ6cnwNKPW1GqAoRNG-P0YSU6Z73JeSE0bMMVhyphenhyphen9ZFFKK2_16RUntbZ3IgkHMvcV_2scbDsLnuX5q4-1fjgvsH2ut0CZ55-SEyOUX2r54/s320/IMG_20150829_134252.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maya running our booth.</td></tr>
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Obviously, Maya Oren, the Program Director at Manna, in her sleeveless back dress, and me with light brown hair, and our promoting an advanced educational program, stood out among the sari-clad women and tika-adorned men selling ice cream machines, rice makers and automatic mixers. Our stall was frequented by an endless stream of curious visitors, most long past university age, who eagerly snapped pictures (especially of Maya), took home TAU leaflets, and especially, our keyfobs. Many of the conversations bordered on the absurd â âIn which part of India Tel Aviv is?â, âWhat are you selling?â, âAre you interested in puffballs?â. It was like touring around India, while staying in one place. We quickly adopted the head bob, which we found made us more understood.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxvHesSG6cAD4vtqPp1IVTrSX9SdqQ-eLN8uaXlIKnqqWKkQbecUIm7TOqUqw1TnxgmzvdFiQByiTSKRicZLnYgKoVQGJ9JcCAnWfvPlbabkJWUdSuG8vMzBhG3jipE0NZt6E2PrwkIE/s1600/IMG_20150829_140648.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIxvHesSG6cAD4vtqPp1IVTrSX9SdqQ-eLN8uaXlIKnqqWKkQbecUIm7TOqUqw1TnxgmzvdFiQByiTSKRicZLnYgKoVQGJ9JcCAnWfvPlbabkJWUdSuG8vMzBhG3jipE0NZt6E2PrwkIE/s200/IMG_20150829_140648.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Without a doubt, most of our time was spent more in promoting Israel awareness than in attracting students. But we also met a group of motivated college students studying entrepreneurship who surrounded us, excited about the possibility of studying in the âstart-upâ nation. They were at the fair as part of a class on agro innovation. And we met a number of industrialists, who found in Tel Aviv University a novel option to the American universities they had been considering for their children. And we bought spices â 8 different types of curry for $5. I thought of taking home a chipati maker, but it wouldnât fit in my suitcase.<br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-10962439777059840312015-08-30T23:57:00.000+03:002015-08-31T16:11:47.953+03:00My Pen Pal, Oliver Sacks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As a kid, I dreamt of having a pen pal in a faraway place. A
pen pal who could be a confidant, and with whom I could share ideas and
experiences, and who would teach me about the strange world he lived in. In
those days before Facebook and WhatsApp, before chatrooms and discussion
groups, the words âDear Pen Palâ, which I had seen romanticized on television
and in cinema, seemed to me magical, as did the closing âyour friend, â.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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I did try a few times, through organized school activities,
to write to a pen pal, but I donât remember these efforts lasting more than one
exchange. This need for an unknown pen pal probably found a proxy after age 11,
in the numerous letters I wrote to friends across the country I had made while away
at camp each summer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Until I turned 51 that is. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t31.0-8/1559422_10152190336478457_811968401356093955_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t31.0-8/1559422_10152190336478457_811968401356093955_o.jpg" width="150" /></a>One day, while sifting through the mail in my office, I
found a letter with a hand-written address to me, and in the return address was
printed âDr. Oliver Sacks, New Yorkâ. I remarked to a friend who happened to be
visiting in my office at the time, âOlive Sacks. Who is Oliver Sacks? Isnât
that the neurobiologist who wrote <i>The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat</i>?â.
Why would he be writing me?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Inside I found a 3-page letter, hand-written by fountain pen
in a flowing script. I admit that I had to remember for a second how to read
script, Iâd grown so use to email. Oliver wrote to tell me how much he enjoyed
reading <i>What a Plant Knowsâ </i>and then went on to tell me of his own
experience as a botanist, his quest for understanding what consciousness is, and
how he related to my book. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Needless to say I was flabbergasted. I spent the next six
hours crafting a reply, which I realized would also have to be written by hand.
Numerous attempts found their way to the trash bin as I scratched out mistakes
and misspellings. How did we survive without spell-check and backspace? I
wanted to come across as erudite, but not pompous, casual, but not
disrespectful. What could I write to the great Oliver Sacks which would at all
interest him?<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the letter was hand-written, and I didnât think to snap a
picture of it, I donât recall what I wrote. Iâm sure it had to do with plant
biology and plant intelligence. I signed
it, âSincerely yours, Danny Chamovitzâ, put it in an envelope (after I found
one of those arcane things) and sent it off to New York.<o:p></o:p></div>
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3 weeks later I received another hand-written letter, again
3 pages long, and with a copy of his soon-to-be-published piece in the New York
Review of Books, â<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/apr/24/mental-life-plants-and-worms-among-others/" target="_blank">TheMental Life of Plants and Worms, Among Others</a>â where he gave some mention to my
book. Again I was flabbergasted, especially as he signed it this time, âyour
friend, Oliverâ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #333333; mso-ansi-language: EN;">There
it was. I had a pen pal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;">Oliver and I corresponded several more times. I visited with him in Jerusalem, where I had the honor of </span><a href="https://youtu.be/yLPwc5lgPG0?t=7m20s" target="_blank">interviewing him as a public lecture</a><span style="color: #333333;">. He hosted my wife Shira and I for lunch in his apartment in New York. We corresponded after his announcement of his impending doom, and we corresponded a few weeks ago. In his letters he was full of life and wonder of our world, questioning me on any new studies on the abilities of plants, and telling me of his latest projects. I would write back with some details of obscure experiments, and comment on articles he quoted to me, and I would close with âYour friend, Dannyâ.</span></div>
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In our short friendship I learned humility, curiosity and
the importance of intellectual honesty. And courage. Many people will mourn the
loss of one of our ageâs great communicators of the mind. I mourn the loss of
my pen pal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-83779727119051200412014-07-07T22:49:00.000+03:002014-07-08T20:18:26.559+03:00Plants in the City: Plants respond to vibratorsRecently there's been a lot of noise in the popular press about plants responding to the sounds of leaf-chewing insects.<br />
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Even the New York Times published an article entitled "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/science/noisy-predators-put-plants-on-alert-study-finds.html?_r=0">Noisy Predators Put Plants on Alert, Study Finds</a>".<br />
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Such a headline calls into the question the validity of a previous blog here, <a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/05/what-plant-hears.html">What a Plant Hears</a> and Chapter 4 of <a href="http://www.whataplantknows.com/">WHAT A PLANT KNOWS</a> where I concluded "in lieu of any hard data to the contrary, we must conclude for now that plants are deaf".<br />
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So what's going on here? Is there finally hard data indicating that plants hear? <br />
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To really answer this question, one has to read the primary literature, and that is the research paper, "<a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-014-2995-6" target="_blank">Plants respond to leaf vibrations caused by insect herbivore chewing</a>, that was published recently in <i>Oecologia</i>.<br />
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Let's briefly read how the experiment was carried out: </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The green vibrator attached under the leaf</td></tr>
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<i>Chewing vibrations were recorded with laser Doppler vibrometry. To experimentally reproduce the caterpillar feeding vibrations, we used piezoelectric actuators supported under a leaf and attached to the leaf using accelerometer mounting wax</i>." (see picture on right)</blockquote>
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In other words, the scientists recorded the <i>vibrations </i>caused by chewing, and then reproduced these vibration with a<i> vibrator attached to the leaf. </i>These physical vibration elicited a chemical response in the plant similar to the chemical response to insect chewing. This is a very interesting finding. But what it shows is the plants respond to physical vibrations induced by being attached to a microvibrator.</div>
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So if the popular press insists on bombastic news items, perhaps it would be better to say: "Scientists Find That Plants are Similar to Samantha - They Respond to Vibrators"</div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-75137754450483817002014-04-01T09:00:00.001+03:002018-04-07T21:03:16.818+03:00Intelligent Plants for Intelligent Gardens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
First there were courses for maximizing your child's IQ. Then came workshops for utilizing emotional intelligence. Now the latest fad sweeping New York and California is Intelligent Gardens - Gardens with a high VQ.<br />
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"People are no longer satisfied with a standard run of the mill garden with dull plants. My customers demand that ionly the most intelligent plants populate their gardens" said Al Binet, the founder of <i>IP - Intelligent Plants, Inc.</i><br />
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"We've developed a new scale called the Vegetal Quotient, or VQ for short, which measures the intelligence of individual plants on a scale of 50 - 150. A plant with a VQ of 150 would be considered highly intelligent (and thus highly sought after by our customers) while a plant with a VQ of 50 would not be found in a an advanced garden."<br />
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The VQ considers a number of independent parameters such as the time needed for a plant to differentiate <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Dionaea muscipula</i>, has a high VQ due<br />
to its ability to count, remember, and move.</td></tr>
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between wave lengths of light, its sensitivity to tactile stimulation, and its ability to communicate with its neighbors. A highly intelligent plant would also have the ability to communicate not only with neighboring plants, but with other species as well, such as insects.<br />
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"I've invested hundred's of thousands of dollars in classes for my children to make sure that they test high in academic, social and emotional intelligence. " says Raymond Cattell, "So of course I would want the surrounded only by the most intelligent plants. Mediocre and dim-witted plants have no place in my garden."<br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-81473077418813984682013-11-21T22:40:00.003+02:002013-11-21T22:40:31.623+02:00I did NOT write this pseudoscience mumbo-jumboWhat would you do when find that an article you had published was unlawfully copied by another website as if you were a guest writer, and then given free permission to republish by that same site?<br />
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What do you do if not only had one of your articles has been unlawfully redistributed, but that its been altered with a paragraph you never wrote?<br />
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And what would you do if this ghost-written paragraph made you seem like a pseudo-scientific nut?<br />
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Well, if you have answers, please let me know - I need them.<br />
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In the past 3 weeks, over 1000 web hits have attributed the following paragraph to me:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
âPlants have scientifically been show[n] to draw alternative sources of energy from other plants. Plants influence each other in many ways and they communicate through "nanomechanical oscillations" vibrations on the tiniest atomic or molecular scale or as close as you can get to telepathic communication. However, their sense and communication are measureable in very much the ways as are humans.â</blockquote>
In case its not clear, I DID NOT WRITE THIS!!<br />
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There is NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF for any of this.There is no such thing as <i>alternative sources of energy from plants </i>(unless you are talking about biofuels, which I doubt was the intent here); there is no such thing as plant <i>communication through nanomechanical oscilations</i> or<i> telepathic communication</i>. This is pseudoscience new-age mumbo-jumbo at its worse. And I am mortified that it was attributed to me.<br />
<br />Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-26588619912732738762013-11-19T16:16:00.003+02:002013-11-19T16:16:43.467+02:00How to preserve leavesThis may be useful. I've taken it from the Forum section of my Coursera class:<br />
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<u>Charles (a student):</u> </div>
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Does anybody knows what's the best procedure to preserve leaves?<br />
One of my hobbies is collecting leaves, (yeah I know, It sounds sort of strange), sometimes I let the leaves in a book, but sometimes they lose their color, is there any other way to preserve their color?<br />
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<u>Homo Neanderthal (another student):</u><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent;">Yes - microwave them - it dries them out and stops breakdown and release/mixing/degradation of colours. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent;">Take some paper towels, put the leaves between them and then give them 30s or more in the microwave. This will depend on the power of your microwave and the thickness/size of the leaves - don't use already dry fallen ones - take them from the tree while they are moist and microwave them until dry.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">The main risk is over microwaving - they can catch fire if you overdo it - so keep an eye on them. If they curl when you take them out - that is not long enough..</span></div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-84775581213447145932013-09-28T19:17:00.000+03:002013-09-28T19:17:30.329+03:00Plant biology in the age of MOOCsMOOCs, massive open online courses, are revolutionizing the way we approach higher (and maybe even lower) education. Courses offered by <a href="https://www.coursera.org/" target="_blank">Coursera</a>, <a href="https://www.udacity.com/" target="_blank">Udacity </a>and <a href="https://www.edx.org/" target="_blank">edX </a>reach students all over the globe, democratizing the availability of high-level advanced education. Many courses have had registrations of over 100,000!<br />
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Let me repeat that: Many courses have had registrations of over 100,000! Udacity's course <i>Introduction to Computer Science</i> had over 300,000 students. 180,000 took <i>Machine Learning</i>, and as seen in the table here, many of Coursera's offerings have had huge enrollments.<br />
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I have the honor and responsibility of presenting Coursera's first MOOC on plant biology: <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/plantknows" target="_blank"><i>What a Plant Knows (and other things that you didn't know about plants)</i></a>. This seven-lecture series, adapted from my book <a href="http://www.whataplantknows.com/" target="_blank">What A Plant Knows</a>, starts October 1. This course is offered as a "science for non-science majors" course, and several universities, including Tel Aviv University, are offering credit for this on line course.<br />
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My motivation for developing this course is a desire to popularize the amazing complexity of plant biology and plant research. As a biology professor, I have been repeatedly discouraged by the general ignorance of plant biology, not only in the general public, but also among my colleagues. On a practical level, this is manifested in reduced interest in botany-related courses and in plant research in general (and subsequent funding for plant biology research).<br />
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While many factors have contributed to the drop in popularity of plant-based research, part of the responsibility falls on us plant biologists who have done a rather lousy job of communicating both the excitement and importance of research in plants. We've left the playing field of public opinion empty for "brain sciences" and "personalized medicine" to prevail, and we've seen academic agendas dominated by both programs and infrastructure dedicated to such fields. While not denigrating the importance of these subjects, I think growing food for the world's burgeoning population should get at least equal attention.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWhXMF6G5PW2kTUfiQvqAwa4pHR1kK9KUivp40oZcD59REuIo6qqJAPVYAN9naWka8_Osumveu_1dJwMXr9mDk9Pc6hLMIrGpa8Op-N28yKAPZRH2m14hwDpnanE1cIawT4T5oUtqNt8/w353-h212-p-no/20130717_111830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWhXMF6G5PW2kTUfiQvqAwa4pHR1kK9KUivp40oZcD59REuIo6qqJAPVYAN9naWka8_Osumveu_1dJwMXr9mDk9Pc6hLMIrGpa8Op-N28yKAPZRH2m14hwDpnanE1cIawT4T5oUtqNt8/w353-h212-p-no/20130717_111830.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My colleague Nir Ohad helping me in one of the lectures</td></tr>
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With this in mind, I've designed What A Plant Knows as a scientifically valid, yet accessible, introduction to plant biology for the non-expert. It has not been a simple task. Doing "popular biology" is not inherent in our training as scientists. Presenting a popular version of plant biology without "dumbing it down" is not trivial. Teaching to a camera is completely different than teaching to a lecture how filled with questioning students. With no feedback from facial expressions, and no questions, how do I know if I was clear?<br />
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And I cannot predict the responses of my peers. Will presenting such a popular course be considered selling out? Would the time I spent developing this course been better spent furthering the basic research carried out in my lab?<br />
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Hopefully, if even a small percentage of the tens of thousands of students who have registered for the course find a new interest in plant sciences, then we as plant biologists can tap into this interest to influence a new generation of scientists.<br />
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<a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/plantknows" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 226, 225); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-top: -1px; padding: 10px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Enroll in What a Plant Knows »</a></div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-40420265700630516802013-09-26T11:55:00.000+03:002013-09-26T11:55:08.466+03:00The Serendipitous, Cross-Generational Story that Lead Me to CourseraCopied from: <a href="http://blog.coursera.org/post/62005035923/the-serendipitous-cross-generational-story-of-upcoming" style="background-color: transparent;">http://blog.coursera.org/post/62005035923/the-serendipitous-cross-generational-story-of-upcoming</a><br />
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23 YEARS AGOâŠI MET DOV KOLLER</h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">While working towards my Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, I took an advanced graduate seminar entitled âPhotobiologyâ, taught by Prof. Dov Koller. I knew very little about the subject, and registered for the course probably as much for its fitting my schedule, as for any other reason. Little did I know then that this 2-point seminar would have a lasting influence on my life, and even connect me to the Coursera course I am offering this fall entitled What a Plant Knows. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><img alt="Dov Koller" src="http://media.tumblr.com/f38b7c9aaae6247f437ec92497ba0ffe/tumblr_inline_mtjsyk0yzH1rg0l34.png" style="background-color: white; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 6px 15px 6px 6px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 200px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Dov was a large man, with a ready smile and an inherent ability to convey his fascination with the ways in which plants sense and respond to light signals. His research dealt with photo-tracking â the ability of certain plants to reposition their leaves or flowers to the position of sun in the sky. But Dovâs course was not primarily about his own research. Rather he introduced us not only to a biophysical description of light, but to the cutting edge research, being done around the world, on plant responses to light. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I found this class so interesting, that I decided that for my postdoctoral research I would look for a lab studying light signaling in plants. In consultation with Dov I identified the best labs doing relevant research, and finally decided on the laboratory of Xing-Wang Deng at Yale University, where I would spend over three years studying the biochemical and genetic basis of photomorphogenesis â the plantâs morphological response to light signals. My publications during this time enabled me to get an academic position at Tel Aviv University in 1996. During these years and after, I enjoyed meeting Dov at seminars and conferences and in updating him on my work. </span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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FAST FORWARD 17 YEARSâŠI MEET DAPHNE KOLLER</h4>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">So whereâs the connection to Coursera? When I was asked this past Spring by Tel Aviv University to prepare their inaugural Coursera class. Several weeks after agreeing to do this, I was asked by the vice president of Tel Aviv University if I would meet with one of the founders of Coursera, who would be visiting the campus. This cofounder is Daphne Koller. Only after several minutes did I make the connection that Daphne is Dovâs daughter.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">So as I start my course next week, I will be thinking of the Koller family, without whom I would not be teaching a class on plant senses (including plant responses to light). Without Dov, I would not have been exposed to the scientific field that became part of my lifeâs work, and the subject of my Coursera course. And without Daphne I wouldnât have the opportunity to present to so many people the wonderful world of plant senses that so enthralled her father.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;" /><br />
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AFTERWORD BY DAPHNE KOLLER:</h4>
<i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #626566; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><img alt="" src="http://media.tumblr.com/c98fc5d26aa333d52872a212dbbae5ae/tumblr_inline_mtjt7sZLyq1rg0l34.png" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: auto; margin: 6px 15px 6px 6px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 200px;" />This is a story about the closing of a circle; a story that spans three generations and goes around the globe. My father, who passed away 6 years ago, was a lifelong educator, who cared passionately about teaching. He taught and inspired his students, and influenced the life of many, including Professor Danny Chamovitz. He also taught many, including myself, the love of learning and knowledge; my work on Coursera is a testament to his memory. It is a wonderful twist of fate that allows Danny to convey the ideas developed in my fatherâs research, via Coursera, to thousands of students around the world. I hope that they too continue to pay it forward, and propagate their knowledge and passion for learning to many others. [Pictured here are Daphne, her parents and her older daughter Natalie].<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></i><br />
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<a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/plantknows" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(224, 226, 225); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; margin-top: -1px; padding: 10px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Enroll in What a Plant Knows »</a></div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-8341509118016481572013-07-18T11:35:00.001+03:002013-07-27T01:16:04.014+03:00When McCarthyism Meets ScienceLast week I was boycotted because of my scientific opinions.<br />
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About 6 weeks ago I was approached by the producers of a radio station in the Bay Area about interviewing me about my book <a href="http://www.whataplantknows.com/" target="_blank">WHAT A PLANT KNOWS</a>. The producers defined their program as "a politically left, investigative, health/science show on the Pacifica station KPFA", I've done many such interviews since my book was published, for a variety of genres, including shows geared for science, current events, kabbala, Christians, and even kids, so I gladly accepted this invitation as well. In no case did the orientation of the station greatly influence the content. The interview was scheduled for July 9th at 11 PM Israel time, 1 PM in California.<br />
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Six hours before the scheduled interview I got the following email from my publicist at <a href="http://books.scientificamerican.com/fsg/" target="_blank">FSG/SA</a> books: "So sorry about this, but she has canceled the interview (upon realizing youâre in favor of genetically modified food). Iâm so sorry! Now you donât have to go on air at midnight, at least."<br />
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At first I found this amusing, especially as I wasn't even supposed to talk about agriculture and genetic engineering! It was even funny as a stereotype of Northern California.<br />
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But upon further consideration, I've realized that this censoring based on scientific opinion is very disturbing with dangerous implications.</div>
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Yes, the producers of this private radio show are not obligated to interview me or anyone else. But once having invited me about an issue completely unrelated to genetic engineering, to cancel this invitation based on other opinions, smacks of McCarthysim. Indeed as I did not at all relate to genetically modified food in my book, the producers of this show must have carried out a McCarthy-like background check to uncover my support of genetic engineering in agriculture. Having found a few posts in this blog (e.g. <a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/guest-blog-jonathan-gressel-exposing.html">here </a>), or an <a href="http://youtu.be/j1rLh50TA90">interview </a>about the use of GMO technology, decided to ban me (and my book) from their enlightened show.</div>
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If my book was interesting enough to warrant an interview with me before this information was revealed, why was it not after they found out that I think the genetic engineering is an essential tool in our arsenal to feed the world?</div>
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The answer I must come to is that the producers of this show are no different from other fundamentalists. I am sure the producers would shudder at this comparison, and they would likely be among the first to deride attempts to promote creationism in the public schools, or to silence scientists in the discourse on global warming. But the producers of this show with their anti-GMO agenda are truly no different from those who are anti-evolution or anti-climate change.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWFyCZCtbU6nosYYeTB2iG36QjVOap2gons3JahNBAJe0nP_DmgfsIuk2E9EF5EUtGaUPEd0CM0QmSc4GCqH9hsBjdqeKWaUeQzhrJE_XRWOU9BwE6XmGlX2dQ9AfRcqHFCQxZlhTfSRU/s1600/anti-science.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWFyCZCtbU6nosYYeTB2iG36QjVOap2gons3JahNBAJe0nP_DmgfsIuk2E9EF5EUtGaUPEd0CM0QmSc4GCqH9hsBjdqeKWaUeQzhrJE_XRWOU9BwE6XmGlX2dQ9AfRcqHFCQxZlhTfSRU/s200/anti-science.png" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a>Both are based on deeply rooted beliefs. Both delegitimize anyone with an opposing opinion. And most disturbingly for our future, both are anti-science and technology. Both ignore, or dismiss as irrelevant, accumulating experimental scientific evidence that go against their beliefs. Both groups also often use the same types of convoluted thinking that includes <span style="background-color: white;"><i>argumentum ad ignorantiam.</i></span></div>
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In a separate blog I'll layout the reasons I happily eat genetically modified foods and feed them to my children. Any I welcome any debate on the matter. I would never boycott anyone who's willing to engage in scientific discourse.</div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-26123625794052564002013-04-01T10:40:00.000+03:002013-04-02T08:48:53.646+03:00No sibling rivalry for Petunias<b><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">NOTE: THIS WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 1, 2013!</span></b><br />
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Petunias grown in a nursery together with their sibling petunias
thrived much better post-separation than did a single petunia grown on its own.
This conclusion jives with numerous studies which show that puppies kept with
their litter-mates for at least 8 weeks develop better than puppies separated
from their siblings soon after birth, and also fits with accumulating evidence showing
the importance to human development of keeping a baby in physical contact with
people, rather than isolating a baby in a crib.<br />
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Seeds of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petunia" target="_blank">Petunia hybrida</a></i> were germinated in two
different environments. In the green house termed âPetunia Patchâ, the seeds
were sown 5 cm from each other.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Petunias in the "Petunia Patch"</td></tr>
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In the second green house termed âOnion Patchâ,
individual petunias were planted at least 50 m from each other. 5, 10, 20 and
45 days post-germination, individual plants from the Petunia Patch were transplanted
to the Onion Patch. Control plants remained in each plot from germination until
the end of the experiment. Each plot received the same watering and fertilizer
regimen. Growth parameters (germination rate, height, leaf number, flowering
time, flower diameter, seed set) were gathered daily over a two-month period.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_toywLU7W9CTGxxlkVLlaTIpFsPJSLpmrDiKRwJY1RZWERXjer5_275PLSHEZmjv_YpRqKD508d7ywYA8trTDg0k2GmpETNL25WkZlpOcQf_wYr52wY8Xxwhg-e9nuNM6ci1pEthPTaY/s1600/Petuniadata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_toywLU7W9CTGxxlkVLlaTIpFsPJSLpmrDiKRwJY1RZWERXjer5_275PLSHEZmjv_YpRqKD508d7ywYA8trTDg0k2GmpETNL25WkZlpOcQf_wYr52wY8Xxwhg-e9nuNM6ci1pEthPTaY/s320/Petuniadata.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The results were astounding. The longer the petunia stayed
in the Petunia Patch, the more the individual plants thrived (see graph on left).
The effect was especially significant for the first 10 days. Most of the
petunias germinated in the Onion Patch, or transplanted early in life, failed
to thrive. When asked to comment on the flowers that didnât bloom, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p4u7ZcOWnA" target="_blank">Drs. John N.Kamano, William E. Faber and Maurice Merl</a> said, âThey were just lonely little petunias
in an onion patchâ.<br />
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These results have implications for home gardeners who are
asked to purchase neighboring petunias in their local nursery so as to lessen
the separation stress of plants upon leaving the nursery.</div>
Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-57723455393839712952013-01-20T21:59:00.000+02:002013-01-20T21:59:00.301+02:00Guest Blog: Yunal Sapir and The Shy Red Bride<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriFeLWKS463kY46a8SNILNievUhpXfyFfTfChLMcpljL61veCXQWN0HgtFpxvPzQ78ZHwwMGmeKiOAFuIiP2MMlPD3YlKY9CN-SmbF45AQSWnKFvTSkPJv4UDdXwZCaN9TOUdFQjRsXk/s1600/%25D7%259B%25D7%259C%25D7%25A0%25D7%2599%25D7%25AA+%25D7%259E%25D7%25A6%25D7%2595%25D7%2599%25D7%25941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiriFeLWKS463kY46a8SNILNievUhpXfyFfTfChLMcpljL61veCXQWN0HgtFpxvPzQ78ZHwwMGmeKiOAFuIiP2MMlPD3YlKY9CN-SmbF45AQSWnKFvTSkPJv4UDdXwZCaN9TOUdFQjRsXk/s320/%25D7%259B%25D7%259C%25D7%25A0%25D7%2599%25D7%25AA+%25D7%259E%25D7%25A6%25D7%2595%25D7%2599%25D7%25941.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; text-align: start;">Anemone coronaria</i></td></tr>
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<i style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.921569); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://botanic.tau.ac.il/?page_id=168&lang=en" style="color: #4e1327; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Dr. Yuval Sapir</a> is Director of the Tel Aviv University <a href="http://botanic.tau.ac.il/?lang=en" target="_blank">Botanical Gardens</a></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The red-crowned anemone, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Anemone coronaria</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">, is one of the most common and beloved wildflowers in Israel. It's Hebrew name, Kalanit, is from the Hebrew word for bride, dressed beautifully in a red dress. From January through March, red carpets of anemones cover the hills in the Mediterranean region, with beetles buzzing in and out the flowers. These are glaphyrid beetles that are adapted to forage pollen and to mate on the red, bowl-shaped anemone flowers. The beetles are attracted by the large amount of pollen in the numerous anthers of the flower. While eating or mating inside the flowers, their body is covered with pollen grains that transferred on to the next flower.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Anemone flowers live for two weeks, but only in the start is the stigma receptive to accept pollen grains. Although the flowers are hermaphrodite, containing both sexes in the same plant, the female (stigma) is matures earlier than the male (pollen), effectively mandating that sex has to be between two different flowers. When the male function is active in the flower, there are other younger flowers that have their stigma ready. Interestingly, during its two-weeks life time, the anemone's flower keeps growing. Young, female flowers are small and perfectly red. Later on, the male flower is larger and also develops white ring around the center where the pollen is available for the pollinating beetles. Of-course, the male function of the flower benefits from being prominent on the white background. The more seen, the more visits and the more pollen grains spread out to females. The female function, on the other side, needs very little number of visits, because one pollen grain fertilizing an ovule is enough to make a seed. So no need to be prominent like the male; the small red flower is just enough to get pollen. The shy female will get what it needs soon enough.</span>Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-9242647125263279792013-01-06T21:58:00.000+02:002013-01-06T21:58:00.022+02:00Guest Blog: Yuval Sapir and 50 Shades of Pink<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6XTBkF5NUho4u1d-MvDVzFIb0IrulL_WTtQO9bh52HizB2a7FQXvKu6NoFRj4_dbpQTBBSkOb_1VTfJWkh5m3vOTLG8Yc4m-1gYlVIYV2z8Tb4F5GjWQOd9OYwwtaioeIiWX1DbX064/s1600/%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm6XTBkF5NUho4u1d-MvDVzFIb0IrulL_WTtQO9bh52HizB2a7FQXvKu6NoFRj4_dbpQTBBSkOb_1VTfJWkh5m3vOTLG8Yc4m-1gYlVIYV2z8Tb4F5GjWQOd9OYwwtaioeIiWX1DbX064/s320/%D7%9B%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA+3.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A field of wild anemones flowering in early January.<br />
Note that most of the flowers are not red.</td></tr>
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<i style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.921569); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://botanic.tau.ac.il/?page_id=168&lang=en" style="color: #4e1327; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Dr. Yuval Sapir</a> is Director of the Tel Aviv University <a href="http://botanic.tau.ac.il/?lang=en" target="_blank">Botanical Gardens</a></i><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The crowned anemone, <i>Anemone coronaria</i>, is well-known for its red flowers. But its flowering season, January to March, is also characterized by non-red anemone flowers, particular early in the season. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">While the red flowers are pollinated by glaphyrid beetles, the non-red ones are pollinated by any possible insect hovering around in the winter. All except beetles. But no worries - beetles are anyhow not around in this early period of the winter (January). Indeed, the non-red anemones flower earlier than the red ones, even where they grow in the same place. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Another difference between the two types (red and non-red) is that while the red ones are common everywhere, from extreme desert to the northernmost Mediterranean parts of Israel, the non-red anemones are unique to humid Mediterranean ecosystems. This is probably due to drought tolerance trait linked to the red-color allele. The genetic system for the color of the anemone includes two possibilities (alleles): red, or non-red. Red is recessive, this means that a only if both alleles are red, the flowers are red. If one of the alleles is non-red, the flower will be any other shade of pink, from white to purple. Despite the superiority of the non-red alleles, they are non-exist in the southern populations, in the dry Mediterranean and in the desert. This linkage between flower color and environmental adaptation is interesting, and has not been extensively studied.</span><br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-73889238365617701622013-01-02T00:03:00.001+02:002013-01-03T00:21:44.421+02:00Ebony or Rosewood? Guild D-40 or Guild D-50?I've said over and over, that every aspect of our life is influenced by plants. Music is a great example of how plant anatomy influences our lives.<br />
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I've been the proud owner of a Guild D-50 acoustic guitar since 1983. Before I purchased this beauty, I spent days, together with my friend Mo, frequenting the music stores of mid-town Manhattan and trying every guitar possible. We kept coming back to two Guild models: the D-40 and the D-50.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ebony fret-board on my guitar</td></tr>
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One of the main differences between these two great guitars is the wood used to make the fret-board: The D-40 boasts a fret-board made from rosewood, while the D-50's is made from ebony. In the end we both opted for the latter.<br />
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Ebony cost roughly 10 times more than rosewood, so what characteristics does it have that made us forkout the extra funds for these guitars?<br />
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Ebony has a very has a fine grain and is much harder than rosewood. This difference in density is felt in the fingertips which feel as if they move faster between fingerings. Aside from the feel, ebony boards impart the guitar with a unique sound which the trained ear can pick up. It enables great sustain, and a crisp sound with percussive overtones. But I wouldn't recommend an ebony fret-board for a novice guitarist; rosewood is much more forgiving.<br />
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Rosewood boards also gives a richer, warm sound. This is partly because of the anatomy of the wood. Rosewood has larger pores than ebony, and these microscopic pores absorb overtones.<br />
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This is just one example of how wood, which basically old, dead and filled xylem tubes, the tubes that trees use to transport water, influences music.Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-76250816236877727752012-12-30T23:26:00.001+02:002012-12-30T23:26:09.074+02:002012 in ReviewWhen I started this blog 12 months ago, I envisioned a blog of short snippets about different plants, a blog of information suited for readers with borderline attention deficit disorder (like the author...) who get bored after four sentences. I also envisioned hundreds of readers would flock to <i>The Daily Plant</i> and be converted to <i>veggiephilia</i>.<br />
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So what have I learned in 12 months of blogging?<br />
<ol>
<li>While info-snippets might be educational, readers can probably find this information on their own in Wikipedia. To my surprise, the most widely read posts were the commentary pieces that I slowly started adding in. It hadn't really occurred to me that readers would be interested in my own opinion. I was wrong, and that is very encouraging.</li>
<li>Blogging is a serious endeavor, and attracting readers is more than just adding new posts, no matter how interesting they are. I realize this sounds trite, but I was naive. As I gained exposure through the publication of <a href="http://www.whataplantknows.com/" target="_blank">WHAT A PLANT KNOWS</a>, traffic to <i>The Daily Plant</i> grew as well, with site visits doubling once the book came out. And most importantly, making friends with fellow bloggers, and having them retweeting my posts, helped immensely. So THANK YOU (you know who you are)!</li>
<li>Plant lovers are (still) a minority in this world.</li>
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So with these lessons in mind, here are the top five posts of the year:</div>
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<li><a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/03/food-security-multidisciplinary-field.html" target="_blank">Food Security - A Multi-Disciplinary Endeavor</a>. This was by far the most popular post of the year. Food security was a recurring theme in a number of posts, but this one trumped them all.Look for more food-scurity related posts in 2013 as this will be a major effort of the <a href="http://manna.tau.ac.il/" target="_blank">Manna Center</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/04/screaming-plants-mean-no-more-fairways.html" target="_blank">Screaming plants mean no more fairways?</a> Here I learned that my readers either have a great sense of humor, or are very gullible My sister falls into the latter category After reading this April-fool's post, she called me, and in compete seriousness said, "I knew it! I knew plants had feelings!".</li>
<li><a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/guest-blog-jonathan-gressel-exposing.html" target="_blank">Guest blog: Jonathan Gressel - Exposing anti-GMO propaganda veiled as science</a>. Over the year several guest bloggers contributed posts, and all were very well received. But Gressel's piece against pseudoscience in the GMO debate struck a nerve and was retweeted several times.</li>
<li><a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/do-plants-feel-pain.html" target="_blank">Do plants feel pain?</a> This post is a direct response to the talks I gave about my book. Again and again I was asked if plants suffer when we cut them, or when we eat them.</li>
<li><a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/peer-review-enough-with-author-blind.html" target="_blank">Peer review - enough with author-blind comments.</a> This post was unique in that it had nothing to do with plants. I used The Daily Plant as a vehicle to write my own op-ed, after i had gotten burned by what I considered an unfair peer-review process. I am very encouraged that despite the lack of plant content, this post was so popular. This may encourage me to do this more often in 2013.</li>
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I want to thank you for taking the time to read this and other posts in The Daily Plant. You have helped me find my voice as a writer, and to learn about plants that I never considered. It has been an honor writing for you.</div>
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-54244939528520683562012-12-25T20:17:00.001+02:002015-12-27T08:01:11.506+02:00A Merry Christmas: Frankincense grows again in the Holy Land!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
OK, so despite an earlier <a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2011/12/not-so-merry-christmas.html" target="_blank">post </a>about frankincense being an endangered species, I found out from a friend at Kibbutz Ketura that one amazing scientist in Israel has managed to sprout frankincense in the Holy Land for the first time about 1500 years!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOcXfNL9pE6f51EO7MWWPIXWli5bhVIwafiyiQGGkooriX9i6D91njDXsrZ5GFH6oLFnmbjooCCtz8acecZjVGgGol-58_MqyqmXnLPVUGNYDfmhQSykFAHFnxWfWGmLj04hzEJIW4GvP/s400/Frankincense2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOcXfNL9pE6f51EO7MWWPIXWli5bhVIwafiyiQGGkooriX9i6D91njDXsrZ5GFH6oLFnmbjooCCtz8acecZjVGgGol-58_MqyqmXnLPVUGNYDfmhQSykFAHFnxWfWGmLj04hzEJIW4GvP/s320/Frankincense2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font: inherit; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">In Dr Soloweyâs nursery at Kibbutz Ketura</em></td></tr>
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Dr. Elaine Solowey, the same scientist who germinated the <a href="http://whataplantknows.blogspot.co.il/2012/04/methuselah-200-year-old-date.html" target="_blank">2000 year-old Methuselah date palm</a>, is at it again, this time with frankincense, myrrh and balm of Gilead. She's growing an entire crop of biblical plants, and finding amazing uses for them. Read about it <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/after-1500-years-frankincense-returns-to-the-holy-land/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-60416502265175949252012-12-24T16:39:00.001+02:002012-12-24T19:37:12.519+02:00Christmas tree statisticsOn the one year anniversary of this blog, I take inspiration from one of my favorite books of all time is <i><a href="http://www.bookdepository.com/How-Lie-with-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/9780393310726" target="_blank">How to Lie With Statistics</a>, </i>a great little book from 1954 that will teach you how to take all numbers with a grain of salt. For example in the past year, this blog has been accessed 23,698 times.<br />
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With that in mind, I thought it poignant to consider Christmas trees, (considering that it is Christmas Eve tonight).<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span><br />
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Those of you with real trees will have spent an average of $34.87 for your tree, while the 9.5 million of you with fake trees, forked out $70.55 for your trees. BUT, 16% of those of you with real trees, actually cut it yourself, which definitely affected the average cost of the trees!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2012/11/jaunted-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-lighting-guide/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_colctrl/par-col2/cn_blogpost/cn_image.size.1-nyc-rockefeller-christmas-tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2012/11/jaunted-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree-lighting-guide/_jcr_content/par/cn_contentwell/par-main/cn_colctrl/par-col2/cn_blogpost/cn_image.size.1-nyc-rockefeller-christmas-tree.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 80 foot spruce at Rockefeller Center</td></tr>
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Of course the trees of the latter group last more than one year, so perhaps they've made a good investment. The weakening economy though shows that people aren't thinking long term as sales of fake trees are down 67% from 2007, when more than 35% of houses had fake trees.<br />
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Each real tree takes on average 7 years to grow, which means that there are currently about 350 million evergreen trees growing for the coming years' Christmases.<br />
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While all of the real trees come from either the US or Canada, 80% of the fake ones are grown in China.<br />
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If you are worried about sustainability, this is from the National Christmas Tree Association:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4f4e4e; font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">It is much better environmentally to use a natural agricultural crop and recycle it after the holidays. Real Christmas Trees are a renewable, recyclable, natural product grown on farms throughout North America. Unfortunately many people have the misconception that Christmas Trees are cut down from the forest. Real Christmas Trees are grown as crops, just like corn or wheat, and raised on a farm. Once they are harvested, new seedlings are planted to replace harvested trees. These would NOT have been planted if trees hadn't been harvested the previous year. Fake Christmas Trees however are a non-renewable, non-biodegradable, plastic and metal product.</span><br />
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Happy Holidays to all!<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1 </span><a href="http://www.realchristmastrees.org/dnn/NewsMedia/IndustryStatistics/ConsumerSurvey.aspx" target="_blank">source</a><br />
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<br />Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-27939583007976397522012-10-29T17:20:00.002+02:002012-10-29T17:20:28.664+02:00Setting the Record StraightGeez, how a simple statement can be misconstrued!<br />
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In a recent NPR piece entitled, "<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/10/26/160940869/recognizing-the-right-of-plants-to-evolve" target="_blank">Recognizing the Rights of Plant To Evolve</a>", the author writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Plants display remedial types of memory and possess "anoetic consciousness" â the ability of an organism to sense and to react to stimulation â writes Daniel Chamovitz in his 2012 book, <i>What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses</i>.</blockquote>
This article then goes on to question whether plants should enjoy legal and moral protection, similar to that claimed for animals. Accordingly, in numerous blogs and talk-backs, my book has been associated with such calls for "plant rights", and I've received a fair bit of mail asking how I can support such nonsense.<br />
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A careful reading of WHAT A PLANT KNOWS reveals that I do NOT subscribe to the notion that plants are just green animals. When discussing consciousness, I wrote the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But as stated in a recent <a href="http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/10/article/8276/" target="_blank">opinion article</a>, 'The lowest level of consciousness characteristic for procedural memory - anoetic consciousness - refers to the ability of organisms to sense and to react to internal and external stimulation, which all plants and simple animals are capable of.'</blockquote>
The fact that plants may display anoetic consciousness does not imply that they have inherent rights or dignity. Indeed, as I wrote in later part of the book:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...anthropomorphism of plant behavior left unchecked can lead to unfortunate, in not humorous, consequences. For example, in 2008 the Swiss government <a href="http://www.ekah.admin.ch/en/topics/dignity-of-living-beings/index.html" target="_blank">established an ethics committee</a> to protect the 'dignity' of plants.</blockquote>
Being brainless, a plant likely does not worry about its dignity!<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/200x/ai/aiu_Topiary_Lady3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/200x/ai/aiu_Topiary_Lady3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do you think this bush feels violated?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Indeed, my clear take on this matter is that in the absence of a brain, plants should not be included in the discussion of "dignity" and "rights". This type of anthropomorphism is just another attempt of humans to define their place in nature.<br />
<br />
Making comparisons is apparently in our nature. As individuals we compare ourselves with other people. As an ethnic group, we often seek feelings of superiority in comparisons with other ethnic groups. As a species we seek out human-like characteristics in chimps and dogs. So perhaps these attempts at bestowing rights and dignity on plants are just another manifestation of humans coming to terms with our place in nature.<br />
<br />
But once with attempt has been made, lets leave the plants out of it. They really don't care.<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-62410450649774426012012-10-27T23:57:00.002+02:002012-10-28T00:01:55.651+02:00More on Art and Biology<html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<div class="post-26112 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-botanical-art tag-art tag-biology tag-interdisciplinary-studies tag-nature tag-science-art tag-scientific-illustration" id="post-26112">
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Need examples of how biology and art influence each other? Start here.</h2>
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October 26, 2012 by <a href="http://artplantaetoday.com/author/artplantae/" title="Posts by ArtPlantae Today">ArtPlantae Today</a> </div>
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The links between art and science are obvious to me and to you too, I am sure. The difficulty in making this case to others who may not share our interests is providing examples of how art and science work together. Pointing to illustrations in a field guide or a textbook is easy to do, however if we do this too often, I feel we risk making the impression that science and art intersect only in academic texts. Searching for examples outside of academia requires travel to venues such as museums and art shows and, while definitely not a bad thing, time and resources limit how much traveling we can do.<br />
Fortunately for us, Maura Flannery wrote <b>Biology & Art: An Intricate Relationship</b>, a wonderful article in which she features 22 artists and how they blend biology and art in their work. You can postpone your museum visits for a little while longer. Thanks to Maura, you only need to travel as far as your file cabinet for examples to help illustrate the fact that biology and art influence each other on many levels.<br />
The artists featured in Flannery (2012) work with pencil, pen and ink, glass, clay, stainless steel, and even dung. Some keep nature journals, press plants, make prints with fish, create molecules, and use insects as art. Youâll even find examples of controversial bio-art in her article.<br />
You may recognize the name of one of the artists Flannery writes about. Illustrator Jenny Keller made Flanneryâs list because of the chapter she wrote about the value of sketching in Michael R. Canfieldâs <a href="http://www.artplantaebooks.com/book/9780674057579" target="_blank"><em>Field Notes on Science and Nature</em></a>. Keller is a scientific illustrator and instructor in the <a href="http://scienceillustration.org/index.htm" target="_blank">scientific illustration certificate program</a> at California State University, Monterey Bay. Kellerâs sketchbooks are packed with information and are oh-so inspiring. Actually, the word <em>inspiring</em> doesnât cut it. I am going to borrow the word illustrator Dorothia Rohner used this past summer at the conference of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators â <a href="http://dorothiasketchblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/tips-techniques-inspired-from-summer-conferences-part-1-gnsi" target="_blank">âmasterfulâ</a>.<br />
In keeping with our shared interest in plants, I will mention one more artist Flannery writes about in her article. Artist James Walsh discovered that many of the weeds growing in New York are native to the Arctic (Flannery, 2012). To bring attention to these plants, he collected them, studied them, pressed them and created an exhibition about his findings. A <a href="http://observatoryroom.org/2010/11/22/arctic-plants" target="_blank">summary of the 2010 exhibition</a> is still viewable online.<br />
Flanneryâs article is filled with fantastic examples and I recommend it as a reference to anyone whose interests are firmly planted in biology and art. Her article can be <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/abt.2012.74.3.13?uid=3739560&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337935&uid=2133&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&uid=3739256&sid=21101306875071">purchased online for $14</a> or obtained by visiting <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/biology-today-biology-art-an-intricate-relationship/oclc/780597503&referer=brief_results">your local college library</a>.<br />
<b><br />
Literature Cited</b><br />
Flannery, Maura C. 2012. Biology & art: An intricate relationship. 74(3): 194-197. <em>The American Biology Teacher</em><br />
<hr />
<b><br />
More Examples of Biology & Art</b><br />
To Mauraâs well-researched list, I would like to add the following resources for your consideration:</div>
</div>
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-->
<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic">Symbiartic: The Science of Art and the Art of Science</a></li>
<li><a href="http://sci-art.com/">Science-Art.com</a></li>
<li><a href="http://asba-art.org/member-gallery">Member Gallery</a> of the American Society of Botanical Artists</li>
<li>The <b>Ask the Artist</b> list located in the column to the right of this article. This list features the wonderful guests who have shared their work and who have taught us so much. Guests such as <a href="http://artplantaetoday.com/2012/10/01/gary-hoyle-discusses-museum-plant-models-exhibit-design-and-dioramas/"><b>Gary Hoyle</b></a>. Gary will be taking your questions through October 31, 2012. Have a question about museum exhibits, dioramas or the realistic plant models seen in museums? Ask Gary!</li>
</ul>
Also, donât miss Mauraâs article about <a href="http://artplantaetoday.com/2011/07/08/imagery-scientific-communication/" target="_blank">imagery in scientific communication</a>.<br />
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Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4513758271398962258.post-2173125038752992522012-09-30T14:17:00.000+02:002015-09-26T10:52:07.733+03:00The Citron of the Tabernacles<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/3_etrog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/3_etrog.JPG" height="262" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Varieties of Citron (<i>citrus medica</i>)</td></tr>
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Oranges, grapefruits and lemons, tangerines, limes and maybe even a pomelo are types of citrus fruits we eat, or juice, all the time. But how many of you are familiar with the citron?<br />
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The citron has been around for thousands of years, and when crossed with other species, gave rise to the different citrus varieties we know and love today. But aside from its fragrance, the citron does not have many redeeming qualities, especially as it is almost devoid of juice and has a thick rind. While this can be candied to make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succade" target="_blank">succade</a>, the citron's main uses have been religious.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4A3O-kk-_cgoSCZaYa_NNVOR1AbtpOvJMP_JU555RIPFalAuJywAw6-JUKYj8vav4VJd7RsTJW9QeTspx89Qo7O4lOIk9r6CofSe7-75NTIYCgF3_g6nm9R2v6Z3zdrBquNYbnfb7Tck/s1600/etrog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4A3O-kk-_cgoSCZaYa_NNVOR1AbtpOvJMP_JU555RIPFalAuJywAw6-JUKYj8vav4VJd7RsTJW9QeTspx89Qo7O4lOIk9r6CofSe7-75NTIYCgF3_g6nm9R2v6Z3zdrBquNYbnfb7Tck/s320/etrog.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The small etrog I bought for this year's Sukkot holiday</td></tr>
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In the Book of Leviticus it is written: "And you shall take on the 1st day (of the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot) the fruit of beautiful trees...". The citron, known in Hebrew as the <i>etrog, </i>has always been assumed to be this fruit, as indeed the literal translation of the Hebrew word for "citrus" is <i>eitz hadar, </i>which literally translates as "beautiful tree". Because god commands us to use the etrog during the Feast of Tabernacles, the trade in citron, and especially beautiful unblemished fruit, can get competitive and expensive. The search for the perfect etrog was even the subject for an excellent movie, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushpizin" target="_blank">Ushpizin</a>, which I highly recommend.<br />
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Happy Sukkot!</div>
Daniel Chamovitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269065302481334622noreply@blogger.com1