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plants

Plants make up about 80 per cent of all living matter on Earth by mass. They capture energy from sunlight in a process called photosynthesis, taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and producing oxygen. Humans grow some plants on an enormous scale to provide us with food, drugs, fuel and building materials. We have modified plants through artificial selection for thousands of years, and now use genetic technologies to create plants with chosen characteristics.
Banana peel against lush healthy plants in garden in background. Good source of organic fertilizer.; Shutterstock ID 2004741083; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Life

Can you use banana peels to fertilise your plants?

Social media is rife with claims that banana skins can have a transformative effect on our houseplants. James Wong unpeels the science behind the trend

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Hessian sack of cocoa beans are placed outside a warehouse on October 10, 2015 in Gagnoa, in southern Ivory Coast. Gagnoa is the chief collecting point for a forest region that sends coffee, cocoa, and timber. AFP PHOTO / ISSOUF SANOGO (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP) (Photo by ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP via Getty Images)

Life

Nerve-racking tale of reviving wild cocoa to make amazing chocolate

Culture

The Nepenthes pongoides pitcher plant

Life

Hairy ‘orangutan pitcher plant’ discovered in Borneo

News

**VIDEO AVAILABLE. CONTACT INFO@COVERMG.COM TO RECEIVE.** Swiss researchers have developed a new kind of wood that glows in the dark. Scientists at Empa's Cellulose & Wood Materials lab in St. Gallen, Switzerland, combined balsa wood with a bioluminescent fungus. White rot fungus D. tabescens was used to craft the material which aims to develop a multifunctional and sustainable light source to address societal needs. The team sees a future where advanced materials are ???smart,??? capable of self-healing, adapting to their environment, and changing state. The biohybrid wood, described as an

Life

Bioluminescent Christmas tree glows with festive cheer

News

Evident Image of the Year global winner: Cross-section of a Cosmic Orange aster flower with pollen grains maturing inside anthers. Captured by Igor Siwanowicz of the United States. Igor Siwanowicz of the United States was selected as the global winner for his striking cross- section image of a Cosmic Orange Mexican aster flower that vividly depicts pollen grains maturing inside anthers. To create this image, Siwanowicz embedded isolated florets in agarose, sectioned on a vibratome and stained with Calcofluor White and Congo Red dyes. The sample was dehydrated, cleared and mounted in methyl salicylate. Siwanowicz chose to image this flower to observe how aster florets are organized before the flower opens. ?I was lucky to pick my flower buds at the right stage of development, with the pollen grains almost fully mature but still bound together in a mass,? Siwanowicz explained. ?I think this image shows the true beauty of a common flower that most of us take for granted by extending it well beyond what we can see with the naked eye. The beauty of natural form and design is present on very different scales, sometimes almost in a fractal manner?as we continue to zoom in, the form may lose familiarity but also become a new emotional experience.?

Life

See the world in close-up in these intricate images of nature

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Life

Plants laced with a variety of fungi are more popular with bees

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125 Mutton snapper (Lutjanus analis) (vol. 2, t. 25)

Life

Intricate 18th-century illustrations of stunning flora and fauna

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2D7HDN2 Broken eggshells around salads to prevent slugs in summer, Pas de Calais, France

Life

Why surrounding your plants with crushed eggshells won't deter slugs

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closeup of Berry from the juneberry

Life

New Scientist recommends Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry

Culture

2M2WTDW Islands of floating algae. Seaweed Brown Sargassum floating on surface of the water, sun's rays breaking through the thick grass. Underwater shot

Environment

Could seaweed be the ultimate carbon capture solution?

Our Future Chronicles column explores an imagined history of inventions and developments yet to come. In our latest glimpse into the near future, Rowan Hooper tells how seaweed was a game changer when it came to getting carbon out of the atmosphere in the 2030s

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Humans

Before the Stone Age: Were the first tools made from plants not rocks?

Features

Life

World's largest tree is also among the oldest living organisms

News

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The surprisingly simple supernutrient with far-reaching health impacts

Features

Humans

How the evolution of citrus is inextricably linked with our own

News

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