Plants and humans under the microscope

I may have already blogged about the Plant Humanities Lab, but almost certainly not enough. It really is very cool.

Easiest way to learn about it is to read this Twitter thread from Alex Humphreys.

Here’s the ThreadReader version if you don’t want to sully yourself on Twitter.

Nibbles: Apple conservation & breeding, Seychelles coconut, Serow, Restoration, Seeds InService, Banana collecting, Oz glasshouse, Soltis video

  1. Citizen science to conserve apples.
  2. Citizen science to breed apples.
  3. Citizen science to conserve the coco de mer.
  4. Conserving a goat-antelope in Sumatra. Maybe try citizen science?
  5. Sourcing seeds for reforestation is tough. Maybe try citizen science?
  6. Art to conserve seeds.
  7. Scientists get help from citizens to collect improbable bananas of PNG.
  8. Australian genebank gets a biosafety facility. Paid for by citizens.
  9. The legendary Pamela Soltis on polyploidy. She’s a citizen too.

Brainfood: Post 2020, Dietary diversity, African greens, Pollinator diversity, Seed science, Seed systems, Sorghum landraces, Wild millet, Maize microbiome, AnGR, Yosemite apples

Nibbles: Superfoods, Value chains book, North American ag origins, Origins of beer, Community seed banks, Seed diversity

  1. What’s the next global “superfood”? Most likely it’s the next local “superfood”. Jeremy interviews economist Trent Blare.
  2. And here’s a book that expands on that podcast.
  3. Speaking of podcasts, here’s one that dissects the Eastern Agricultural Complex, at least in the last 20 mins. The rest is informative and fun too, though. Spoiler alert: it’s the food storage. Any superfoods in there though?
  4. Always fun to read about the history of beer.
  5. Project on community genebanks launched by government genebank.
  6. Seeds of all sizes and shapes in genebanks.