Copyright: rvlsoft / 123RF Stock PhotoWe’ve had some queries about why we follow who we do on Twitter, as we follow quite a few people. We also occasionally get asked by some people why we’re not following them. So here’s some explanation.There a couple of reasons why we follow people on Twitter. One is to keep track of the zeitgeist. We track what...

Every so often you find a new site, and then discover everyone else has known about it for years. For once, this is a site I’ve known about for ages — but it seems not everyone else has. So for those of you who don’t know — if you’re interested in science blogging, you should be following ScienceSeeker.ScienceSeeker is a site that’s been going since...

Not all honey is equal. New research by Clearwater and colleagues has been looking how mānuka nectar, an essential ingredient of mānuka honey, is affected by various factors such as temperature, drought and even the genes of mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium, Myrtaceae) plants.Understanding the composition of the nectar is important because of how bees...

What is in the air that you breathe at home? It’s mostly nitrogen. There’s a significant amount of oxygen, along with some other chemicals. There are certainly some you’d want to track. For example, carbon monoxide is something you’d want to know about. That’s why you probably have a carbon monoxide detector. But what about other chemicals?A new paper...

It’s Friday afternoon, so I’m relaxing with a video, in this case the latest from Brilliant Botany, a follow up to the earlier video, The Plants of Pokémon Go.https://medium.com/media/d59241bcaa7192d673e7004420efac85/hrefOriginally published at Botany One.Poképlants was originally published in Alun Salt on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation...

Ben Goldacre’s book title I Think You’ll Find it’s a Bit More Complicated Than That, could easily be taken as a motto for botany. One example I’ve seen today is an opinion piece in Molecular Plant Pathology that looks at what plant pathogen effector proteins are doing.Nick Snelders and colleagues ask if we should look at plant pathogen effector proteins...