News

Cambridge Festival takes place from 31st March to 10 April, and we are pleased to announce some of the events linked to the Department of Plant Sciences. Currently available: Through the Laboratory Keyhole A guessing game and an exclusive peek inside laboratories and research facilities at the University of Cambridge. An...

Event Report and Recipe Suggestions (see below). You can find the recording of our event here. Did you know that dried algae contain more protein than roast turkey (Britain’s traditional Christmas dish)? In fact, spirulina is one of the most concentrated foods on Earth; rich in protein and packed with amino acids, vitamins...

On Thursday 16th October our ‘Through the Laboratory Keyhole’ on-line event took place, as part of the Open Cambridge Festival. Viewers were treated to a privileged behind-the-scenes peek at four research projects in the Department of Plant Sciences. Hosted by Professor Howard Griffiths, it included three specially-made...

The rise and fall of Earth’s land surface over the last three million years shaped the evolution of birds and mammals, a new study has found, with new species evolving at higher rates where the land has risen most. Researchers at the University of Cambridge have combined reconstructions of the Earth’s changing surface...

Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues ‘blush’ with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil. This is the first time this vital, 400 million year old process has been visualised in real time in full root systems of living plants. Understanding the...

Humans have been making use of plants for thousands of years. Plants make an enormous range of chemicals, often in large amounts - and use these to make complex structures and materials. Despite major advances in synthetic biochemistry, many important medicines and other valuable compounds such as oils, dyes, flavours and...

The ‘Pulses for healthy guts (and healthy environment)’ workshop, held on 25 March, was attended by a range of academics and industry figures. The workshop was held to build networks between academics and industry, within and beyond Cambridge, in order to link expertise across the broad area of pulses and human health...

Cambridge plant scientists say circadian clock genes, which enable plants to measure daily and seasonal rhythms, should be targeted in agriculture and crop breeding for higher yields and more sustainable farming. Like humans, plants have an ‘internal clock’ that monitors the rhythms of their environment. The authors of a...

Researchers have analysed decades’ worth of data on the impact of repeated fires on ecosystems across the world. Their results, published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution , show that repeated fires are driving long-term changes to tree communities and reducing their population sizes. Savannah ecosystems...