Do climbing plants know where they’re going?

On a recent kayaking trip, CrowdScience listener Lanier sliced through his right thumb, putting it out of action for a while. This made life difficult, as he couldn’t button his shirt, tie his shoelaces or type efficiently on his smartphone. Missing the use of his thumb made him ...  Show more

Noise cancelling headphones filter out sound waves that we don’t want to hear. Listener Ahmed in Libya loves wearing his and, as he was listening to them, he had a thought: ‘Could we cancel out light waves in a similar way to how noise cancelling headphones do it?’ He sent his qu ...  Show more

Professor Dale Sanders has spent much of his life studying plants, seeking to understand why some thrive in a particular environment while others struggle. His ground breaking research on their molecular machinery showed how plants extract nutrients from the soil and store essent ...  Show more

Today The Evidence goes green as Claudia Hammond and her panel of experts discuss plant power, how nature and the natural environment affect our mental health.Produced in collaboration with Wellcome Collection and recorded in front of a live audience in the Reading Room at Wellco ...  Show more

A few years ago, a team of scientists set out on a field expedition in the rugged, dry Northern Territory of Australia. There, they found a plant that was both strange and familiar hiding in plain sight. After careful research during the pandemic, the newly described tomato recen ...  Show more

Plants are fully sick right now - and not just because indoor plants are in fashion. 

They have an immune system, they get infections, and can catch viruses... they just can't move away from their sick neighbours.

While we depend on white blood cells to fight off a ...