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ove nilsson

"I'll never forget when I first saw the small poplars flowering in my lab. What takes decades in nature we'd managed in a few weeks. I remember my first thought was 'This just can't be true!'."  Read more

question 3: how do flowers know when it's time to bloom?

Plants lack consciousness. They cannot "know", in our sense of the word, that it's time to bloom. A Swedish researcher has found the precise gene that controls plants' flowering, thus solving a mystery that has been baffling biologists ever since the time of Carl Linnaeus. So exactly what is it that makes flowers open?  Read more

question 8: how far may we go in manipulating plants?

As scientists successively reveal the genetic makeup of plants, they are also creating sharper tools for altering parts of the genetic code. What implications does this have? Advances are taking us further and further from what is 'natural'. Can we keep up?  Read more

question 41: what is the largest living organism on Earth?

The elephant is the largest land animal, as we all learned in school. But who tops the size league if we include all land organisms, not only animals? Biologists are not entirely sure, but it could be a deciduous tree, the unassuming poplar.  Read more

question 52: which is the oldest plant?

Conifers are the oldest of all the plants that spread by seed. Pine and spruce have been around on Earth much longer than fruit like redcurrants and blackberries. These ancient inhabitants of the planet may well take on a whole new significance in the future. Forest genetics are today becoming a hotter subject than ever before.  Read more