It's funny, I had to learn how amazing animals are. Plants were always my focus, as a child we grew a large part of our own food, and it was obvious that some 'miracle' was involved in the transformation of a small seed in the soil to a beautiful, full grown, fruit bearing plant that provided sustenance for animals to eat. It was clear how animals grew, they ate plants, but how did plants grow? Just from that little seed?
When I learned about photosynthesis, and cell-division in school, I was hooked. You could explain miracles with science!!? Plants still are miraculous in so many ways we fail to understand or appreciate. Animals are too, not just humans . For some reason, that sense of wonder doesn't always seem to permeate science itself. Sometimes, I'll feel it, at a conference or in a particular paper. But a lot of science seems self-serving, or is only valued if it can serve some greater technological or financial goal, and plants are pretty low on that scale. I've been reading Maria Popova's Figuring recently, and it's clear that a sense of wonder drove so many women into science. It makes me curious, how would science look in a less patriarchal society? Would there be more room for wonder at the natural world, and more value given to the beauty of scientific explanations?
I love "you can explain miracles with science"!! Also, your question is a good one. That sense of wonder can so easily take a back seat to just surviving the career.
"Why do so many people fail to see the importance of plant biology?"
A few possible reasons:
1. Plants are "other", I.e. not like us mammals, so we don't "relate"
2. Plants don't vocalize or fight or flee, so easy to objectify as a "thing" of lesser interest/value
3. Our agricultural performance (esp. grains) has been so stupendously successful we take plants for granted. High supply/low "value". I bet when global heating wipes out huge swaths of our edible plant production, you plant biologists will be in HUGE demand!
Thanks for such an interesting article and publication Liz! 👏
Preach! This is such a delicious question. I’m a plant ecologist and have also studied plant macroevolution, so additional reasons that come to mind are perhaps broader than the scope of your list, but in brief I would add:
1. Plants are the basis for most terrestrial ecosystems, defining biomes and determining what other organisms can live there, fundamentally shaping the evolution and behavior of terrestrial animals. Thus they’re also crucial to habitat and biodiversity conservation as a whole. 2. Plant evolution has been just as, if not more complex than animal evolution, with crazy huge genomes, wild levels of diversification, highly innovative adaptations and cases of convergent evolution. They’re not only alive, they also behave.
I’ll keep thinking about this--maybe I’ll even write my own post. Thanks for the inspiration!
It's funny, I had to learn how amazing animals are. Plants were always my focus, as a child we grew a large part of our own food, and it was obvious that some 'miracle' was involved in the transformation of a small seed in the soil to a beautiful, full grown, fruit bearing plant that provided sustenance for animals to eat. It was clear how animals grew, they ate plants, but how did plants grow? Just from that little seed?
When I learned about photosynthesis, and cell-division in school, I was hooked. You could explain miracles with science!!? Plants still are miraculous in so many ways we fail to understand or appreciate. Animals are too, not just humans . For some reason, that sense of wonder doesn't always seem to permeate science itself. Sometimes, I'll feel it, at a conference or in a particular paper. But a lot of science seems self-serving, or is only valued if it can serve some greater technological or financial goal, and plants are pretty low on that scale. I've been reading Maria Popova's Figuring recently, and it's clear that a sense of wonder drove so many women into science. It makes me curious, how would science look in a less patriarchal society? Would there be more room for wonder at the natural world, and more value given to the beauty of scientific explanations?
I love "you can explain miracles with science"!! Also, your question is a good one. That sense of wonder can so easily take a back seat to just surviving the career.
"Why do so many people fail to see the importance of plant biology?"
A few possible reasons:
1. Plants are "other", I.e. not like us mammals, so we don't "relate"
2. Plants don't vocalize or fight or flee, so easy to objectify as a "thing" of lesser interest/value
3. Our agricultural performance (esp. grains) has been so stupendously successful we take plants for granted. High supply/low "value". I bet when global heating wipes out huge swaths of our edible plant production, you plant biologists will be in HUGE demand!
Thanks for such an interesting article and publication Liz! 👏
I have been reading about human bias towards protecting and appreciating "charismatic" species, and I think this applies!
Preach! This is such a delicious question. I’m a plant ecologist and have also studied plant macroevolution, so additional reasons that come to mind are perhaps broader than the scope of your list, but in brief I would add:
1. Plants are the basis for most terrestrial ecosystems, defining biomes and determining what other organisms can live there, fundamentally shaping the evolution and behavior of terrestrial animals. Thus they’re also crucial to habitat and biodiversity conservation as a whole. 2. Plant evolution has been just as, if not more complex than animal evolution, with crazy huge genomes, wild levels of diversification, highly innovative adaptations and cases of convergent evolution. They’re not only alive, they also behave.
I’ll keep thinking about this--maybe I’ll even write my own post. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you for adding your ecological and evolutionary perspective, Anne! As usual I've been too focused on the molecular.
I do love plant evolution and especially polyploidy. I'll look for your upcoming post!!
It's good to be complementary!
And yes polyploidy is fascinating--I studied a highly polyploid genus in New Zealand so maybe I'll highlight that example!
Studying plants in NZ, what a dream!
Unfortunately I only got to be in NZ for a month and otherwise was on the other side of the world in the UK...but thought a lot about NZ!