Turn humans into moss

Plants and Pipettes

Last week, we wanted to be moss and this week science has listened to us and turned human (cells) into moss. Well kinda. Not really. A little bit. Still, we’re excited to become moss.

• Past Ig Winners
• TALENT VERSUS LUCK: THE ROLE OF RANDOMNESS IN SUCCESS AND FAILURE | Advances in Complex Systems
• How Kenyans help themselves and the planet by saving mangrove trees | Science News
• Carbon Offsets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
• Jabuticaba – Wikipedia
• Plant mitochondrial RNA editing factors can perform targeted C-to-U editing of nuclear transcripts in human cells | Nucleic Acids Research | Oxford Academic
• Temperature induced changes in Arabidopsis Rubisco activity and isoform expression
• Rapid transgenerational adaptation in response to intercropping reduces competition | eLife
• DNA from mummy’s tomb reveals ancient Egyptian origins of watermelon | New Scientist
• A 3500-year-old leaf from a Pharaonic tomb reveals that New Kingdom Egyptians were cultivating domesticated watermelon | bioRxiv
• Genome Sequencing of up to 6,000-Year-Old Citrullus Seeds Reveals Use of a Bitter-Fleshed Species Prior to Watermelon Domestication | Molecular Biology and Evolution | Oxford Academic
• A bitter mystery: Sequencing the world’s oldest plant genome | Kew
• Plants rooted in rocks | Nature Geoscience
• Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants | Nature Geoscience
• Forest vulnerability to drought controlled by bedrock composition | Nature Geoscience
• The role of colour patterns for the recognition of flowers by bees | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Bees use patterns — not just colors — to find flowers — ScienceDaily
• How Many Ants Live on Earth? Scientists Came Up With an Answer : ScienceAlert
• Fascinating Study Gives a Unique Glimpse Into How Dogs See The World : ScienceAlert

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Our opening and closing music is Caravana by Phillip Gross

Until next time!

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Chapters

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Ig Nobel (00:09:12)

3. Mangroves and carbon credits (00:13:00)

4. Jabuticaba (00:18:48)

5. Moss RNA editing now in humans (00:23:48)

6. lots of RuBisCO small subunits (00:29:20)

7. Intercropping's influence on plant adaptation (00:40:12)

8. Watermelons in tombs (00:44:42)

9. Bees see patterns (00:52:10)

10. Plants rooted in rocks (00:56:23)

11. Cat facts (01:00:33)

12. Outro (01:06:34)