Clues to climate change hidden in herbaria

Clues to climate change hidden in herbaria

A study published in the Journal of Ecology has shown that the collections of dried plant specimens held in herbaria around the world can be used to track the relationship between changing temperatures and plant flowering times reliably, even though many of the specimens are more than a hundred years old.

More than half of all flowering plant names to be scrapped

More than half of all flowering plant names to be scrapped

Botanists had long believed the accepted number of flowering plant species to be an overestimate, but few are likely to have guessed the scale of the miscalculation. New research suggests that at least 600,000 flowering plant names – more than half – are synonyms, or duplicate names.

Rockefeller University chooses Genentech scientist as new president

Rockefeller University chooses Genentech scientist as new president

The Rockefeller University today announced the election of Marc Tessier-Lavigne, of biotechnology firm Genentech, as its tenth president – the first to be chosen from industry rather than academia. He succeeds Nobel laureate Paul Nurse, president since 2003, who will return to Britain to become president of the Royal Society.