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KATHY PLUNKETT PHOTOGRAPHY
Department Contents
MARCH 202010 FROM THE EDITOR
Confessions of the Plant Blind
For too long I have taken plants
for granted.
BY BOB GRANT12 CRITIC AT LARGE
Opinion: The Perils of Plant
Blindness
In the plant awareness revolution,
scientists are taking a back seat
to hipster gardeners and slam
poets—and that’s a good thing.
BY M. TIMOTHY RABANUS-WALLACE15 NOTEBOOK
Rhodopsins on Loan; Neighborhood
Warning; Wheat’s Secrets; Vavilov
Revisited23 MODUS OPERANDI
Mitochondrial Manipulations
Modified gene editing machinery
enables targeted disruptions of
mitochondrial genes in rice and
rapeseed plants.
BY RUTH WILLIAMS46 THE LITERATURE
Venus flytraps’ picky eating; ants
as plant protectors; why a mutant
plant’s roots grow sideways48 PROFILE
Into the Light
Plant geneticist Joanne Chory
has revolutionized researchers’
understanding of how light affects
plant growth and development,
and is engineering plants to combat
climate change.
BY EMILY MAKOWSKI51 SCIENTIST TO WATC H
Joe Louis: Insect Whisperer
BY EMILY MAKOWSKI52 BIO BUSINESS
Hazy Regulations
The US cannabis market lacks
standards for assessing the safety
and potency of its products, creating
challenges for the fledgling industry
that’s testing the herb.
BY KATARINA ZIMMER59 READING FRAMES
The Wisdom of Rings
Counting growth rings in trees
can tell us about a lot more than
a plant’s age.
BY VALERIE TROUET64 FOUNDATIONS
A Smiling Garden, 1558
BY ASHLEY YEAGERIN EVERY ISSUE
9 CONTRIBUTORS
11 SPEAKING OF SCIENCE
62 THE GUIDE46
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THEORY SCHOO LCORRECTIONS:
The January/February article “Alternative Endings” originally stated that Rich
Roberts and his research group made the finding described in a 1977 paper.
In fact, not all of the paper's authors were members of Roberts's group.
The January/February article “Ohio, Gene Factory” stated that the FDA had
requested more data before allowing a Phase 3 clinical trial of an Abeona
Therapeutics investigational drug to proceed, and that shareholders had filed
a lawsuit against the company for allegedly misleading them. In December
2019, the FDA removed the clinical hold, and according to Abeona, the
shareholders have withdrawn their lawsuit.
The Scientist regrets these errors.03.2020 | THE SCIENTIST 5