 1.
In
the late 18th century the breadfruit (Artocarpus
altilis) in the mulberry family was discovered by a British
voyage
of exploration to the East Indies. The ship's company, including James
Cook, Joseph Banks, and Daniel Solander, found that the starchy fruit
was
palatable and a good replacement for bread. The later H.M.S. Bountyexpedition
under Captain William Bligh accompanied by David Nelson, a gardener
from
the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, set out in 1787. The object of the
expedition
was to collect living breadfruit plants from Tahiti that could be
introduced
into the British West Indies as inexpensive food for slaves working
there
in the British sugar industry. Although the residents of the West
Indies
preferred bananas to breadfruit, the introduced plant became a staple
in
the diets of many people in other parts of the New World Tropics. The
unfortunate
Nelson refused to join the mutineers and was cast afloat with Bligh. He
barely survived the voyage of over a thousand miles and died a day
after
reaching land. |
| 2.
Darwin's
voyage
was named for the ship, H.M.S.
Beagle,on which the 23 year old Charles
Darwin made his memorable trip. He did, however, leave behind a pet
dog,
which upon his return five years later, was called, and it accompanied
Darwin on a walk with no sign of emotion and as if they had walked just
the day before. This dog was unfriendly to everyone else. At the end of
his life Darwin had another pet, a fox terrier, Polly, who was devoted
to him. He taught her to catch biscuits off her nose. Polly died, of
grief
it is said, a few days after Darwin. Darwin's personal life has been
warmly
detailed in a book edited by his son, Francis. Francis Darwin also
discussed
his father's botanical research. Although Darwin is remembered for his
theory of evolution based primarily upon observations of animals, he
did
a large number of experimental botanical studies. He was interested in,
among other things, phototropic response in plants, fertilization in
orchids,
dimorphism of flowers, insectivory, and morphological variation in
cultivated
plants. Some of his observations, especially on light responses by
plants,
served as the basis for later more sophisticated studies that continue
even today. |
 3.
Although he was born a slave at the beginning of the War between the
States,
kidnapped by raiders in southwest Missouri, and ransomed with a $300
horse,
George
Washington Carver managed to work his way through high school and
college.
He received an M.S. degree in agriculture at the age of 36 from what is
now Iowa State University. Over the next 47 years at Tuskegee
Institute,
he conducted research that dealt with the making of useful products
from
peanuts and sweet potatoes. The work with peanuts was especially
important
because it gave farmers a reason to grow the peanut, a member of the
pea
family. These plants form symbiotic associations with bacteria that fix
nitrogen to replenish the soil with this element that is soon depleted
in most agricultural soils. |
| 4.
Legend has it that Sir Isaac Newton's theories of gravity were
developed
from observations of apples failing from a tree.
However, gravity is not the whole story. The plant growth regulators
(sometimes
known as hormones), ethylene and indol acetic acid (auxin), play a part
in softening cell walls and creating an abscission layer at which the
fruit
separates from the tree. This process can be inhibited by another
growth
regulator, cytokinin. Growth regulators influence other responses such
as root elongation, flowering time, leaf color changes, leaf fall,
phototropism,
and the clinging vines. Newton missed a large part of the story! |
| 5.
As a young woman Beatrix Potter illustrated hundreds of plants,
fossils,
and fungi. With the use of her brother's microscope she did a study of
spore germination in mushrooms. Her paper was read at a 1897 meeting of
the Linnean Society of London, but she requested it be withdrawn from
publication
until she could make additional observations. During this time Potter
was
discouraged from continuing her mycological career by the director of
the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (an acquaintance of her uncle) because she
was a woman. The work was never completed and, therefore, never
published.
Although she wished to use her mushroom
illustrations in a book on British fungi, she found no contemporary
collaborator who would undertake the project. In 1967, twenty four
years
after her death her drawings were finally published in a field guide to
mushrooms by W.P.K. Findlay. |
| 6.
Abraham Lincoln's mother died from "milk
poisoning." Cows that eat white snakeroot (Eupatorium sp.),
a small herbaceous plant of the sunflower family accumulate toxins,
tremetol
and several glycosides in their milk. Milk poisoning was fairly
common
in colonial days before its cause was known. Plants synthesize a large
variety of compounds not used in their primary metabolism (the
so-called
secondary products) that may offer the plants protection from
herbivores
and plant pathogenic microorganisms. Secondary products, such as
caffeine,
digitalis, and scopalimine are utilized by human beings for among other
things insecticides and medicines. Incidently, Lincoln also lost
his beloved son, Tad, to a bacterial infection, which today might have
been cured easily by an antibiotic. Antibiotics were not
generally
available until the mid to late 1940s after the development of
penicillin
in the World War II effort --that is if an antibiotic resistent form of
the bacterium were not selected! |
| 7.
Hogs that are black in skin color carry linked genes that also make
them
resistant to the toxins of a wild plant, red root (Lachnanthes),
of
the bloodwort family. Light-colored hogs do not carry the genes, and
their
hooves become soft from the toxin, and may eventually fall off, thereby
reducing the number of white feral hogs. |
 8.
In 1932 the young son of Charles Lindbergh (famous for making the first
solo flight from New York to Paris) was kidnapped from his bedroom. One
piece of evidence at the scene was a ladder used to reach the second
story
room. Arthur Koehler, a wood technologist from the U.S.D.A.
Forest Products Laboratory, Madison, Wisconsin, determined from
wood
anatomy that the ladder was made from several types of wood. Parts of
the
rails were made from North Carolina pine. By the tedious process of
matching
saw cut marks from mills in the region of the relatively narrow range
of
the particular pine species it was possible to trace the wood to a
company
in the Bronx where it had been purchased. Other wood used in the ladder
was determined to have been sawed from a floor board in the suspect's
home. |
| 9.
Gregor
Johann
Mendel was the son of poor Moravian peasants. When he was 21 he
entered
a religious order and took the name Gregor by which we know him today.
His bishop thought him to be ill-suited for work as a parish priest
because
of his timidity. Instead he was encouraged to teach. He failed the exam
which was required to become a regular teacher, but was allowed to
continue
as a substitute teacher for the next 12 years. During this time he
began
his now classic study of inheritance in pea plants, a type of
inheritance
now known as "Mendelian inheritance." The paper culminating his studies
was read in 1865 and soon after published. It impressed few of his
peers
who did not understand the importance of the work. This included
Professor
Nägeli of Munich, a leading student of plant heredity at the
time.
Nägeli condescendingly offered his opinion on the work with peas
and
suggested other lines of completely different studies for Mendel to
pursue.
Today Nägeli is remembered by a few people only from the amoeba
which
bears his name; his tomes of research results are long forgotten.
The simple monk, however. is known to anyone who has had even an
introductory
course in biology. |
| 10.
In 1901 American chestnut trees first began dying in New York city. The
cause was the chestnut
blight fungus that had recently been introduced into North
America,
from Asia. Within forty years almost every native chestnut in eastern
North
America had been reduced to stump sprouts by the virulent fungus. In
the
1970's an undergraduate student at a Michigan college began a research
project, a survey to determine if any chestnuts survived in Michigan.
Perhaps
the few surviving trees might be found to have genetic resistance to
the
fungus and could be used for breeding stock to replace the susceptible
trees that had died. His work came to the attention of fungal genetists
at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. Subsequent
studies
showed something even more exciting than genetic resistance of the
tree.
The Michigan trees were actually infected with the fungus; however, the
fungus had a viral infection that rendered the fungus avirulent. At
L.S.U.
we firmly believe that undergraduate students can make significant
contributions
to research. Most of our students participate in a broad range of
projects.Students
conduct research on a variety of topics, including symbiotic
associations,
molecular phylogenetics, forest ecology, and cell membrane origins. |
 11.
Without plants there can be no life
on
earth. In this respect plant biology is the past, present, and
future
of humankind. We rely on plants to convert the light energy of the sun
to forms usable by other organisms. From plants of the past we obtain
fossil
fuels. From plants we obtain the oxygen we breathe and the food we eat,
fiber, wood, and pleasure in our everyday lives. Plant secondary
metabolites
provide drugs and models for synthesized drugs. Plants are model
systems
used in the study of genetics; they provide recreation and pleasure.
The
study of plant biology is basic to a variety of scientific disciplines. |
Special
questions for the election year (2004):