The surprising origin of sprouts, the vegetable we either love or hate
14 December 2022
Sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage and a dozen other vegetables are all the same species, Brassica oleracea. Now we have finally discovered their common ancestor
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Don’t Miss: A fantastical journey through The Science of Middle Earth
31 August 2022
New Scientist's weekly round-up of the best books, films, TV series, games and more that you shouldn’t miss
Planting Clues review: Intriguing tales about plants’ role in crime
31 August 2022
From working out a dead person's last meal to the possible poisoning of the Buddha, a new book from David J. Gibson has some great tales about how plants help solve crimes – and are used to commit them
Hurricane that hit Jamaica helped low-lying trees spread to mountains
12 July 2022
Hurricane Gilbert struck Jamaica in 1988, and the damage it left in its wake might have allowed warm-adapted trees that normally grow at low altitudes to take root on the island’s mountains
The major science-fiction films that get botany spectacularly wrong
15 December 2021
Plants play a starring role in sci-fi films surprisingly often, but the botany in movies like The Martian, Sunshine and Prometheus doesn't always stack up, writes James Wong
Thieving honeybees offer a glimpse of flowers’ evolutionary origins
24 August 2021
Honeybees sometimes steal pollen without helping the plant that makes it. Now, a study of pollen theft from a type of non-flowering plant is shedding light on why the first flowers evolved
Strange new fairy lantern plant is already critically endangered
1 July 2021
This bizarre-shaped plant from a Malaysian rainforest appears to be so vanishingly rare it should already be considered critically endangered
Robot with origami leaves can follow the sun like a real plant
9 March 2020
A robot can recreate the mechanism plants use to transport water to bend itself towards the sun and open its leaves like a real plant
The odd history of the mulberry tree's ties to silk, music and money
8 January 2020
Mulberry, a book celebrating the marvellous tree, goes beyond its ancient links to silk production to explore its role in everything from the oldest banknotes to modern drugs
Crime-fighting botanist takes down murderers using plants
27 March 2019
Jane Bock helps to solve homicides by identifying things like the origin of blades of grass on a shoe or the chewed-up remains of a victim’s last meal
