Headlines
A Mini-Conference on Plants and Climate Change (DOC)
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George Washington Carver by Betsy Graves Reyneau, 1942
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution;
gift of the George Washington Carver Memorial Committee 2008 Smithsonian Institution |
A tip of the hat to George Washington Carver and his lengthy legacy
When Iowa's legislature accepted the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862 and conferred land-grant status to
Iowa State—then known as Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, they created an institution where a
gifted but disadvantaged student like George Washington Carver was able to flourish. Carver, the institution's
first African American student and faculty member, completed his undergraduate degree in 1894 and his master's
of agriculture in 1896.
Not just another brick in the wall
Plant cell walls are central to cellulosic ethanol because they are the raw material for next-generation biofuels.
For this reason, the Plant Sciences Institute is investing in plant cell wall research, laying a foundation to advance feedstock
development for cellulosic ethanol production in Iowa.
Maize manual now in-hand
Just two years ago, a team from Iowa State joined the $32 million effort to sequence the corn genome led by The Genome
Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In February, the completion of the first draft
sequence of the inbred B73 line of Zea mays L. was announced.
Exploring space
For some, the outer reaches of space are far-flung galaxies, for others, the unknowns are closer to home. Exploring space was the topic of an interesting paper published last year by Prusinkiewicz et al (2007) in the journal Science. The "space" in this study was not outer space but so-called "morphospace," and the question is whether plants and "Mother Nature" have explored and now occupy all morphospace.
PSI adopts theme of "Plants and Climate Change"
Join us on Arbor Day, April 25, 2008, to educate and address ourselves to the important issues of climate change.
