Dear College of Science Faculty and Staff,I am 60% owner of a small succulent, initially entrusted to me when my daughter left for college. I have little talent in house plant care, but there was no one else. Five years on, it is still with me, now a proud co-owner, and even after I dropped it and broke the pot, the plant is doing quite well, with a multitude of little ones. This year, during Home Renovations, the plant has moved between Airbnbs, seeming content in its Starbucks tray.Living house plants are often superseded by easy-care fabric items, nowadays. Some are so good you have to check. It was not always this way. One year long ago, for our mom’s birthday, my sister, brother, and I pooled our pocket money and purchased from the OK Bazaars, two slim copper vases, a yellow plastic rose, a red plastic rose and two fronds of plastic fern. My mom kept these on display for years, faithfully dusting off the unequivocally artificial flowers. When I got older, I would often send my mom fresh flowers. And full circle, when she became really old, mom asked that I not do so, as it was difficult to care for the floral arrangements. Instead, I sent her a lavender fabric orchid in an elegant pot, as lovely as the real thing. Plants, of course, are incredibly important, and we would not exist without their stunning ability to use carbon dioxide and energy from the sun to make sugars and oxygen. Because unlike animals, plants can’t run away from enemies, they make many toxic molecules that defend against predators in place. These include the vast majority of useful medicines, with a huge number yet to be identified. There is so much we don’t understand about plants, exactly how they communicate, how they assess the world, how they make decisions, and how they interact with us. Plant Science includes agriculture and food production, but there is much more. At Northeastern University, we are embarking on an exciting, unique direction through a new Institute for Plant Human-Interface (IPHI) led by Dr. Jing-Ke Weng, who recently joined our College of Science Chemistry and Chemical Biology faculty, joint with COE and Bioengineering. The IPHI will Focus on Medicines, Allergies, Food, Climate Science, including biotechnology, manufacturing, and AI approaches. Dr. Weng writes: “The mission of IPHI is to deepen our understanding of plant biology and the plant-human interactions that significantly influence human health and sustainability on Earth.” Stay tuned for more about plants promoting the Good Power of Science!
Let’s hear it for Plants! – 10.6.2023