Category: SciencePage 19 of 37
Latest science blog posts from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
By Hannah Swan Before publisher’s bindings were de rigueur, texts came in flimsy paper ‘wrappers’, leaving the permanent binding to the new owner. Because of this, many books from…
For one of the taxa in our study set, Begonia scottii (living collection no. 20170076), we made a few replicate DNA extractions using Qiagen DNeasy plant mini-kits, and…
“It’ll stink! Tell me if you can’t stand it. My cat adores it.” Sweaty armpits, musty old rooms, smelly feet were all attempts at describing the smell of…
The set of DNA extractions from one of our test plants (#8, Begonia stictopoda RBGE accession 20170115) contained rather low concentrations of DNA. We decided against preparing NGS…
Oxytropis halleri commonly known as Mountain Milk-vetch is a Nationally Rare plant confined only to Scotland. The species can be found at two inland locations but most populations…
Andrew Ewing Calder was born in Stockbridge, Edinburgh, on the 12th January 1884 to Robert Calder, a blacksmith, and his wife Sarah Jane, who was a tailoress. Calder…
There’s an exciting project, The 10KP (10,000 Plants) Genome Sequencing Project, that aims to sequence and characterize representative genomes from every major clade of embryophytes, green algae, and…
‘Hai visto il polpo?’ *Waves arms to impersonate octopus* ‘Its warm today isn’t it mate’ I said while flapping my arms back to him My current boss called…
I spotted this unusual fern on a shipment that had come to Vannucci from Japan. The 8-20cm long plants were clinging to the trunk and underside of branches…
Protecting Potatoes is a new plant display with interpretation for summer 2018 at the Botanics. It can be found in the Demonstration Garden and the Temperate Palm House,…
On the 18th July 2018 we celebrate the 100th birthday of the Pyrus pashia tree growing on the Pyrus lawn.
The dry and montane forests of the Andes are vital for the lives of tens of millions of people in western South America. Their socio-economic worth in cycling…
To crowdsource information and tasks is an everyday part of the interconnected online world we live in. Today scientists see, and have grasped, the opportunity to get labour…
Robert Brown (1773-1858) Born in Montrose, Scotland in 1773, Robert Brown made his mark as a scientist in botany and palaeobotany. He is most famously known for his…
As part of our BioBlitz festivities, we are hosting four fabulous speakers to talk on a range of wildlife-related topics. 999 and counting… Recording Biodiversity at RBGE…
This year was my first year at Chelsea. I was lucky enough to be able to work at Chelsea for Kevock garden plants. The display had a…
Developing strategies to manage high-end climate change in Scotland and Europe IMPRESSIONS (Impacts and risks from high-end scenarios: Strategies for innovative solutions) is a 5-year EU project that…
By Hannah Swan While browsing our Rare Book Collection, we recently came across a boxed book that was as of yet uncatalogued in our online system, Kurtzes Handbüchlein…
By Hannah Swan Paolo Boccone’s Recherches et Observations Naturelles de Monsieur BOCCONE, Gentilhomme Sicilien…, published in the translated French in 1674 in Amsterdam, offers several tantalizing clues of…
Quality and quantity of DNA recovered from stored plant material is becoming more important as DNA sequencing technologies change from the relatively simple Sanger sequencing, to next generation…