From Plants to Policy: Science in a Changing World

Antarctica is the only continent without an indigenous human population. In fact, scientists are the only humans who live in Antarctica all year round. Science is the main activity on the continent - from environmental research to marine biology, from meteorology to ice-modelling, and even physicists searching for meteorite debris, there is a huge breadth of research happening on the seventh continent.
But how did all this research begin in Antarctica? What do we do with everything we’ve learned about the coldest place on earth? And how do we use that data to protect our planet?

Plants live outdoors and must time their lives to the seasons—but how do they know when it’s autumn, winter, spring or summer? This talk explores how plants use cues like winter cold to track the seasons, and why climate change threatens food security not just through hotter summers, but milder winters. We’ll show how studying a boring little weed revealed the molecular mechanisms behind this process, and how in the Cold Cabbage lab we’re using it to help us understand important crops like cabbage, broccoli, pak choi and mustards. It’s not quite rocket science - but it tastes similar.

I am a big fan of Plants as bases for medicines. Plants relieving pain and head injuries date back thousands of years. Botanicals are still in the limelight as people in pain or head injury turn to herbal medicines. Pain killing and head injury medicinal plants offer the appealing prospect of alternative nature-based therapy. Which plant medicine to use for what sort of pain and head injury? How to take the plant – dose and any contraindications? Is pain and head injury relief backed by clinical evidence and science on mechanisms. I will also touch on the first effective treatment for Post-concussion syndrome (PCS), showing synthetic chemists are useful too.