Pint of Science Special: Science under a Lens - Norwich Science Festival

Deep inside ourselves we find intimations of a spiritual side to human existence. In the objective world of science, it can be argued that nothing in our modern understanding in any way undermines a position of faith in God. Equally, nothing in the fundamental nature of belief in God need weaken confidence in the validity and progress of science. Far from undermining any meaning to our lives, fundamental science entirely supports the credibility of a Creator God, responsible for the very laws that science has been unravelling over many centuries. Those same underlying laws may reveal principles pointing to spiritual truth.

Every cell in a living organism has the same DNA, like a master recipe book. But it’s the RNA, made from this recipe, that acts as specific instructions for each cell. In plants, RNA is what guides cells to become part of a flower, a leaf, or a root. Thanks to new advanced microscopy techniques, we can now peer inside individual cells to see the RNA at work and pinpoint where hundreds of different RNA types are located all at once. At the John Innes Centre and Earlham Institute in Norwich, we use this knowledge to uncover how plants grow and develop their intricate floral structures.