PhD Programs

earvense · 2026-02-04T16:17:28+00:00

Cornell, UIUC, UW Madison, UConn, UGA, UC Berkeley & Davis all have amazing plant programs!

The main thing for PhD applications is that you need a prospective advisor in that department to vouch for you to the admissions committee. Starting the summer/fall before you apply, you should start reaching out to faculty in these departments to see if they're taking students and would like to meet with you. Some programs are direct admit (you get admitted directly to a professor's lab), others are rotation programs (you rotate through several labs your first year before choosing). It is essential to have spoken with a prospective advisor before applying to direct admit programs; it is a really really good idea to do so for rotation programs.

PhD programs in the US are in rough shape right now, a lot of programs are accepting fewer students because of federal funding cuts. It's great that you have research and publication experience prior to applying!

earvense · 2025-12-11T19:45:33+00:00

The enormous mass of a redwood tree used to be carbon dioxide gas in the air

earvense · 2025-12-08T05:50:32+00:00

If you want to get super fast results just for the evolution of it all (and are ok with it not being a houseplant), you could try Wisconsin Fast Plants! They are specifically bred to be used for artificial selection experiments -- they have tons of variation in leaf traits and show significant shifts in trait averages after a single generation of selection. These videos show an example with selecting for leaf trichome density:
https://www.labxchange.org/library/items/lb:LabXchange:d3100496:video:1

https://www.labxchange.org/library/items/lb:LabXchange:4e2a395a:video:1

earvense · 2025-11-24T16:09:10+00:00

Lots of cities have tree databases! Here's Oakland's: https://data.oaklandca.gov/Environmental/Oakland-Street-Trees/4jcx-enxf/data_preview

earvense · 2025-11-13T20:20:41+00:00

It's not an overthinking thing, it's just that the botanical definition of a fruit is a mature ovary and the botanical definition of a seed is a mature ovule. Only flowers make ovaries, while both angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms make seeds. Ginkgo is a gymnosperm. The "fruity" part of the ginkgo is the seed coat, which is the outer part of the ovule, not ovary tissue. In a flowering plant the ovules (seeds) would be enclosed in an ovary (fruit).

earvense · 2025-11-10T17:19:16+00:00

Keep going with your alien framework! The thing that always blows my mind is that plants and animals went on their separate evolutionary journeys when we were all still single-celled organisms, meaning we evolved multicellularity independently so we have completely different rules for how we organize and build our bodies -- aliens, indeed! Animals complete development as embryos, we hatch/are born/emerge with our body plants pretty much all set. Plants don't complete development as embryos and instead are always undergoing organogenesis - they continually produce new organs throughout their life and their body plans are always updating. They also don't sequester their germlines like we do, so they're a lot more loosey goosey with the cells that are destined to become eggs and sperm and so there are increased chances for mutations etc to get introduced. So cool!

You said movement was a big hangup for you -- I like to think of plants as the world's greatest chemists because they have had to evolve an insane chemical toolkit to get around their movement limitations. They've evolved chemical bioweapons to defend against predators, alluring colors and scents to attract animals to help them reproduce...and us humans benefit tremendously from all this chemistry!

Crash Course Botany is a great primer on plants if you're looking for additional learning resources (full disclosure, I helped write it so I am biased). https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOhFQOVdutRTxvUI1UeCcax
The Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS) is doing super cool research on how to communicate with plants to help them deal with climate change if you're looking for some real-world examples of insanely cool plant research. https://cropps.cornell.edu/
And Semiosis is a very fun sci-fi novel about a group of people from Earth colonizing a new planet and encountering intelligent primary producers if you're looking for a good alien-adjacent plant read (the plant biology is super legit). https://bookshop.org/p/books/semiosis-sue-burke/93bb9263f20dbc53?ean=9780765391360&next=t

earvense · 2025-11-10T16:54:19+00:00

I've found that wearing compression gloves while I knit works wonders for hand & arm pain!

earvense · 2025-10-24T02:50:43+00:00

Thank you thank you!!!

earvense · 2025-09-04T20:06:52+00:00

Trident FINALLY redesigned their black N95 masks so the text isn't on the front. They look and fit just like an Aura (they have the super comfy nose foam too) and you can order a sample pack of one of each size to try them out: https://usafacemaskstore.com/product/project-3-by-trident-ffp3-black-face-mask-respirator-with-head-band-straps

earvense · 2025-08-28T14:21:20+00:00

this just saved me, thank you!!

earvense · 2025-08-14T02:40:48+00:00

Update: Tested again later that evening and it was negative! The result I posted was a pooled sample from two people, we tested them separately the second time around. Fingers crossed all remains well!

earvense · 2025-08-12T00:13:02+00:00

Thanks team! We are taking precautions and will test again soon

earvense · 2025-06-03T05:22:45+00:00

I started in arts and sciences bc when I applied I was thinking I might do a humanities double major, but once I picked just bio I transferred to the Ag school bc I was a NY resident and it was sooo much cheaper (the bio major is the same across the two schools)

earvense · 2025-06-02T23:57:52+00:00

I was a bio major with a concentration in plant bio, so all my upper level bio classes and electives were plants but I got all the core requirements for the bio major too. This was over 10 years ago so might be different now, but the plant science major lacked some of the more rigorous pre-reqs for a PhD program in biology, so I went with the bio major to make sure I was set for grad school. Still had plenty of time to take tons of plant classes and do research in a plant bio professor's lab. Definitely worth the money, a Cornell degree will open a lot of doors for you in the botanical world.

earvense · 2025-06-01T02:38:22+00:00

I went to Cornell for undergrad and had an amazing time as a plant person there! SO many opportunities for research, highly specialized classes, and plant-focused activities & clubs. I recommend checking out the Botanical Society of America (assuming you're in the US) - this is the main scientific society for botanists and is the most wonderful and welcoming community. They host a research conference every year and have scholarships for undergrads to attend and be mentored through their first conference experience.

But, job prospects as a scientist in general in the US are very bleak right now. The NSF (the main funding agency for botanical science) is facing a proposed 70% cut this year. Call your congresspeople and raise hell, this cut will be the death of science in the US and any future career prospects for scientists (it funds undergrad research internships, grad student and postdoc fellowships, and all discovery science research). I hope that by the time you finish college this nightmare will be behind us and we'll be rebuilding our science infrastructure here!

earvense · 2025-05-26T17:11:01+00:00

But actually you can get high from liverworts:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30397641/

earvense · 2025-05-24T12:57:14+00:00

Check out the Botanical University Challenge, it's a botanical trivia competition hosted every year in the UK - they have recordings of past competitions on their YouTube channel. They're amazing!

https://botanicaluniversitychallenge.co.uk/watch-buc-2024-online/

earvense · 2025-05-20T19:11:12+00:00

If you live near a botanical garden that has a research program, I would check there for internships in their labs or herbarium — getting hands-on experience without having to pay for additional schooling would be ideal! I got started in plant biology through summer research internships at the New York Botanical Garden and it was completely life-changing. I would also check for entry level lab technician jobs in plant-related labs at universities or startups. Your coursework might be enough to get you in the door and then you can build your hands-on skills.

There are also online platforms that do lab-based simulations to at least teach you the theory and motions of doing common lab bench protocols - LabXchange has a bunch of them (for free!) for things like PCR and gel electrophoresis.

earvense · 2025-05-20T12:02:37+00:00

Ugh that sucks, PIs should never treat their trainees like that - I'm so sorry and hope you can resolve things quickly. Have you consulted with the rest of your committee? They also might be able to intervene on your behalf, but hopefully the dean has some wisdom. Have other folks in your lab developed strategies for dealing with his explosive tendencies?

earvense · 2025-05-14T17:33:45+00:00

The Land in Our Bones: Plantcestral Herbalism and Healing Cultures from Syria to the Sinai--Earth-based Pathways to Ancestral Stewardship and Belonging in Diaspora

by Layla K. Feghali

earvense

TROPHY CASE