Particle theory: how a humble finding in plant science transformed physics and chemistry
Disregard for plant research by scientists and prize committees means that it doesn’t get the same prestige as other disciplines. Plant science is vital for our food security and in our fight against climate change. But it’s equally important to generate new knowledge to advance research and innovation across all disciplines. Low recognition given to scientific contributions by plant science is highly detrimental as prospective young scientists often overlook plant science. Because of this, I never considered studying plants myself — it was entirely accidental that I studied plant science.
But the fact is that ever since the early days of science, plants have been central to breakthroughs that have enabled technological advances that we enjoy today. Therefore, I’m writing a series of blog posts to highlight a few significant findings from research in plants. This is the second blog of the series. In the first blog, I report how breakthrough studies by plant scientists using plant models gave birth to the new field of cell biology or cell science. Here, I explain how plant research gave rise to the area of particle theory, inspired one of the greatest scientists of all time, and bought recognition to esteemed scientists in different disciplines.
