Plants are at the heart of many of today’s scientific and societal challenges, from sustainable food production to climate resilience. For Plant Fascination Day, we want to highlight several outreach initiatives from colleagues at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology who are helping bring plant science closer to the public.

Plants rely on millions of tiny hairs on their roots to absorb water and nutrients from the soil. Now, a research team at VIB and UGent led by Prof. Moritz Nowack, has discovered that the lifespan of these root hairs is governed by a surprisingly precise molecular balancing act between recycling and cell death. The findings, published in Nature Plants, open new avenues for engineering crops that are better at extracting resources from the soil.

When an asteroid as big as Mount Everest struck Earth 66 million years ago, it wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and roughly a third of life on the planet. But many plants survived the devastation. In a new study in Cell, researchers from VIB and Ghent University reveal that the accidental duplications of genomes might have helped many flowering plants survive some of the most extreme environmental upheavals in Earth’s history. This strategy could help plants adapt to the rapid climate changes unfolding today.

Five guests, five very different stories, and five great reasons to listen to the new season of Called to Science. Meet Laurent Galibert, Ayşe Candayan, Thomas Jacobs, Lia Martina, and Inge Van Molle, who share the questions, choices, setbacks, and surprises that shaped their paths in and around science.