Understanding BIOLOGY using plant science - Sir David Baulcombe

From the genetic discoveries made in a maize field, to the insights of a philosopher looking at cork down a microscope, Sir David Baulcombe explores how discoveries in plants have changed our understanding of ALL life on Earth.

0:00 Robert Hooke and the first microscope
0:44 Gregor Mendel and plant heredity
1:00 Martinus Beikerink and the discovery of the virus
2:20 Barbara McClintock and transposons
4:33 How plant science changes our understanding of biology
5:16 Why plants are amazing experimental organisms

Speaker Profile: Prof Sir David Baulcombe is Professor of Botany at Cambridge University; one of his predecessors was J.S. Henslow, Charles Darwin’s tutor. As well as researching plant hormones, viruses and disease resistance, his present focus is into the mechanisms of soft inheritance.

"I was led into these subjects because one of my tutors recommended that, if I intended to follow a career in research, I should choose an important topic. In 1973 when I started my PhD, I thought that the most important topic in biology was understanding how genes are regulated. My various research interests since then have always involved different ways of looking at that problem."

Filmed at the Gatsby Plant Science Summer School 2016.