Plant papers, jokes, and useful uncertainty.
Plants and Pipettes pairs informal banter with close readings of plant science research. Episodes move from eyebrow mishaps and theater tangents into quinoa defense cells, tree masting, plant genomes, microplastics, and the strange signals hidden in tree rings.
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Plants and Pipettes treats molecular plant biology as both fascinating science and good conversational material. The tone is casual, sometimes chaotic, and openly amused by its own detours. That looseness is part of the design. Episodes may open with eyebrow dye, Berlin travel, Taskmaster, moorland vegetation, or a ray terrifying crabs before arriving at the paper under discussion. Once there, the show becomes notably precise. Tegan and Joram spend time with mechanisms, caveats, and study design instead of flattening research into simple takeaways. Quinoa bladder cells become a way to talk about oxalic acid, pest defense, bacterial entry points, and breeding targets. Tree masting becomes a story about pollinators, seed predators, climate signals, and why synchronized reproduction remains difficult to explain. Tree rings become evidence that some plants grow more erratically in the years before death, while still leaving room for uncertainty about cause and effect. Other episodes look at plant genome sequencing and the uneven geography of scientific production, including disparities across nations, regions, genders, and plant taxa. The interview with Kat Austen widens the frame, connecting plant research with artistic practice and microplastics experiments in contained soil systems. The show does not pretend that every study resolves a question cleanly. It is comfortable saying that a paper shows correlation, that a mechanism is still unclear, or that a proposed application has not yet been tested. That honesty gives the comedy more room to breathe. Plants and Pipettes is for listeners who want plant science with personality, not simplified classroom narration. It respects the research and still leaves space for jokes, tangents, and the occasional social media sign-off that sounds only partly planned.
Made for: For curious science listeners, plant biology students, researchers, and gardeners who enjoy detailed explanations without a formal lecture tone. It especially suits people who like research discussed with humor and visible uncertainty.
What sets it apart: The show keeps the messiness of scientific interpretation in the room: mechanisms, caveats, failed certainty, and all. Its mix of molecular plant biology, paper-by-paper discussion, and offbeat banter gives it a texture far less polished than standard science explainers.
Tegan and Joram explore the world of molecular plant research. How to plants sense their environment? What controls their metabolism? How do they store energy? Come along to an excursion into the very cells of all green things!
Quinoa's pest-fighting bladder cells become excellent company when you like your botany with eyebrow-dye chaos.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A playful ecology conversation explains how trees use synchronized seed bursts to outlast hungry predators.
Plants and Pipettes turns masting into a neat piece of forest strategy: trees hold back, then release flowers and seeds together, flooding seed predators in good years and leaving them short in the quiet ones.
A clear look at where plant genomes are sequenced, with a strange and memorable undersea detour.
Plant science turns into a question of who gets to make knowledge, and where that work is allowed to gather momentum. The episode uses genome sequencing to make the imbalance concrete: a 2021 study found China and the USA each with more than 200 assemblies, Europe near 200,…
A loose, curious episode finds a memorable warning sign in the growth rings of dying gymnosperms.
Plants and Pipettes turns tree rings into a quiet early-warning sign, as Tegan and Joram look at how gymnosperms change in the final 20 years before death.
Mushroom culture from soil to society.
Clear neuroscience for curious minds.
Weed science, from genomes to paddocks.
Biomedical careers, described from the inside.
Human stakes behind biomedical progress.
Life science, one sharp discovery at a time.
Plants and Pipettes connects a 1910 hippopotamus proposal with modern research on water hyacinth, quinoa, peas, and soybean oil.
The hosts catch up and introduce the podcast about plant molecular research.
["Parsley can become toxic in its second year, with apiol and myristicin named as the compounds behind the warning, and the hosts say it was listed as poisonous plant of the year for 2023.", "A San Diego experiment on white sage, black sage, and phacelia found honeybee-pollinated seeds were poorer quality than seeds from other pollinators or manual cross-pollination, while honeybees spent about twice as long on a single plant as other insects.", "The episode then turns to a Science paper on CRISPR multiplexing in trees, where machine learning helped design three-gene strategies that reduced lignin within six months.", "Later, the hosts cover a 70-institution seed-masting study, a Trends Eco Evo comparison between ChatGPT and the New Phytologist 100-question paper, and a wood wide web meta-analysis discussed through Earth to Human."]
["Plants and Puppets opens with manta rays, Crown-of-Thorns sea stars, and sea urchin culling as examples of underwater predation and reef damage, then warns that 20-degree water can trigger cold shock and make breathing difficult.", "Jerem and Yaron move into natural dyeing with Indigofera tinctoria, shibori, avocado-skin dye, reduced indigo, oxidation, pH, and fabric chemistry across silk, wool, linen, and cotton.", "A safflower segment on Carthamus tinctorius links yellow and red dyes to silk versus cotton behavior and traces 'red tape' to Charles V's red-string dossiers.", "The back half covers eDNA air filters, 'human genetic bycatch,' and Rose A.
["A V-type H+-ATPase in diatoms may explain a carbon-concentrating mechanism tied to a large share of Earth\u2019s oxygen output.", "Tegan and Joram open with Taskmaster banter, then Joram describes a free 3.5-meter pool that came with chlorine tablets, filter sand, and 12-degree water.", "Tegan\u2019s side trips include the Seven Sisters chalk cliffs, Chelsea in Bloom in London, and Agapanthus blackjack as the year\u2019s plant pick with purple-black flowers.", "The science segment moves through Daniel Yee\u2019s Current Biology paper on diatoms, a 2019 tree-ring mortality study, touch sensing in pavement cells, and amaranth\u2019s extra-chromosomal circular DNA."]
The hosts celebrate winning a science communication award at a molecular biology of plants conference and discuss their podcast's focus on plant research.
Tegan and Joram interview DIY scientist Kat Austin about her paper on microplastics and plants.
Tegan and Joram discuss plant science and a tangential connection to Wuthering Heights.