It's Fascination of Plants Day! 39 countries are celebrating plant scientists and they work they are doing to feed the world, improve health and develop sustainable energy supplies.
But it isn't just serious 'save the planet' stuff - scientists have given themselves a bad rap by adopting the stoic Mr. Spock logic role. They are having fun too.
For example, James Meredith and company at Warwick University are trying to use hemp fiber in place of carbon for automobile bodywork. A material called Kestrel has already been created and is looking for people willing to try it - don't get pulled over by the DEA, though. It will be tough to explain unless the traffic enforcement officer has a PhD in chemistry.
The only thing that could make a cannabis car cooler is powering it with coffee. It turns out used coffee grounds have about 10% oil in them so Zayed Al-Hamamre and colleagues at the University of Jordan have been working on a way to make biodiesel from them. Al-Hamamre says we could get around 1,000 tons of biodiesel from used coffee grounds each year, no additional land required.
Read about more plant science:
Coffee-powered cannabis cars and bambara breakfasts on Plants Day by Corrinne Burns, The Guardian
