Science and conservation news
Keep up to date with the latest science and conservation news and blogs from Kew. Here you will find all the latest articles about our work in the UK and around the world. Research news of interest to specialists is reported in our specialist science news page and our newsletter Kew Scientist.
Specialist science news | Go behind the scenes with Kew blogs
Plant diversification in the Cape of South Africa
06 Mar 2012
Research suggests that the high levels of biodiversity in the Cape of South Africa have been promoted by a combination of complex environmental conditions and climatic stability.
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Discovering common fungi
29 Feb 2012
A PhD student helps to discover a new class of fungi.
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Collections from the Caribbean
by: David Hickmott, Millennium Seed Bank blog 28 Feb 2012
Follow a Millennium Seed Bank collector on an expedition to the Dominican Republic to save threatened and useful plants.
- 74 likes
- 3 comments
‘Polyunsaturates’ not good for booklice
22 Feb 2012
Research at Kew is investigating ways to protect library, museum and herbarium collections from damage caused by booklice.
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A first flowering for Kew
by: Marcella Corcoran, UK Overseas Territories team blog17 Feb 2012
With the appearance of a tiny greenish-white flower, Kew’s horticulturists have recorded the first flowering in cultivation of Metastelma anegadense, a plant found only on the low-lying island of Anegada in the Caribbean.
- 26 likes
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Predicting the medicinal uses of plants
15 Feb 2012
Scientists study how phylogenetic trees can predict the medicinal uses of plants.
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Mapping live data and tweets from the field
by: Justin Moat and Steve Bachman, GIS team blog14 Feb 2012
Mapping live data and tweets from the field - experiments with the latest technology 'mashups' in Sumatra.
- 12 likes
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Saving the seeds of love
by: Gemma Toothill, Millennium Seed Bank blog13 Feb 2012
Come with me to the underground storage vault at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank to discover more about the heart marked seeds of 'love-in-a-puff' (Cardiospermum halicacabum).
- 32 likes
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Roses are red, violets are blue...and human heads are sign of good luck!
by: Virginia Mills, Library, Art and Archives blog13 Feb 2012
As Valentine's Day approaches, discover the unusual way Taiwanese aborigines went about attracting a partner in the 19th Century, and why plant collector Richard Oldham said the Taiwan mountains were too dangerous a place to collect.
- 26 likes
- 1 comment
From the field - fly-camping in the Harapan Rainforest, Sumatra
by: Jenny Williams, GIS team blog10 Feb 2012
Kew's GIS and South East Asia team report from their study sites deep in the forests of Sumatra. In this - their second post - they venture into the jungle, seeing all sorts of things on the way.
- 17 likes
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Specialist science news
Elderflower surprise
10 Jun 2013
Scientists at Kew Gardens have discovered compounds new to science in ordinary elderflower drinks.
Speciation systems on Lord Howe Island
06 Jun 2013
Lord Howe Island provides evidence in plants for the ‘syngameon hypothesis’ of adaptive evolution.
Is our daily cup of coffee under threat?
08 Nov 2012
A new study from Kew suggests that Arabica coffee could be extinct in the wild within 70 years.
Director (CEO and Chief Scientist) of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to return to Australia
14 Sep 2011
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew announced today that Director (CEO and Chief Scientist), Professor Stephen Hopper FLS will step down in autumn 2012 after six years in the job.
