Why do leaves change color?

Even here in Tucson, autumn has arrived, and many plants are beginning to lose their leaves for the winter. Most leaves change color before they die – some turn bright red, others yellow, orange, and others just a sad shade of brown. Why bother? The answer I remember from grade school is that leaves are…

The magic of x-rays

Have you ever thought about taking an x-ray of something besides your bones? Maybe a leaf? What if we could see the structure of a plant without damaging it in any way? The important issue is how to get contrast in the final image – do we look for x-rays to be absorbed (as in…