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…
Year: 2010
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…