school energy&environment
Plants
Botanists, who are scientists who study plants, have identified and described over 3,500 types of plants, but there are many more! Plants have different shapes and sizes, some are so small they can only be seen with a microscope, while others are so tall that it is hardly possible to identify their foliage; many have very colourful flowers others do not have any.
There is such a large variety of plants because they live in different environments of the Earth: in the water, in thick forests or wide plains, in cold climates or blazing deserts. Since millions of years they have had to and have known how to adapt to their environment. Plants provide much of the oxygen that animals and humans breathe, and a large part of the food they eat.
subjects dealt with in Plants
Plants knowledge
Algae are plant organisms that carry out photosynthesis but which, unlike plants, have a poorly differentiated body, or thallus, and…
Man and Plants
Plants are essential food for all living organisms, including man, to survive. In the Ecosystems section, we saw they are…
Impacts on ecosystems
Farming also means exploitation of forests. There are many reasons for deforestation: timber trade, exploitation of ore deposits, urbanisation and…
GMOs
In the light of the current food crisis, to increase agricultural productivity on a global scale, it’s possible to expand…
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture was established in response to environmental problems caused by the “green revolution” and other production methods having high…
special reports
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29 April 2021 / Life
Etruscan shrews, ferocity in miniature
Which is the tiniest micromammal, i.e. the smallest mammal on the planet? Up until almost half a century ago, it…
10 March 2021 / Life
International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021
This year has been designated by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) as the International Year of…
8 March 2021 / Life
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
-
27 February 2021 / Life
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
8 January 2021 / Life
Smart as a crow
Some people call them "monkeys with feathers" because they can do clever things comparable to many of our monkey cousins.…
18 December 2020 / Life
The Christmas Star Tradition
A plant that symbolises the Christmas season, decorating homes and shops and featured prominently by the florists and garden centres…
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24 November 2020 / Life
The glow of duck-billed platypuses
It's easy to answer "which is the strangest animal?". The answer: the platypus. These strange creatures live only in Australia…
12 October 2020 / Life
Crispr-Cas9, the gene factory
Nobel 2020. The biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier, French, and Jennifer A. Doudna, from the United States, were awarded the most important…
10 May 2020 / Life
A virus’s life
What are viruses Virus is a Latin word meaning poison. Viruses do not eat, breathe, move or reproduce on their…
-
29 April 2021 / Life
Etruscan shrews, ferocity in miniature
Which is the tiniest micromammal, i.e. the smallest mammal on the planet? Up until almost half a century ago, it…
10 March 2021 / Life
International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021
This year has been designated by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) as the International Year of…
-
8 March 2021 / Life
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
27 February 2021 / Life
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
-
8 January 2021 / Life
Smart as a crow
Some people call them "monkeys with feathers" because they can do clever things comparable to many of our monkey cousins.…
18 December 2020 / Life
The Christmas Star Tradition
A plant that symbolises the Christmas season, decorating homes and shops and featured prominently by the florists and garden centres…
-
24 November 2020 / Life
The glow of duck-billed platypuses
It's easy to answer "which is the strangest animal?". The answer: the platypus. These strange creatures live only in Australia…
12 October 2020 / Life
Crispr-Cas9, the gene factory
Nobel 2020. The biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier, French, and Jennifer A. Doudna, from the United States, were awarded the most important…
-
10 May 2020 / Life
A virus’s life
What are viruses Virus is a Latin word meaning poison. Viruses do not eat, breathe, move or reproduce on their…
-
29 April 2021 / Life
Etruscan shrews, ferocity in miniature
Which is the tiniest micromammal, i.e. the smallest mammal on the planet? Up until almost half a century ago, it…
-
10 March 2021 / Life
International Year of Fruits and Vegetables 2021
This year has been designated by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations) as the International Year of…
-
8 March 2021 / Life
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
-
27 February 2021 / Life
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
-
8 January 2021 / Life
Smart as a crow
Some people call them "monkeys with feathers" because they can do clever things comparable to many of our monkey cousins.…
-
18 December 2020 / Life
The Christmas Star Tradition
A plant that symbolises the Christmas season, decorating homes and shops and featured prominently by the florists and garden centres…
-
24 November 2020 / Life
The glow of duck-billed platypuses
It's easy to answer "which is the strangest animal?". The answer: the platypus. These strange creatures live only in Australia…
-
12 October 2020 / Life
Crispr-Cas9, the gene factory
Nobel 2020. The biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier, French, and Jennifer A. Doudna, from the United States, were awarded the most important…
-
10 May 2020 / Life
A virus’s life
What are viruses Virus is a Latin word meaning poison. Viruses do not eat, breathe, move or reproduce on their…
from the Multimedia section
curiosities
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Watch out for aliens!
Italy has some new inhabitants, but that is no cause for celebration: the list of alien species is long. Two…
Plants and bacteria giving new "light" to off grid communities
"Planta lampara", a lamp powered by the energy produced thanks to the combination of plants and bacteria...
-
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
-
Watch out for aliens!
Italy has some new inhabitants, but that is no cause for celebration: the list of alien species is long. Two…
Plants and bacteria giving new "light" to off grid communities
"Planta lampara", a lamp powered by the energy produced thanks to the combination of plants and bacteria...
-
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
-
Watch out for aliens!
Italy has some new inhabitants, but that is no cause for celebration: the list of alien species is long. Two…
-
Plants and bacteria giving new "light" to off grid communities
"Planta lampara", a lamp powered by the energy produced thanks to the combination of plants and bacteria...
-
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…