
The Botanical Society of America with many other botanical societies have a yearly conference, and this year’s meeting was in beautiful New Orleans, bringing together about 1100 botanists.
The meeting started with a lecture by Dr. Nalini Nadkarni. This was the most inspiring lecture I’ve ever seen! Nalini studies the canopies of tropical forests. She explained some of her many projects, and reminded us that we as scientists need to share our science with all of humanity.
One of her projects saves mosses from being stripped from trees in the wild for the floristry industry. To do this she partnered with prisons in the state of Washington. Prisoners learned to identify moss species and chose the easy to propagate species, which they then grew in the prisons. They are now cultivating tonnes of mosses across multiple prisons, and in doing so they are saving moss biodiversity. Have a look at this CNN video about her work, where they call her a "science evangelist".
The meeting started with a lecture by Dr. Nalini Nadkarni. This was the most inspiring lecture I’ve ever seen! Nalini studies the canopies of tropical forests. She explained some of her many projects, and reminded us that we as scientists need to share our science with all of humanity.
One of her projects saves mosses from being stripped from trees in the wild for the floristry industry. To do this she partnered with prisons in the state of Washington. Prisoners learned to identify moss species and chose the easy to propagate species, which they then grew in the prisons. They are now cultivating tonnes of mosses across multiple prisons, and in doing so they are saving moss biodiversity. Have a look at this CNN video about her work, where they call her a "science evangelist".