Stardust to Seedlings

Climate change is pushing mountain plants upslope, but many species aren't moving at all, even when models predict they should. To understand why, we're travelling back in time using herbarium specimens collected over the last 200 years, combining AI and spectroscopy to measure how plant traits have changed across decades without destroying these irreplaceable samples. By comparing plants that shifted their ranges with those that stayed put, we can finally test whether the secret to surviving climate change might be plasticity — the ability to simply acclimate in place.

Is the Earth special? Go on a journey to discover where the material that made the Earth came from, and solve part of the puzzle of why life emerged on it. Planetary exploration does not end in the Solar System, however. Explore how newly discovered exoplanets are providing new and exciting clues as to how planets form, and what they can tell us about the Earth.