A Bridge to the World

Zhi-Hong Xu is a plant physiologist who studied botany at Peking University (1959–1965). He joined the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology (SIPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), as a graduate student in 1965. He recalls what has happened for the institute, during the Cultural Revolution, and he witnessed the spring of science eventually coming to China. Xu was a visiting scholar at the John Innes Institute and in the Department of Botany at Nottingham University in the United Kingdom (1979–1981). He became deputy director of SIPP in 1983 and director in 1991; he also chaired the State Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics SIPP (1988–1996). He worked as a visiting scientist in the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, National University of Singapore, for three months each year (1989–1992). He served as vice president of CAS (1992–2002) and as president of Peking University (1999–2008). Over these periods he was heavily involved in the design and implementation of major scientific projects in life sciences and agriculture in China. He is an academician of CAS and member of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. His scientific contributions mainly cover plant tissue culture, hormone mechanism in development, as well as plant developmental response to environment. Xu, as a scientist and leader who has made an impact in the community, called up a lot of excellent young scientists returning to China. His efforts have promoted the fast development of China's plant and agricultural sciences.

The Artificial Cell, the Semipermeable Membrane, and the Life that Never Was, 1864–1901

Since the early nineteenth century, a membrane or wall has been central to the cell’s identity as the elementary unit of life. Yet the literally and metaphorically marginal status of the cell membrane made it the site of clashes over the definition of life and the proper way to study it. In this article I show how the modern cell membrane was conceived of by analogy to the first “artificial cell,” invented in 1864 by the chemist Moritz Traube (1826–1894), and reimagined by the plant physiologist Wilhelm Pfeffer (1845–1920) as a precision osmometer. Pfeffer’s artificial cell osmometer became the conceptual and empirical basis for the law of dilute solutions in physical chemistry, but his use of an artificial analogue to theorize the existence of the plasma membrane as distinct from the cell wall prompted debate over whether biology ought to be more closely unified with the physical sciences, or whether it must remain independent as the science of life. By examining how the histories of plant physiology and physical chemistry intertwined through the artificial cell, I argue that modern biology relocated vitality from protoplasmic living matter to non-living chemical substances—or, in broader cultural terms, that the disenchantment of life was accompanied by the (re)enchantment of ordinary matter.

КУЗЬМА МИКОЛАЙОВИЧ ВЕКІРЧИК – ВІДОМИЙ ПЕДАГОГ, ВЧЕНИЙ, ЖУРНАЛІСТ, ГРОМАДСЬКИЙ ДІЯЧ

September 15, 2019 marks 90th birthday of Kuzma Vekirchyk – Candidate of Biological Sciences, Professor, Honorary Member of the Ukrainian Society of Plant Physiologists, a member of the Society of Microbiologists of Ukraine and the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, a famous scientist of plant physiologist and microbiologist, educator, participant of the Second World War, whose achievements occupy a worthy place among the national scientists, who through their scientific, pedagogical and social work made a significant contribution into the development of education and science, the independence of the Ukrainian state. Kuzma Mykolaiovych Vekirchyk was born in the village of Zadubrivtsi, Sniatyn district, Ivano-Frankivsk region to the family of peasants. He began his schooling, with a break from the misery of World War II, from the Zadubrivtsi Seven-Year School, which he finished in 1947 with honours. Throughout difficult post-war years, he went on to teach villagers the literacy. Then Kuzma Vekirchyk became a student of Sniatyn Agricultural College, graduated with honors in 1952 and entered the Biology Faculty of Chernivtsi University, graduating with honors in 1957 with a major in plant physiology. After the university studies, he was promoted to the post of teacher of biology and chemistry at the secondary school of Zelena village, Kelmenetskyi district, Chernivtsi region, where he worked from 1957 to 1959. In 1959, K. M. Vekirchyk continued his scientific career, entering postgraduate studies at the Department of Plant Physiology and Microbiology, Chernivtsi University. The young scientist got engaged in the studies of foliar nutrition of plants with microelements under the supervision of the famous Ukrainian professor of plant physiologist, G. X. Molotkovskiy. After graduating from postgraduate studies in 1962, K. M. Vekirchyk was promoted to the post of a teacher, and from 1965 was re-elected to the post of a senior teacher of plant physiology and microbiology of the Department of Botany, Uman State Pedagogical Institute. On November 1, 1965 he defended his dissertation «Influence of foliar feeding with microelements on physiological and biochemical processes, growth, development and yield of cabbage» and received a scientific degree of Candidate of Biological Sciences. Since December 1966 he became the Assistant Professor of the Department of Agrobiology Faculty at the Ivano-Frankivsk Pedagogical Institute. On September 12, 1967 he was selected for the post of a senior lecturer of the Department of Botany of Kremenets Pedagogical Institute. On July 9, 1968 he was re-elected associate professor of the Department of Botany and since January 1969 was granted a title of the Candidate of biological sciences. In 1969 he became the associate professor of the Department of Botany of Ternopil Pedagogical Institute (after the relocation of the Kremenets Pedagogical Institute to the town of Ternopil). In September 1987, for high achievements in the pedagogical and scientific fields, the publication of textbooks and books for students, he was elected to the post of professor of the Department of Botany, and on November 29, 1991 he was awarded the scientific title of professor. While working at the Department of Botany in Ternopil, Kuzma Mykolaiovych studied the influence of trace elements and biologically active substances on the symbiotic fixation of nitrogen, growth, development and productivity of legumes. In 1997, he began publishing a series of articles on well-known teachers of higher education in Ternopil and amazing works of nature, in particular in the magazine «Osvityanyn» and the annual «Ternopillia». From 1996 to 2002, he was the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the «Ukrainian Science: Past, Present, and Future». Kuzma Vekirchyk is the author and co-author of over 360 scientific, educational, methodological and popular scientific articles. He is the author of textbooks and books: «Microbiology» (1973), «Microbiology: laboratory work» (1976), «Plant physiology: practicum» (1984), «Microbiology with the basics of virology» (1987, 2001), «Workshop on microbiology» (2001), «Poisonous Medicinal Plants: a handbook» (1999), programs in plant physiology, microbiology with the basics of virology for students of higher education institutions of Ukraine (1993), etc. K. M. Vekirchyk spent his entire life conducting extensive public, educational and patriotic work. He was a sincere, intelligent, decent, humble, kind and selfless person. K. M. Vekirchyk died on November 3, 2009 and rests in the native village of Zadubrivtsi, Sniatyn district, Ivano-Frankivsk region, near the chapel, which he restored at his own expense. The memory of Kuzma Mykolaiovych as a man of high moral values, an outstanding scientist, teacher, journalist, public figure will forever remain in the hearts of his colleagues and students.

Gas valves, forests and global change: a commentary on Jarvis (1976) ‘The interpretation of the variations in leaf water potential and stomatal conductance found in canopies in the field’

Microscopic turgor-operated gas valves on leaf surfaces—stomata—facilitate gas exchange between the plant and the atmosphere, and respond to multiple environmental and endogenous cues. Collectively, stomatal activities affect everything from the productivity of forests, grasslands and crops to biophysical feedbacks between land surface vegetation and climate. In 1976, plant physiologist Paul Jarvis reported an empirical model describing stomatal responses to key environmental and plant conditions that predicted the flux of water vapour from leaves into the surrounding atmosphere. Subsequent theoretical advances, building on this earlier approach, established the current paradigm for capturing the physiological behaviour of stomata that became incorporated into sophisticated models of land carbon cycling. However, these models struggle to accurately predict observed trends in the physiological responses of Northern Hemisphere forests to recent atmospheric CO 2 increases, highlighting the need for improved representation of the role of stomata in regulating forest–climate interactions. Bridging this gap between observations and theory as atmospheric CO 2 rises and climate change accelerates creates challenging opportunities for the next generation of physiologists to advance planetary ecology and climate science. This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society .