Plants make excellent metaphors. Seeds can wait years for the right sprouting conditions; saplings strive for light; trees form symbiotic relationships with other organisms and struggle to reproduce.

The eyes of the scientific community are often fixated on the flash and thrill of those disciplines that are seen as sexy or which make for good publicity — namely, all things relating to space ...

Geochemist Hope Jahren writes with such flair that a reviewer is tempted to just move out of the way and quote her. Consider the top of page 64 in her new book, “Lab Girl” (Knopf, 290 pp., $26.95): ...

The first, tiny root that emerges from a baby plant can make it or break it. Anchor to a good patch of ground, and the plant can thrive for decades. Set up someplace else, without enough water or ...