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Classification is hard, especially in biology, where things rarely fit into neat categories. Perhaps it is time to abandon the term ‘plant’ for something more functional.
The idea of adapting plants to produce vaccines is almost as old as the genetic engineering of plants itself. Recent clinical trials suggest that it is an approach whose time may finally have come.
This year the United Nations is unwittingly bringing together seaweed, a pair of nineteenth-century glass sculptors, bovine teeth, photosynthetic efficiency and neurodegenerative diseases. Find out how.