The Phytophactor

Well there it is. My college's mission. What a revelation! Why do these things always sound this way? Why do they have to suck so mighti...

The news that NIU wants to tear down Cole Hall and replace it with a new $40 million building seems both inappropriate and an overly emotion...

Andrea Loughry is the vice chair of the University of Tennessee System. In the most recent issue of Trusteeship she expresses the opinion t...

I have long thought that cats contributed to good mental health. I have always been suspicious of dog owners; people whose personalities con...

As an academic botanist I get to answer all kinds of sintillating questions. I once asked why all the weird and wacky botanical questions go...

A protein central to amyloid plaque formation in the brain, a condition that causes or contributes to Alzheimer’s disorder (not disease, whi...

The right to self-govern and the right to self determination are fundamental principles of democracy, so the Current Occupant, representing ...

To raise some much needed cash, a state legislator in Illinois has proposed vanity license plates for cars embossed to say “In God We Trust”...

Somehow I always think of orchids as rather rare, rather delicate organisms. Many of the terrestrial orchids of North America are rather sma...

A colleague who shall remain nameless was bemoaning the lack of a dress code, the lower standards of acceptable attire, for both faculty and...