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Credit: Alexander Bucksch and Suxing Liu;  Composite artwork of a photograph and a reconstructed 3D model of the same maize root

Supercomputer-powered 3D imaging of roots helps develop climate change-adapted plants

The shoots of plants get all the glory, with their fruit and flowers and visible structure. But it's the portion that lies below the soil -- the branching, reaching arms of roots and hairs pulling up water and nutrients -- that has deep implications for the future, according to plant physiologist and computer scientist Alexander Bucksch of the University of Georgia.

Credit: Gettyimages

Scientists have found minuscule shreds of plastic everywhere – in rivers and lakes, at the bottom of the sea, on the tallest mountain on earth, blowing in the wind and moving through our food chain. Now they're trying to find out how all this plastic is affecting human health. Plastic bottles, bags and containers, toothbrushes, tires and electronics litter coastlines, float in the sea and clog landfill sites. What about the plastic waste we can't see?