When scientists are talking to plants, they’re trying to ask them questions. What do you need to grow more effectively? To produce crops more efficiently?

And sometimes, they’re asking something else: Now that you’re in a drought, and you’re not getting any water, how are you going to react?

Yes, they’re asking questions, and they’re getting answers. But the answers are about something bigger than next year’s crop. 

In our second episode about talking to plants, you’ll go to a desert farm field and a humid rainforest. You might not believe this, but both of them are in Arizona. 

And you’ll hear from one person who isn’t talking to plants at all. She’s talking about the climate they’re living in – the one we’re all living in. 

Join us in the Lab, to hear what the plants – and the people – have to say.

Our exploration of plants, and the people who talk to them, really started when we looked at the people taking genes from succulents and using them to help other kinds of crops save water. 

We said the story of the original research at Biosphere 2 would probably need to be its own podcast. Our colleagues at The Arizona Republic give you a little taste of why, here, and here. 

Laura Meredith, who gave us the tour of Biosphere 2 along with her colleague Joost van Haren, worked on the drought experiment there. That research was published in the journal Science. 

Antonieta Cadiz, who told us about her family’s encounter with climate change, is an advocate for the group Climate Power.

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