For a long time, it was presumed that volcanic eruptions that take place on the bottom oceans were boring compared to those that happen on dry land. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we think about protecting our environment, we often think of what lives above the land; we think of the trees, the wildlife on our moorlands, and removing plastic from our oceans. But we need to start looking further down, to what truly lies beneath our feet and beyond what our eyes can see; we need to look to what inhabits our soils.
Many plants use toxins as a defense against being eaten. But why do these toxins not harm the plants themselves? Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and the University of Münster have investigated the mechanisms involved in defensive toxins in plants, and their findings may lead to new treatments for human diseases.