Plants and minerals

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Martin Hodson</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Martin Hodson"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>PLANTS AND MINERALS</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="sicereal.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Silica deposition in cereals"><U><B>Silica deposition in cereals</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="alsiinter.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Aluminium/silicon interactions"><U><B>Aluminium/silicon interactions</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="mincon.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mineral deposition in the conifers"><U><B>Mineral deposition in the conifers</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="phytohome.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Phytoliths plant silica bodies"><U><B>Phytoliths- plant silica bodies</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Plants and minerals</I></div> <div> I suppose my first introduction to plant minerals came as an undergraduate in Swansea, when I first pondered Prof. Emanuel Epstein's work on ion uptake. Little did I realise that I would make mineral relations my major area of research. It all began properly when I started my Ph.D. work on salt tolerance in the grass <I>Agrostis stolonifera</I>. At the time I could see me doing salt work for ever, but in the event I only had one more brief go at it when in Jerusalem in 85/86. It turned out that silicon in plants would be my most productive area. Starting in 1980 I had a research assistantship for five years with Dr. D. Wynn Parry- I was well and truly hooked! Still am for that matter. If you browse around these pages you will find lots of examples of my work on Si. The final (so far) element in my armoury has been aluminium (aluminum in the US!). I began that work in Birmingham with Dr. Dennis Wilkins in 1988. I soon realised that Si might be a neglected part of the Al story, and persuaded my Canadian colleague, Dr. Allan Sangster, that it would be worth investigating- still working on it!</div> </td> </tr></table></body>