Multimedia Gallery
National Chemistry Week puts spotlight on 'sweet' plant development
This week, in celebration of National Chemistry Week and its theme of the Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy, NSF salutes sugar molecules that can be far more than just "sweet." Sucrose is table sugar--that ubiquitous sweet white crystal that sweetens our tea, coffee and apple pies, yet is also the villain that causes tooth decay and other health troubles.
Through its Biological Sciences Directorate, NSF has funded Brian Ayre from the University of North Texas who studied the way sucrose produced in plant leaves through photosynthesis moved to and affected plant tissues. Sucrose is transported to tissues that are growing or accumulating storage reserves that can significantly increase productivity, so understanding this process better could have meaningful implications on plant cultivation.
Credit: NSF
Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.
Videos credited to the National Science Foundation, an agency of the U.S. Government, may be distributed freely. However, some materials within the videos may be copyrighted. If you would like to use portions of NSF-produced programs in another product, please contact the Video Team in the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs at the National Science Foundation.
Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.