A. Carl Leopold

The Biological Significance of Death in Plants

Life may be compared with a candle flame, a unit of matter which has persistent characteristics in time although its very composition is continually being exhausted and renewed. The simile can be extended to say that the flame of life of any individual is a revolving population of structures, including populations of cells, tissues, and sometimes even of organs, as well as of chemical components. A central feature of life is that it is composed of and built upon components which are continuously undergoing turnover.

Glassy states in dormant corn embryos

Abstract Corn embryos contain oils with two melting points and a strong tendency to form glasses at temperatures down to −95° When these were extracted, water : sugar glasses can also be detected, with the water serving as a plasticizer. When the water content drops below about 12% (the water content required for seed storage stability) the transition temperature of these water glasses rises above ambient. These data are consistent with our hypothesis that the dormant state in these seeds is a glassy state.