This past weekend I went on the Cornell Botanic Gardens tour and even though it’s a decent walk to get there, it was worth it. I had been a few times in the past but, not being a plant expert, didn’t really know what I was looking at. Having a tour guide there was a fantastic experience to get a sense of what these plants were used for in the past. For example, yarrow is a herb that was named for Achilles, who reportedly used it to promote the clotting of blood in the wounds of his soldiers. It has been known as a medicinal herb for a long time, and is still occasionally used today.

She also had a deep knowledge of the history of the gardens. One story in particular that I wasn’t aware of was the story of Barbara McClintock (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock), who was a graduate of Cornell and won the Noble Prize in Medicine (one of only two women to do so solo) for her work on mobile genetic elements: what are colloquially called “jumping genes”. She was a role model for women interested in pursuing scientific research: at the time, her family thought it was more important for her to marry than to pursue research. And today, the original shed where she kept her gardening tools still stands in the gardens.