Plant biologists want to understand how membranes work since living things could not exist without cell membranes. We are learning more and more about plant genes and what they do. Plants are complex living organisms. How a plant develops from a single cell into a complex organism with billions of cells is a problem that will occupy many botanists for years to come. The ease with which we can manipulate plant cells, compared to animal cells, makes plants an ideal model system for such studies.
Environmental monitoring is important both before and after human disturbance.
Photo courtesy of Marsh Sundberg. Teaching botany is a challenging and rewarding career. A teaching botanist must understand a variety of subdisciplines of the field and be able to explain them to students. This provides an opportunity to inspire new generations with an understanding of, and appreciation for, plants. Many other careers for botanists do not involve teaching or research.