A colourful platter never fails to stimulate your appetite, right? The moment your eyes sense so many dishes laid out beautifully, the stomach starts to growl, and you want to grab a bite! But, you owe most of the food that you eat to insects that pollinate the grains, vegetables and fruits, thus ensuring there is food for all. Have you ever thought how these insects, which feed us, find their food? How do they decide which flower to forage? Do they also look for colours like us?

The summer is here, and the newspapers are already flashing headlines on how hot this summer could be. While we humans may turn on the air coolers, what would the thousands of animals and plants do? It turns out, some trees have unique tricks up their leaves, quite literally! A new study by researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, shows how tropical trees deal with the heat and the adaptations in their leaves that help them survive in extreme heat conditions.