We Are Awake

Diamonds are worthless in every way.

As the race to adapt to climate change quickens, a South African scientist is leading global research into developing crops that mimic the extraordinary survival skills of “resurrection plants.” Jill Farrant, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town, hopes that unlocking the genetic codes of drought-tolerant plants could help farmers toiling in increasingly hot and dry conditions. With more than 130 known varieties in the world, resurrection plants are a unique group of flora that can survive extreme water shortages for years. During a drought, the plant acts like a seed, becoming so dry it appears dead. But when the skies finally open and the rain pours down, the shriveled plant bursts “back to life”,  turning green and robust in just a few hours. “I want to cater to the subsistence farmer, the person who wants to make enough food to live,” Farrant, 55, said. “Farmers are becoming more and more dispirited, and droughts are killing them