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Articles on Bananas

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U.S. banana growers heavily influenced several Central American governments in the early 20th century. George Rinhart/Getty Images

What’s a banana republic? A political scientist explains

The US grows hardly any tropical fruit. So why are politicians and political commentators saying the country is at risk of devolving into a banana republic?
Cavendish bananas may not be around for much longer. Steve Hopson/wikipedia

The quest to save the banana from extinction

Scientists are in a race to genetically engineer a new plant resistant to a devastating disease that is threatening to wipe out the banana.
Thomas Johnson’s illustration of his banana plant from The Herball Or Generall Historie of Plantes. Wikimedia Commons

The day bananas made their British debut

The story of Britain’s favourite tropical fruit (and how it came to dominate the world).
A banana on the salt lake plain at Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, hints at themes of genetics, food and human journeys in three books recommended by fly scientist Thomas Merritt. Shutterstock

Worth reading: Bananas, dwarves, salt and love

A fly scientist ponders the genetics of bananas and dwarves, women and love in reviews of his favourite fiction and non-fiction books.
The completed sequence of the banana’s 11 chromosomes has global implications. Caro Wallace

Musa genome mapped: that’s bananas!

What’s not to love about bananas? Besides being a wildly popular dessert fruit, they are the staple food of millions of people in developing countries. The current edition of Nature carries a paper that…
The benefits of lifting the import ban on bananas outweigh the risks. Maxey

As the apple import ban crumbles, is it time to go bananas?

The ban on importing apples from New Zealand was lifted earlier this month, bringing to an end a restriction established in 1921. With this long history of protection from imports, it is not unexpected…

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