The word neuron was coined by German scientist Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz in 1891 and originates from the Greek meaning string or sinew according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Franti sek Balu ska says the word comes from the Greek meaning vegetal fiber. "Maybe it's time to steal it back."
A meeting this past May ushered in the birth, or perhaps rebirth, of a field of study in which the controversy starts at the very name. František Baluška, of the University of Bonn, Germany, coorganized the First Symposium on Plant Neurobiology, calling the field a "new view of plants" that combines physiology, ecology, and molecular biology.1
Neuroscientists won't likely worry about plant scientists encroaching on their territory, but the name does make some uneasy. "It's more a problem with the green party than the red party," quips Dieter Volkman, also at University of Bonn. Not the least because some ...
