The Leaf that Launched a Thousand Ships
A fragment of a leaf of a potato plant infected with Phytophthora infestans is implicated in the death of a million people in Ireland and emigration of a million and a half more, in a riveting story that interweaves migrations of plants and the diseases that chase them, agrobiodiversity, germ theory, the defeat of a British prime minister, the politics of science, bigotry, disaster relief, and cultural memory. The aftermath altered the demography of many parts of the world.
Time: 11:00 EST / 16:00 BST
