Today I shared the lunch table with several people from Plant Science at the University of Reading. “I just learned that there are only thirty-three botany students in the country this year,” said one of them to another. They all commiserated the demise of their field for a while. “How do you explain this?” I asked at some point. “People feel a greater affinity for animals than for plants,” said one of them. I nodded. “As soon as zoology and botany are put together in the same department,” another interjected, “botany withers.” The first one continued: “Animals have eyes, mouths, legs…” I nodded again. “But,” I asked, “is there any fundamental difference between plants and animals?” “Genetically they are very similar,” one of them answered, “but plants can feed themselves internally whereas animals cannot—they must eat plants or other animals.”