Sheffield research featured in Science Museum's ‘Future of Food’ exhibition

The University of Sheffield will feature prominently in the Science Museum's upcoming 'Future of Food' exhibition, opening in London on July 24, 2025.

Image of a wire sculpture of stomata cells

Work from Professor Julie Gray and her team, focusing on climate-resilient crops, will be on display.

The exhibition, running until January 4, 2026, will examine sustainable food production and consumption. It will present over 100 historic and contemporary objects, exploring how our food choices impact climate, nature, and society.

It's incredibly exciting to have our achievements in developing climate-resilient crops highlighted at the Science Museum. This exhibition is an opportunity to share our research with a broad audience. I'm especially proud of our early career researchers, whose creativity shines through.

Professor Julie Gray

Professor Julie Gray's group contributed exhibits detailing their research into plant stomata – the tiny pores on leaves vital for water regulation and cooling. This work has potential for developing crops better suited to a changing climate. The display will include a wire sculpture of wheat stomata, based on a confocal image by BBSRC PhD student Jodie Armand and also an infra-red thermal image by Dr. Jess Dunn (ISF Research Fellow), illustrating stomata's role in water loss and plant cooling.

"I made this sculpture from a 3D image we've taken in the lab of stomata in the epidermis of a wheat leaf to investigate how the specialised geometry of the guard cells (dark green) and their subsidiary cells (light green) relates to the mechanics of stomatal opening and closure, a process which is essential for enabling CO2 uptake into the leaf for photosynthesis whilst also limiting plant water loss. I hand-knitted the 3D shape of each of the cells as captured in the image using stainless steel wire, but I scaled up the dimensions of the cells so that they were 2000 times larger than reality. I then sewed each of the individual cells together to create a 120 cm long, 70 cm wide section of the epidermis (that's only 600 µm long and 35 µm wide in reality) which is going to feature as part of the 'Future of Food' exhibition taking place at the Science Museum in London between the 24th of July and the 4th of January which will explore how science is transforming the way we grow our food in the face of climate change." Jodie Armand

The 'Future of Food' exhibition is free to enter and designed for visitors aged 7 and above, offering interactive and multi-sensory experiences.

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