Nell Greenfield Boyce

And what did she find?

Well, she told me the red trees had fewer scale insects.

She and her students looked at nitrogen levels, too, and they didn't see any difference there.

But, you know, that's just one little study, right?

I mean, there's tons more work to do.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting, right?

I mean, she's been studying sweet gums.

She says these are trees that turn all the autumn colors, like including red.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, you've got different species.

You've got different environments.

I mean, is it one explanation for all of them?

I mean, to me personally, it seems like

It could be a bunch of things.

I mean, she's been experimenting with different species of oaks to see what effect there could be to grow them with different levels of nitrogen in the soil.

Like, how could that affect leaf color?

I mean, there's just like a lot of cool basic science people could do.

Yeah, maybe we can check in on Nikki's oaks.

I mean, I will totally be looking around at the autumn leaves with new eyes because, you know, people notice things and scientists notice things.