When you start getting text message with images like the above from your PhD students, taken from their window, you know they’re on to a cool project. We (Rashmi Sasidharan (initiator of it all) Martina Huber, Justine Toulotte, Kaisa Kajala, Rens Voesenek and myself) are collaborating with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in a rice-weed interactions project. It is funded by the applied science panel of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and aims at improved weed suppression through plant architecture and flooding regimes. Lots of Skyping, messaging and of course a much needed visit by the supervisors to the field sites …