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Profile of Dolores R. Piperno

Phytoliths, tiny inclusions of solid silica formed within plant cells that help to protect plants from herbivores, offer a window into agricultural and environmental history in the tropics and elsewhere (1–4). In her Inaugural Article in this issue of PNAS (5), Piperno, a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (Panama) and the National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC), uses phytoliths, pollen, and charcoal evidence retrieved from lakes to reconstruct the environmental and agricultural history of Mexico's Central Balsas Valley. The region is known as the possible origin of maize domestication approximately 9,000 years ago.