Collaborate Disseminate
Ordinarily, if you want to check if two plants of the same species come from genetically different populations, you have to analyze their DNA. A new study, however, has found that an analysis of the reflective qualities of their leaves is a much quicke… Continue reading Leaf-reading tool could replace DNA analysis for plant identification
Uber Eats deliveries to Mars are going to be expensive, so the first colonists of the Red Planet will need to figure out how to grow their own food locally. A new study has shown that dosing plants with symbiotic bacteria can drastically improve their … Continue reading Crops grow better in Mars soil when given good bacteria, study finds
The Plantee indoor greenhouse was developed for folks who have brought a colorful plant home from a shopping trip, only to watch it wither and die despite their best efforts to look after it. The all-in-one, plug-and-play solution takes the guesswork o… Continue reading Indoor greenhouse takes the guesswork out of plant care
Starch is an essential material for everything from bread-baking to paper-making, and there is much to be gained from streamlining the way we produce it. Scientists in China have managed to take an important step forwards in this area, developing a nov… Continue reading World-first artificial synthesis of starch from CO2 outperforms nature
There’s been a movement in architecture over the past couple of decades to help tie together large urban developments with plant life and greenery. We’ve seen a few buildings, and …read more Continue reading Green Roofs Could Help Improve Solar Panel Efficiency
A decent chunk of energy usage goes towards lighting, so scientists at MIT are developing a new kind of passive lighting – glow-in-the-dark plants. In the latest experiment, the team has made them glow much brighter than the first generation plants, wi… Continue reading Glow-in-the-dark plants could act as passive lighting for public spaces
It’s easy to feel hopeless in the face of climate change, but it’s not too late to do something about it – after all, we’ve stepped up to similar challenges before. New modeling shows just how much worse the situation would be if CFCs hadn’t been banne… Continue reading “World Avoided” model charts climate cost if we’d ignored ozone hole
While you might think that it’s best to keep crops fungus-free, there are some fungi that actually help plants grow. In order to better observe that relationship, scientists have created plants with roots that turn red when infiltrated by beneficial fu… Continue reading Engineered plants’ roots turn red when helpful fungi show up
Food security is a major potential problem, especially in the face of climate change. Now, researchers have shown that manipulating RNA in plants can drastically boost the amount of food they produce, and make them more resistant to drought conditions…. Continue reading Simple RNA tweak boosts potato and rice yields by 50 percent
Sugarcane is an important food crop, but it’s large environmental impact means there’s plenty of room for improvement. Unfortunately it’s tricky and time-consuming to breed new varieties, but now researchers have used CRISPR gene-editing to do so quick… Continue reading World-first CRISPR-edited sugarcane helps reduce environmental impact