In pesticide-heavy Brazil, could crop dusting be killed off?
The use of crop dusting in Brazil—the world's biggest consumer of pesticides—has helped fuel the giant agricultural industry that props up Latin America's largest economy. But as public health concerns mount, the future of the practice is increas.....»»
Q&A: Finding varieties of corn that are adapted to future climates
Corn is one of the planet's most important crops. It not only provides sweet kernels to flavor many dishes, but it's also used in oils, as a sweetener syrup, and as a feed crop for livestock. Corn has been bred to maximize its yield on farms around t.....»»
State of "catastrophe" as downpours hit Chile
Heavy rains battered south and central Chile on Thursday, killing one person and causing damage to hundreds of homes as authorities declared a state of catastrophe in five regions of the South American country......»»
Sudan food emergency: Local researcher unpacks scale of the disaster and what action is needed
The UN recently warned of the risk of famine in Sudan. The war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has killed civilians and devastated livelihoods on a massive scale. Around 18 million people are already acutely hungry, includi.....»»
New way to spot beetle-killed spruce can help forest, wildfire managers
A new machine-learning system developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate infestatio.....»»
Sweetpotato"s sweet revenge against fungal disease
Sweetpotato black rot is a devastating disease caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fimbriata. Since the late 1800s, black rot of sweetpotato has threatened to destroy as much as 30% of the sweetpotato crop in the United States. In 2015, all sweetpotato.....»»
Google announces new security features to deter smartphone thieves
Google has announced that Android users in Brazil can look forward to some new security features that should deter thieves. The post Google announces new security features to deter smartphone thieves appeared first on Phandroid. Smartphone.....»»
Researchers find rare organ preservation in Brazilian fossil fishes
Fossils in Brazil indicate a more complex evolutionary history for ray-finned fish brains than previously anticipated, according to new research......»»
Scientists engineer yellow-seeded camelina with high oil output
Efforts to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from transportation fuels are increasing demand for oil produced by nonfood crops. These plants use sunlight to power the conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide into oil, which accumulates in seeds. Crop.....»»
Climate misinformation overshadows record floods worldwide
Climate skeptics are scapegoating a weather modification technique known as cloud seeding to deny the role of global warming in historic floods that have recently devastated countries from Brazil to Kenya......»»
Sherlocked by Sequoia: What apps Apple may have killed in macOS and iOS 18
Another year, another set of Apple updates — and another set of popular app developers who could lose their livelihoods. Here's what Apple Sherlocked at WWDC 2024.Apple's new Passwords app is just one of many new tools that "Sherlock" existing apps.....»»
Researchers develop sustainable removal of heavy metal contaminants from groundwater in India
Researchers at the Centre for Sustainable Technologies (CST), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a novel remediation process for removing heavy metal contaminants such as arsenic from groundwater. The three-step method, which is patent.....»»
Fine-tuning leaf angle with CRISPR improves sugarcane yield
Sugarcane is the world's largest crop by biomass yield, providing 80% of the sugar and 40% of the biofuel produced worldwide. The plant's size and efficient use of water and light make it a prime candidate to produce advanced renewable, value-added b.....»»
Pesticides impair mobility and immune system of Brazilian native stingless bees, study shows
A study conducted by Brazilian researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP), the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and the Federal University of Viçosa (UFV) has shown how three pesticides widely used by farmers in Brazil.....»»
The Google Pay app is dead
Google Wallet takes over app duties, but it looks like Google is quitting P2P payments. Enlarge / Google Pay is dead! (credit: Aurich Lawson / Ars Technica) Google has killed off the Google Pay app. 9to5Google reports Go.....»»
Mapping soil health: New index enhances soil organic carbon prediction
A cutting-edge machine learning model has been developed to predict soil organic carbon (SOC) levels, a critical factor for soil health and crop productivity. The innovative approach utilizes hyperspectral data to identify key spectral bands, offerin.....»»
Farming with a mixture of crops, animals and trees is better for the environment—evidence from Ghana and Malawi suggests
Farming just one kind of crop in a field at a time, and using a lot of chemicals, poses a risk to both people and nature. This simplified intensive agriculture often goes hand in hand with increased greenhouse gas emissions, land and water degradatio.....»»
Think tech killed penmanship? Messy handwriting was a problem centuries before smartphones
Handwriting is dead. At least that's what a New York Times article announced in 2023 in its postmortem investigation "What Killed Penmanship?" But there was no doubt about the culprit: technology......»»
NOAA"s hurricane hunting GOES-U satellite nears SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch
Hurricanes Michael, Dorian, Ian, Nicole and Idalia have all been stared down by one of the NOAA's most powerful satellites since it took its place in geostationary orbit in late 2017. Its replacement is gearing up for launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.....»»
Hunter-gatherer diets weren"t always heavy on meat: Morocco study reveals a plant-based diet
About 11,000 years ago, humans made a major shift from hunting and gathering to farming. This change, known as the Neolithic Revolution, dramatically altered our diets......»»
Spliceosomes: New technique tracks proteins involved in RNA splicing
Bodybuilders and cellular mechanisms agree generating protein is a heavy lift. To complete the task, cells rely on complexes called spliceosomes. These molecular machines snip extra bits out of our genes' RNA copies and piece together precise instruc.....»»