The origins of farming insects
A beetle bores a tree trunk to build a gallery in the wood in order to protect its lay. As it digs the tunnel, it spreads ambrosia fungal spores that will feed the larvae. When these bore another tree, the adult beetles will be the transmission vecto.....»»
Low stream diatom biodiversity potentially decreases stream oxygen production in remote islands
Benthic diatoms are the most important and biodiverse primary producers in streams and comprise the basis for the food webs, fueling animals such as insects and stream fishes including trout......»»
"The Dark Knight" connection in "Joker: Folie à Deux" is laughably bad
"Joker: Folie à Deux" hints at the origins of Heath Ledger's Joker in "The Dark Knight." But who asked for this? Joker: Folie à Deux is an unfortunate hodgepodge of references to better, more interesting films, including musicals like T.....»»
Ants learned to farm fungi during a mass extinction
Ants learned to work with fungi back in a world where only fungi could thrive. We tend to think of agriculture as a human innovation. But insects beat us to it by millions of year.....»»
Genetic database shows some fungal crops became completely reliant on ants 27 million years ago
When humans began farming crops thousands of years ago, agriculture had already been around for millions of years. In fact, several animal lineages have been growing their own food since long before humans evolved as a species......»»
Climate change is causing algal blooms in Lake Superior for the first time in history
Lake Superior is known for its pristine waters, but a combination of nutrient additions from increasing human activity (including farming and development), warming temperatures and stormy conditions have resulted in more frequent blooms of potentiall.....»»
Citizen scientists create buzz with new insect discovery
More than 60% of Australia's known insects are unnamed and a mystery to science. Of an estimated 500,000 Australian species, roughly half are insects, but many aren't categorized......»»
Madagascar"s mining rush has caused no more deforestation than farming, study finds
If tens of thousands of miners turned up in the middle of a protected rainforest to mine for sapphires, you might expect that to cause lots of deforestation and harm local wildlife......»»
Droughts drive Spanish boom in pistachio farming
Two decades ago, Miguel Angel Garcia harvested grapes and grains on his farm in central Spain, like his father and grandfather before him......»»
Indigenous US farm workers face greater job-related pain compared to undocumented peers, study suggests
Farming is a notoriously hard profession with long hours spent operating dangerous equipment and performing other arduous tasks. New Rice University research finds that Indigenous farm employees—many of whom have legal status in the U.S. after movi.....»»
Dynasty Warriors: Origins makes bold changes, and they’re already paying off
We just got our first taste of Dynasty Warriors: Origins, which feels just as thrilling as the franchise ever has, even with a few new changes......»»
Strategies for maximizing recombinant protein production in tobacco plants
Plant molecular farming (PMF) is a modern, sophisticated technology that utilizes plants' biosynthetic machinery to synthesize a plethora of recombinant proteins, including industrial and therapeutic enzymes. It has several advantages over traditiona.....»»
New evolutionary model revises the origins of biodiversity
An international team of scientists has made a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how global biodiversity evolved. By reconstructing the evolution of species over the past 45 million years, researchers found that the geographic origins.....»»
Scientists explore how indoor vertical farming could help future-proof food demand
To make sure everyone eats well in our crowded world, we need to innovate. Vertical farming systems, which grow plants intensively in an indoor setting, could be part of the answer—but to use them on a large scale we need to overcome key problems,.....»»
Previously unknown Neolithic society in Morocco discovered: North Africa"s role in Mediterranean prehistory
Archaeological fieldwork in Morocco has discovered the earliest previously unknown farming society from a poorly understood period of northwest African prehistory......»»
Enigmatic archaeological site in Madagascar may have been built by people with Zoroastrian origins, research suggests
At the turn of the first millennium AD, an unknown group of people lived in the inland Isalo massif of southern Madagascar. Here, they built vast terraces and carved large stone chambers and small hollow rock niches. The architecture is unlike anythi.....»»
California cracks down on another Central Valley farm area for groundwater depletion
California water regulators are cracking down on a second farming area in the San Joaquin Valley for failing to take adequate steps to curb overpumping that is depleting groundwater, causing the land to sink and damaging a canal that transports water.....»»
A new genetic analysis of animals in the Wuhan market in 2019 may help find COVID-19"s origin
Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source......»»
Simulated construction of plant-based fish meat with composite structure via 3D printing
To date, about 90% of fish resources worldwide have already reached their sustainable fishery limit. Meanwhile, intensive farming and aquaculture contribute to significant environmental pollution and degradation. To address both the challenges of lim.....»»
Independent origins of frog glue and its role in predator evasion
Skin-secreted adhesives, or glues, are highly effective defense adaptations that have evolved recurrently in a small number of amphibians. From an ecological standpoint, this rapidly solidifying material—essentially, a sticky slime—encumbers the.....»»
Genetic tracing at the Huanan Seafood market further supports COVID animal origins
A new international collaborative study provides a list of the wildlife species present at the market from which SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, most likely arose in late 2019. The study is based on a new analysis of meta.....»»