In unprecedented space research, DuPont scientists have attained a significant scientific accomplishment regarding the future development of soybeans – one of the most consumed crops in the world today.
During a research mission that concluded with the return of Space Shuttle Atlantis Friday, soybean seeds planted and nurtured by DuPont scientists germinated, developed into plants, flowered, and produced new seedpods in space. The 97-day growth research initiative is the first-ever to compl
UCSF-led researchers have developed a highly sensitive, automated test for detecting prions (PREE-on) that they report significantly improves the accuracy and speed of detecting the various forms of the infectious agent, which causes a set of neurodegenerative diseases, in cattle, sheep, deer and elk.
Because the test is automated, the researchers say, it could be used for high-throughput testing of brain samples of cattle with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow” disease, a
The changing attitude of European society to research in food and agriculture demands that researchers pay more attention to the concerns of the public and other stakeholders
Today in Brussels, the annual Euragri conference, entitled “Science for Society – Science with Society” and sponsored by the European Commission, addressed European consumers’ concerns and proposed new goals, roles and rules to respond better and quicker to the needs of society. Research Commissioner Philippe Bu
One of the most widespread ways to protect wood from organisms’ attacks is to use chemicals. However, due to the risks its usage involves (toxic for the user, pollution of the environment…), the interest to obtain a more effective but non-polluting protector has increased.
Nowadays, the research of active matter with biocide effects has become one of the most interesting research lines to find new pesticides.
Objectives
The aim of the project the Basque Research Ce
Researchers from Imperial College London have published new results that suggest that over half of BSE cases went unrecognised or unreported during the epidemic in Great Britain. The new figures, to be published in a forthcoming Proceedings B, a learned journal published by the Royal Society, estimate that the total number of cattle infected during the epidemic was over two million.However the paper highlights the need for additional research to reduce the uncertainties in some key biological factors
Scientists have raised concerns following the discovery of a single gene that gives vinegar flies resistance to a wide range of pesticides, including the banned DDT.
Scientists are worried as this single mutation unexpectedly provides the fly (Drosophila melanogaster) with resistance to a range of commonly available, but chemically unrelated, pesticides. Significant also, is this species is rarely targeted with pesticides and many of the chemicals it is resistant to, it has never been expo
An international team of scientists have today reported the discovery of a protein, called DIR1, that is a key step in the pathways that enable plants to protect themselves against disease. DIR1 is involved in the transmission of a warning signal from plant cells infected by disease. The signal alerts cells, in areas remote from the infected site, that the plant is under attack and switches on defence mechanisms that prevent the disease establishing further infection sites. The report, from scientis
A University of Toronto botanist has identified a protein that ultimately could provide chemical-free ways to protect crops from disease.
“Finding this protein, called DIR1, could help make it possible to genetically engineer crops that resist disease-causing organisms,” says Robin Cameron, a professor of botany at U of T and the senior investigator of the study, which appears in the Sept. 26 issue of Nature. “In the long run, having a better understanding of the whole process of disease re
Winter temperatures are on the rise and scientists note this change will actually increase a plant’s exposure to freezing temperatures
Scientists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada predict crops will be at a greater risk of winter damage in the future even though the climate will be warmer. Perennial forage crops are grown on more than 40% of the cultivated land in Eastern Canada and other regions of North America, where they constitute the backbone of the livestock industry. The
Entomologists in Belfast may finally have found a way of limiting the spread of the New Zealand flatworm, which invaded the British Isles in the 1960s. Speaking at the Royal Entomological Society’s national meeting Entomology 2002, which will take place at Cardiff University on 12–13 September 2002, Dr Archie Murchie of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Northern Ireland) will announce that certain British beetles could help repel the invader by preying on it. Finding a natural pred
It shouldn’t be there, but it is. Deep in the central Amazonian rainforest lies a rich, black soil known locally as terra preta do Indio (Indian dark earth) that farmers have worked for years with minimal fertilization. A Brazilian-American archeological team believed terra preta, which may cover 10 percent of Amazonia, was the product of intense habitation by Amerindian populations who flourished in the area for two millennia, but they recently unearthed evidence that societies lived and farmed
Natural soaps are an important weapon in the armoury that plants deploy to protect against disease attack, but a report today, in the international journal Nature, describes how disease-causing microbes can turn these plant defences to their own advantage. Scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory (SL)[1] Norwich, UK, have discovered that fungi that attack tomatoes break down the natural soaps that help protect the plant against infection. Even worse for the plant, these breakdown products then interfe
Events like the September 2000 discovery of biologically engineered corn in fast food tortillas have focused media attention and stirred controversy about genetically modified organisms. While new approaches in agricultural biotechnology have improved crop quality and yield, the incorporation of genes from other organisms into food plants has raised concerns about possible health risks and environmental consequences. A new report from the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM) looks at the case of a
Canned corn may be healthier for you than corn on the cob, according to a study by Cornell University scientists. The researchers say that heat processing of sweet corn significantly raises the level of naturally occurring compounds that help fight disease.
The findings are reported in the August 14 issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed publication of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Sweet corn is the number-
Cornell University potato breeders are donating a disease-resistant potato to Russia in an effort to help combat aggressive strains of potato late blight that are threatening to devastate the nation’s essential small farms.
The Cornell-developed New York 121 potato, which also is able to fend off golden nematodes, scab and potato virus Y (PVY), will be given to Dokagene Technologies, a company specializing in producing pathogen-free seed in Russia, in a meeting and a field trip in Mosc
Corn, the preferred staple crop in many countries, requires large amounts of nitrogen for its growth. Usually fertilizer is necessary to sustain good yields. A Penn State graduate student, Ylva Besmer, is trying to find ways to improve corn yield for subsistence farmers in Zimbabwe without fertilizer.
“The government of Zimbabwe no longer provides a subsidy for fertilizer, resulting in significantly lower corn yields” says Besmer, a doctoral candidate in ecology. “The old-fashion use of legu
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