Smallholders produce two thirds of all food worldwide. Yet the majority of these approximately 500 million farmers lives in poverty. Their production is susceptible to the impacts of climate change. At the same time, they have poor access to information on agricultural practices that could help them increase production, conserve resources, and sustain their livelihoods.

African waters have been contributing to the global supply of fish for years, with three of the four most productive marine ecosystems in the world near the continent. African countries' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) contributed over 6 million metric tons of fish to the world's food supply, supporting food security and livelihood in the continent, while generating $15 billion to the African...

An Academic Analytics Research Center (AARC) study published in the journal Scientometrics found that senior faculty (scholars who earned their terminal degree 30 or more years ago) research publication activity exceeded expectations based on age cohort population for book chapters and book publications, and senior scholars largely kept pace in terms of journal article publications. "Across all...

Researchers have spent more than three decades developing and studying miniature biosensors that can identify single molecules. In 5 to 10 years, when such devices may become a staple in doctors' offices, they could detect molecular markers for cancer and other diseases and assess the effectiveness of drug treatment to fight those illnesses.

New research from the University of Surrey has shown that silicon could be one of the most powerful materials for photonic informational manipulation—opening up new possibilities for the production of lasers and displays.

Just as humans receive the first members of their microbiomes from their mothers, seeds may harbor some of the first microorganisms plants encounter. While these initial microbes could become influential players in the plants' microbiomes, the microbial communities that colonize seeds have not received as much attention as root, shoot, or soil microbiomes. To understand how seed microbiomes are...

The legend of the "kraken" has captivated humans for millennia. Stories of deep-sea squid dragging sailors and even entire ships to their doom can be found in everything from ancient Greek mythology to modern-day movie blockbusters. It is therefore ironic that the species that inspired these stories, the giant squid Architeuthis dux, is camera-shy. In fact, filming this species in the wild has...

The carcass of an endangered blue whale, the world's largest animal, washed up on a Namibian beach on Tuesday with lesions suggesting it collided with a ship, scientists said.

Mali's agriculture ministry said on Tuesday that it had detected outbreaks of bird flu in the West African state and announced precautionary measures to "contain the disease".

Egyptian archeologists unearthed 110 burial tombs at an ancient site in a Nile Delta province, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said Tuesday.

Aromatics are major building blocks of polymers, or plastics, that turn up as everything from PET bottles for water to breathable, wrinkle-resistant polyester clothing. These petrochemicals comprise a specialized, value-added sector of the energy industry. The process for refining crude oil into useful aromatic streams for derivative use often involves the usage of a catalyst to facilitate...

New studies from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) shed more light on the economic and environmental costs of mandates in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), a federal program to expand the nation's biofuels sector.

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new genus and species of hadrosaur or duck-billed dinosaur, Yamatosaurus izanagii, on one of Japan's southern islands.

Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago have designed a completely novel potential treatment for COVID-19: nanoparticles that capture SARS-CoV-2 viruses within the body and then use the body's own immune system to destroy it.

The discovery of a novel enzyme that releases a valuable chemical from agricultural waste could provide an important breakthrough in the upscaling of renewable fuels and chemicals, a new study shows.

It's easy to think that more nutrients—the stuff life needs to grow and thrive—would foster more vibrant ecosystems. Yet nutrient pollution has in fact wrought havoc on marine systems, contributing to harmful algae blooms, worse water quality and oxygen-poor dead zones.

As people around the world increasingly get their news from social media, online misinformation has emerged as an area of great concern. To improve news literacy and reduce the spread of misinformation, NYUAD Center for Cybersecurity researcher and lead author Nicholas Micallef is part of a team that designed 'Fakey', a game that emulates a social media news feed and prompts players to use...

Aerosol products used in the home now emit more harmful volatile organic compound (VOC) air pollution than all the vehicles in the UK, new research shows.

A group of researchers has discovered a new approach to cereal plant breeding that takes into account the internal 'calculator' of plant seeds that makes them continuously reorganize themselves (global coherence). The approach includes unforeseen and unintended changes in the plant when genetically manipulated by the plant breeders. The researchers expect that the method can be used to improve the...

New interfacial superconductor has novel properties that raise new fundamental questions and might be useful for quantum information processing or quantum sensing.

Much as yeast serves in bakeries as single-celled helper, the bacterium Escherischia coli is a must in every biotechnology lab. A team led by Prof. Dr. Barbara Di Ventura, professor of biological signaling research at the University of Freiburg, has developed a new so-called optogenetic tool that simplifies a standard method in biotechnology: Instead of feeding the bacteria with sugar as commonly...

For a long time, historical linguists have been using the comparative method to reconstruct earlier states of languages that are not attested in written sources. The method consists of the detailed comparison of words in the related descendant languages and allows linguists to infer the ancient pronunciation of words which were never recorded in any form in great detail. That the method can also...

During the Bronze Age, Mesopotamia was witness to several climate crises. In the long run, these crises prompted the development of stable forms of sate and therefore elicited cooperation between political elites and non-elites. This is the main finding of a study published in the journal PNAS and authored by two scholars from the University of Bologna (Italy) and Eberhard Karls Universität...

Most conventional molecular diagnostics usually detect only a single disease-related biomarker. Great examples are the PCR tests currently used to diagnose COVID-19 by detecting a specific sequence from SARS-CoV-2. Such so-called singleplex methods provide reliable results because they are calibrated to a single biomarker. However, determining whether a patient is infected with a new SARS-CoV-2...