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Categories: Biology: Botany, Biology: Evolutionary
Published Not so simple: Mosses and ferns offer new hope for crop protection



Mosses, liverworts, ferns and algae may offer an exciting new research frontier in the global challenge of protecting crops from the threat of disease.
Published Tackling the challenge of coca plant ID: Wild vs cultivated for cocaine



A new paper reveals that it's not as straightforward as it might seem. Despite decades of data collection by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which has been valuable to monitor changes in areas occupied by illegal coca plantations in South America, there is no reliable scientific method to distinguish between different types of coca plants.
Published Archaeologists report earliest evidence for plant farming in east Africa



A trove of ancient plant remains excavated in Kenya helps explain the history of plant farming in equatorial eastern Africa, a region long thought to be important for early farming but where scant evidence from actual physical crops has been previously uncovered.
Published Study examines tree adaptability to climate change



Many trees could expand their ranges by more than 25 percent based on their potential temperature tolerances.
Published First local extinction in the US due to sea level rise, study suggests



The United States has lost its only stand of the massive Key Largo tree cactus in what researchers believe is the first local extinction of a species caused by sea level rise in the country.
Published How a plant app helps identify the consequences of climate change



A research team has developed an algorithm that analyses observational data from a plant identification app. The novel approach can be used to derive ecological patterns that could provide valuable information about the effects of climate change on plants.
Published Brain size riddle solved as humans exceed evolution trend



The largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains -- with humans bucking this trend -- a new study has revealed.
Published Not so selfish after all: Viruses use freeloading genes as weapons



Certain pieces of DNA have been labeled as 'selfish genetic elements' due to notions that they don't contribute to a host organism's survival. Instead, researchers have now discovered that these elements have been weaponized and play a crucial role by cutting off a competitor's ability to reproduce.
Published Wastewater is a viable medium for growing lettuce in hydroponic systems



Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production. Examples of urban food systems include hydroponics, where plants grow in a nutrient solution without soil, and aquaponics, which combines hydroponics with raising fish in tanks. A new study examines the use of aquaponics wastewater as a growth medium for lettuce in a hydroponic system. This practice can potentially create a circular ecosystem for organic waste recycling and food production.
Published Do genes-in-pieces code for proteins that fold in pieces?



A new study offers new insights into the evolution of foldable proteins.
Published Climate change drives tree species towards colder, wetter regions



Climate change is likely to drive tree species towards colder and wetter regions.
Published Mechanism of bio-inspired control of liquid flow



The more we discover about the natural world, the more we find that nature is the greatest engineer. Past research implied that liquids can only be transported in fixed direction on species with specific liquid communication properties and cannot switch the transport direction. Recently, researchers have shown that an African plant controls water movement in a previously unknown way -- and this could inspire breakthroughs in a range of technologies in fluid dynamics and nature-inspired materials, including applications that require multistep and repeated reactions, such as microassays, medical diagnosis and solar desalination etc.
Published Near chromosome-level genome of the Mojave poppy bee



Scientists have developed a near chromosome-level genome for the Mojave poppy bee, a specialist pollinator of conservation concern.
Published Study illuminates cues algae use to 'listen' to their environment



New research shows how a small group of single-celled algae are able to use chemical cues to communicate stress information. Understanding this ability, once thought unique to plants, helps illuminate the complex evolutionary history of plants and algae.
Published AI-powered study explores under-studied female evolution



Pioneering AI-powered research on butterflies has probed the under-studied evolution of females and adds to a debate between Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
Published Choose where to plant energy crops wisely to minimise loss of biodiversity



In the fight to protect biodiversity and limit climate change, the world will reap what it sows.
Published Sixty-million-year-old grape seeds reveal how the death of the dinosaurs may have paved the way for grapes to spread



Scientists discovered the oldest fossil grapes in the Western Hemisphere, which help show how after the death of the dinosaurs, grapes spread across the world.
Published This desert moss has the potential to grow on Mars



The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis is a promising candidate for Mars colonization thanks to its extreme ability to tolerate harsh conditions lethal to most life forms. The moss is well known for its ability to tolerate drought conditions, but researchers now report that it can also survive freezing temperatures as low as 196 C, high levels of gamma radiation, and simulated Martian conditions involving these three stressors combined. In all cases, prior dehydration seemed to help the plants cope.
Published Ammonites' fate sealed by meteor strike that wiped out dinosaurs



Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.
Published New mathematical model sheds light on the absence of breastfeeding in male mammals



Mathematicians ave put forward a hypothesis which suggests that the reason male mammals don't breastfeed might be driven by the rich community of microbes that lives in breast milk and which plays an important part in establishing the gut microbiome of the infant.