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Categories: Biology: Botany, Offbeat: Computers and Math

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Growing wheat in drought conditions may be easier in the future. Researchers found the right number of copies of a specific group of genes can stimulate longer root growth, enabling wheat plants to pull water from deeper supplies.

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New research suggests aquatic plants can be utilized as a tool to enhance the co-existence between aquatic invertebrates and their fish predators in urban ponds.

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One of the striking aspects of the quantum world is that a particle, say, an electron, is also a wave, meaning that it exists in many places at the same time. Researchers make use of this property to develop a new type of tool -- the quantum twisting microscope (QTM) -- that can create novel quantum materials while simultaneously gazing into the most fundamental quantum nature of their electrons.

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Sensing a hug from each other via the internet may be a possibility in the near future. A research team recently developed a wireless, soft e-skin that can both detect and deliver the sense of touch, and form a touch network allowing one-to-multiuser interaction. It offers great potential for enhancing the immersion of distance touch communication.

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Fungal pathogens that cause pine ghost canker are infecting conifer trees in urban forests of Southern California, scientists found.

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Researchers have demonstrated a new hands-free approach to convey realistic haptic feedback in virtual reality (VR). Their 'multisensory pseudo-haptics' uses a combination of headset visuals and tactile feedback from a wrist bracelet to convey sensations of touch.

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To reduce biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes, more sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices are needed. A research team has investigated how ecosystem services such as pollination could be improved in macadamia plantations. The scientists showed that a certain design of plantations -- for instance, how the rows of trees are arranged, the varieties, and the integration of semi-natural habitats in and around the plantations -- can increase the pollination performance of bees.

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Researchers have added components of plant chloroplasts to bacteria. This feat, 50 years in the making, allows them to analyze the proteins in greater detail in order to improve Rubisco, and eventually photosynthesis.

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An international research team demonstrates that the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) uses volatile fungal metabolites of plant defense substances as important chemical signals in their attack on spruce trees. The researchers also show that the insects have olfactory sensory neurons specialized for detecting these volatile compounds. The fungal metabolites likely provide important clues to the beetles about the presence of beneficial fungi, the defense status of the trees, and the population density of their conspecifics. The study highlights the importance of chemical communication in maintaining symbiosis between bark beetles and their fungal partners.

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The redox regulation mechanism responsible for efficient production of ATP under varying light conditions in photosynthetic organisms has now been unveiled. Researchers investigated the enzyme responsible for this mechanism and uncovered how the amino acid sequences present in the enzyme regulate ATP production. Their findings provide valuable insights into the process of photosynthesis and the ability to adapt to changing metabolic conditions.

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Researchers have demonstrated a switch, analogous to a transistor, made from a single molecule called fullerene. By using a carefully tuned laser pulse, the researchers are able to use fullerene to switch the path of an incoming electron in a predictable way. This switching process can be three to six orders of magnitude faster than switches in microchips, depending on the laser pulses used. Fullerene switches in a network could produce a computer beyond what is possible with electronic transistors, and they could also lead to unprecedented levels of resolution in microscopic imaging devices.

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Climate change is aggravating the impact of droughts -- one of the factors that only affect plant physiology -- on all plant ecosystems worldwide. Although new tools have been developed to detect and assess drought stress in plants -- transcriptomic or metabolomic technologies, etc. -- they are still difficult to apply in natural ecosystems, especially in remote areas and developing countries.

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Metabolic engineering is a field of plant biotechnology that seeks to genetically modify plant metabolic pathways to generate plant varieties with improved health benefits. Recently, scientists engineered potato and tomato plants to express the plant pigment betalain -- found only in Caryophyllales and higher fungi. They found that while betalain-tomatoes conferred anti-inflammatory effects against macrophages and murine colitis, betalain-potatoes showed no such effects.

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Scientists have for the first time constructed the reference genome for the source of the popular fiber supplement, psyllium husk, which could boost supplies of the versatile plant-derived product.

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In some years, rice blast disease destroys more than one quarter of the harvest worldwide. But it's hard to fight with current methods. Researchers have now discovered how the fungus breeches the tough skin of the rice leaf and determined the structure of the enzyme secreted to puncture the leaf. They're now searching for chemical blockers that would work as a spray-on fungicide for rice and other crops.

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Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. A new study defies this assumption, showing that community gardens and urban farms positively affect biodiversity, local ecosystems and the well-being of humans that work in them.

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In a new approach to security that unites technology and art, E researchers have combined silver nanostructures with polarized light to yield a range of brilliant colors, which can be used to encode messages.

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New artificial intelligence technology being developed by engineers could significantly cut down on the time and cost that goes into film study for Super Bowl-bound teams (and all NFL and college football teams), while also enhancing game strategy by harnessing the power of big data.

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Researchers have found that carbon sequestration and plant resilience as well as forage pasture yield can be increased through key adjustments in agricultural management. The results provide a roadmap for reducing pesticide loads in soils and the first steps towards increasing climate change mitigation while improving crop yield in grasslands.

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Researchers have demonstrated that quantum bits (qubits) can directly transfer between quantum computer microchips and demonstrated this with record-breaking connection speed and accuracy. This breakthrough resolves a major challenge in building quantum computers large and powerful enough to tackle complex problems that are of critical importance to society.