Genetics may lie at the heart of crop yield limitation

You might think that plants grow according to how much nutrition, water and sunlight they are exposed to, but new research by Dr Nick Pullen and a team from the John Innes Centre, UK shows that the plant's own genetics may ...

One fin in the grave: Necrobiome poses a health threat to fish

Sewage-contaminated water is even more harmful for wildlife than previously thought. "Decaying fish can act as a sink for the spread of harmful bacteria to scavenging fish and birds. Fish caught in areas downstream of effluent ...

Smoking out blackgrass seeds

Blackgrass is a problem weed in UK agriculture, but a new technique may help farmers to combat its resistance to herbicides. Application of a smoke particle solution called 'smokewater' has been found to cause blackgrass ...

Low temperature increases risk of DNA damage from UV radiation

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure can cause DNA damage and may be one of the contributing factors in the global amphibian extinction crisis. New research from Prof Craig Franklin and a team of researchers from The University ...

The power of the power nap

For hibernating mammals, the pre-winter months are a race against time to accumulate enough energy reserves to last until spring. Offspring born late in the year have much less time to achieve this. Austrian scientists have ...

New saddle-mapping tech can reduce back pain for horses

Equine back pain is prevalent in at least 35% of ridden horses and often attributed to poor saddle fit. A new method for scanning moving horses has enabled Dr. Jorn Cheney, a researcher of animal locomotion at the University ...

How does your garden grow?

Growing plants in a microscope is helping scientists to view roots developing in 3D and in real time. "With the growth conditions under our control, we can explore how roots respond to different environmental conditions", ...

Long jumpers do better with a spring in their step

Long jumpers and triple jumpers spend hours training to perfect their take-off. But what influences their performance? Scientists have discovered that taking off from a compliant surface (such as a springboard) compared with ...

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