The blast that shook the ionosphere

Just after 6 p.m. local time (15.00 UTC) on August 4, 2020, more than 2,750 tons worth of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate exploded in Lebanon's port city of Beirut, killing around 200 people, making more than 300,000 temporarily ...

Ammonium triggers formation of lateral roots

Despite the importance of changes in root architecture to exploit local nutrient patches, mechanisms integrating external nutrient signals into the root developmental program remain poorly understood. "Here, we show for the ...

Methane-eating bacteria like nitrogen, too

Methane-eating bacteria can degrade ammonium in addition to methane, as discovered by microbiologists at Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute in Bremen. Methane-eaters are important for the reduction of greenhouses ...

Map of ammonium's journey 'could prevent infection'

The mechanism of a protein which transports ammonium across cell membranes has been discovered in research led at the University of Strathclyde, which could lay the foundations for preventing infection.

How bacteria fertilize soya

Plants need nitrogen in the form of ammonium if they are to grow. In the case of a great many cultivated plants, farmers are obliged to spread this ammonium on their fields as fertiliser. Manufacturing ammonium is an energy-intensive ...

Puzzle about nitrogen solved thanks to cometary analogs

One of the basic building blocks of life is nitrogen. An international consortium was able to detect ammonium salt containing nitrogen on the cometary surface of Chury thanks to a method using analogs for comet material. ...

Salting down the cost of protein polymer drugs

Protein is big business. Not only does it make up a significant portion of every living thing—it's also a $150 billion per-year industry. Whether for food, medicine, or manufacturing, nearly all sectors have a need for ...

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