Tag: agriculture
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NYU to Study Response of Rice to Environmental Change
The National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Program has awarded a $3.6 million grant to New York University to study the response of rice to environmental change. NYU’s Michael Purugganan and Richard Bonneau, who are part of the university’s Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, will head the study, and collaborate with Endang Septiningsih of…
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Technology Developed for Aerial Vegetation Measurements
A scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a technical consultant from industry have developed and patented a technology that converts digital cameras to color infrared cameras for aerial photography. Raymond Hunt, with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Maryland and David Linden, chief scientist at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in McLean, Virginia…
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Research-Based Healthy Eating Plate Unveiled
Nutritionists at Harvard University’s School of Public Health have released the Healthy Eating Plate, a visual guide for eating a healthy meal that the developers say is based only on the science and not the interests of growers or industry. Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the school says, “We want people…
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Non-Native Insects Costing Local Governments, Homeowners
Scientists from U.S. and Canadian universities and the U.S. Forest Service built a statistical model to compute the cost of damage caused by invasive tree-feeding insects that are inadvertently imported to the U.S. The team from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at University of California in Santa Barbara published their findings…
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Improved Cellulose Processing Developed for Biofuels
A team of university and industry researchers in Europe and the U.S. have developed a process to hasten the breakdown of cellulose in waste plant matter for conversion to ethanol. Their findings appear online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists with the company Novozymes in Davis, California, and Bagsvaerd, Denmark,…
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More Planning Needed for Water Use in Biofuel Crops
An overlooked factor in planning for prairie grasses as biofuel feedstocks is their use of water, according to a new study by researchers in the U.S. and Germany. Their findings appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paid subscription required). Engineers Praveen Kumar and Phong Le at University of…
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Satellite Measures Show Ozone Reducing Soybean Yields
Researchers from NASA, Department of Agriculture, and several universities have used satellite measurements to show that ozone levels above 50 parts per billion along the ground could reduce soybean yields by about 10 percent. Their findings were published recently in the journal Atmospheric Environment (paid subscription required). The five-year study surveyed widespread ozone damage to…
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Improved Diagnostic for Potato Pest Developed
Xiaohong Wang, a molecular biologist with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), a division of the Department of Agriculture, in Ithaca, New York developed a new process for determining the type of potato cyst nematode infecting potato crops. Wang’s process is described in a paper that appeared earlier this year in the European Journal of Plant…
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USDA, Energy Fund Research to Accelerate Biofuel Crops
The U.S. Departments of Energy and Agriculture have awarded 10 grants totaling $12.2 million for up to three years for research on improving the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of growing biofuel and bioenergy crops. Energy’s Office of Science will provide $10.2 million in funding for eight projects, while USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)…
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Patent Awarded for Bacterial Phosphorus Removal Process
Bion Environmental Technologies Inc. in Crestone, Colorado says it has been granted a U.S. patent for its treatment process for organic wastes, particularly livestock wastes. The company’s patent for “Micro-Electron Acceptor Phosphorus Accumulating Organisms” uses bacteria to remove phosphorus from livestock and other animal wastes. Phosphorus is a chemical found in animal waste, which can…