Climate change-fuelled drought could hit U.S. yields hard this century, researchers say.

Climate change is poised to hit U.S. harvests

The latest models suggest many key crops could suffer 
significant yield losses in the coming decades

Dutch researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change have published a paper in the journal Nature that says U.S. crop yields could be hard hit as the world warms. To better assess how climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions will likely impact wheat, corn and soybean, an international team of scientists ran

Researchers say a new technique to silence genes is a whole new way of looking at crop protection.

‘Gene-silencing’ technique is a crop protection game changer

This spray uses RNA to trick a plant into shutting genes off, thus evading diseases

Most crop protection products act by attacking and killing a pest. But a new technique targets the crops themselves, giving them an added ability to ward off pests and diseases by targeting their genes. Researchers at the U.K.’s University of Surrey and Australia’s University of Queensland, have developed a non-toxic, degradable spray which is capable


Alberta researcher David Westaway says there’s a hidden process in BSE 
and other prion diseases.  PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA

Prion diseases like BSE have a telltale sign

The discovery suggests the disease may not be 
as unstoppable as previously thought

Medical researchers at the University of Alberta have found fatal prion diseases, like BSE, have a hidden signature. Findings published this month in the peer-reviewed journal, Public Library of Science (PLoS) Pathogens, show that up to seven months before an animal shows physical signs of infection, a particular prion protein in the brain, known as

Determining the broad strokes of soil quality could all boil down to 
doing the math.

Soil adds up

The way soil properties combine can be used to 
mathematically determine soil quality

To most people the quality of a soil is the sum of its physical properties — is it healthy and full of microbes? Does water infiltrate it readily or run off? How much air and water can it provide plant roots? Is it hard for roots or equipment to penetrate? Robson Armindo, a professor at


Once a lake enters an ecological crisis, it can be impossible to rehabilitate it.

Tipping points could predict the future of lakes

Dutch researchers say keeping a closer eye on key indicators could give water managers a fighting chance at avoiding catastrophe

A group of Dutch scientists has been trying to predict when lakes will enter ecological crises by monitoring key tipping points. Researcher Alena Gsell, of the Netherlands Institute of Technology, says the term ‘tipping point’ has become popular to describe sudden and fundamental changes that take place even though exterior conditions haven’t changed as radically.

Corn growth has a sound that tells researchers a lot about how 
that process works.

You really can hear corn grow

U.S. researchers say isolating this sound has given them 
surprising insight into plant growth

There’s an old farmer’s tale that says, “On a quiet night you can hear the corn grow.” It may seem funny, but Douglas Cook at New York University and colleagues Roger Elmore and Justin McMechan, at the University of Nebraska were able to use contact microphones to directly record the sounds of corn growing. Corn


The type of protein milk contains may help make a healthy drink even healthier.

Certain milk proteins may promote human health

It seems cow’s milk may not all be created equal, some may be better for you

Milk that contains a certain protein may increase a key human antioxidant and strengthen the body’s disease-fighting properties. That’s according to a recent study published in Nutrition Journal that examined the results of a clinical trial at Nova Southeast University in Florida looking at the health effects of milk containing the A2 protein. In the

The “good” fat that makes up a large part of canola and high-oleic canola oil can help reduce belly fat and decrease blood pressure.

Canola oil can help trim inches off the waist

Researchers found a significant decrease of belly fat in a 
clinical trial of obese subjects who consumed canola oil

Canola oil can help reduce belly fat, a new study has found. About 20 per cent of adults in Canada have metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions — including belly fat — that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Researchers at the University of Manitoba, Laval University, and Penn State University tested


Dairying appears to have existed from the dawn of human agriculture.

Humans raised dairy animals for longer than thought

Our link to milk-producing animals dates back to the onset of agriculture

A team of scientists and archeologists has discovered widespread evidence of prehistoric milk production in southern Europe. The study, a collaboration between the U.K.’s University of York, the University of Bristol, and France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, uncovered evidence that humans have been utilizing milk and dairy products across the northern Mediterranean region

Roots are an often overlooked part of any plant.

Scientists root out answers

A new and simpler method to measure root mass promises plant scientists better insight into the below-ground differences of plants

When it comes to plant roots it’s out of sight, out of mind. But roots are an essential part of almost all plants and crucial to plant productivity and food production. For scientists, a better understanding of roots is important and their measurement is increasingly of interest. The problem is measuring roots is a hard