Bumblebees: Antibiotic used on crops might make it harder for the insects to forage

Streptomycin, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial diseases in apple orchards, might have a negative impact on bee foraging behaviour Life 23 February 2022 By Gary Hartley A common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) Clarence Holmes Wildlife/Alamy Exposure to streptomycin, an antibiotic used to treat crop diseases in the US, weakens the foraging ability of the … Read more

News at a glance: Welcoming STEM students, a silent radar satellite, and China’s gene-edited crops | Science

GEOSCIENCE Orbiting radar mapper goes dark The head of the European Space Agency said last week the agency may accelerate the launch of its next Earth-observing radar satellite, after a power supply anomaly caused one of its two orbiting radar satellites, Sentinel-1B, to go dark for more than 1 month. Since its launch in 2016, … Read more

The Latest Verdict on The Future of Coffee Is Here, And The News Is Not Good

The world could lose half of its best coffee-growing land under a moderate climate change scenario. Brazil, which is the currently world’s largest coffee producer, will see its most suitable coffee-growing land decline by 79 percent.   That’s one key finding of a new study by scientists in Switzerland, who assessed the potential impacts of … Read more

Gene-edited crops may be 5 years away from sale in the UK

The UK parliament passed a law to help researchers do trials of gene-edited crops in England, and the chief scientist at the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it would take at least five years for a product to go from research trials to market Environment 20 January 2022 By Adam Vaughan … Read more

Gene-edited crops may be 5 years away from sale in the UK

The UK passed a law to help researchers do trials of gene-edited crops, and the chief scientist at the UK’s Department for Food, Rural Affairs & Environment says it would take at least five years for a product to go from research trials to market Environment 20 January 2022 By Adam Vaughan Stacks of wheat … Read more

Air pollution makes it harder for pollinators to find plants

A field trial found that levels of nitrogen oxides and ozone similar to those near roads led to a 70 per cent drop in the numbers of bees and butterflies on mustard plants Environment 19 January 2022 By Adam Vaughan A marbled white butterfly (Melanargia galathea) feeding on a greater knapweed flower (Centaurea scabiosa) robertharding … Read more

Ozone pollution: Gas causes $63 billion damage per year to East Asian crops

Rising levels of ground-level ozone in China and nearby countries are having a big effect on the yields of staple crops such as wheat, rice and maize Environment 17 January 2022 By Michael Le Page Emissions from vehicles in places like Beijing, China, are contributing to a rise in ozone pollution in East Asia AerialPerspective … Read more

Tonga volcano: Massive eruption was a once-in-a-millennium event

The underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption has already triggered a tsunami, a sonic boom and thousands of lightning bolts, and could now lead to acid rain Earth 17 January 2022 By Alice Klein Satellite photo of the eruption CIRA/NOAA/Handout via REUTERS The massive explosion of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga on Saturday was its … Read more

How Biotech Crops Can Crash–and Still Never Fail

The United Nations Food Systems Summit held last September was eclipsed by a powerful countermobilization effort led by farmers and scientists, as well as civil society groups allied with Indigenous communities and small-scale food producers across the world. These are the very people critical to achieving the summit’s stated goals of ending hunger and promoting … Read more