Category: Plants & People

Ancient humans selected different strains of the rice and mixed their genes to create an ideal version of the crop, which had led to higher yields and better cultivation.

Whether you live in the centre of London, the outskirts of Timbuktu, or in a high mountain valley in Nep al, taxonomic knowledge can improve and, at times, even save your life.

The 10-year program, known as Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP), is working to turn some 37 million acres back into forest or grasslands after farming on steep slopes in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins had made them perilously susceptible to erosion and flooding.

According to the first study of its kind in Africa, bushmeat hunting impacts African rainforests by wiping-out large mammals and birds — such as forest elephants, primates, and hornbills — that are critical for dispersing certain tree species.

For many species of plants, humans are the main agents of seed dispersal, even those that have no nutritious or medicinal value. They have discovered the secrets of our positive emotional response mechanisms, and have adapted themselves to exploit it. We're being manipulated!

Almost one-fifth of the global land surface is semiarid, suggesting there may be large opportunities for expansion of Agave crops for feedstock, but more field trials are needed to determine tolerance boundaries for different Agave species.

Researchers have demonstrated tiny solar cells just billionths of a metre across that can repair themselves, extending their useful lifetime. The cells make use of proteins from the machinery of plants, turning sunlight into electric charges that can do work.

Children in the urban environment often no longer know the trees by their names; more alarmingly, they do not even consider themselves to be part of nature.