Brazilian researchers have developed a tool that can be used to improve animal welfare by assessing tambaqui fish based on the coloration of the lower half of their bodies. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of this species.

Climate-smart agricultural practices – like no-till treatments, cover-crop utilization and residue retention – can help promote carbon sequestration in soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study that uses a combination of models – rather than just one – to provide a more realistic range of outcomes and to highlight the shortcomings of individual models.

A Texas A&M AgriLife Research study shines fresh light — literally — on forensic death investigations.

Researchers from the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology and Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics have developed a technique that uses infrared light and machine learning to reveal the sex of blow fly larvae found on human remains. This innovative approach may help investigators estimate time of death with greater speed and accuracy.

The study, published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, was led by Aidan Holman, a doctoral student in the lab of Dmitry Kurouski, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, who supervised the research.

Flower shape is a defining trait of ornamental plants, influencing their aesthetic value and commercial appeal. 

Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have identified an ancient protein, which they have named SCORE, that has the potential to help defend plants against tens of thousands of different bacteria and other pathogens. In experiments published Sep 4 in Science they proved that swapping out key sections of SCORE with substitutes can predictably change which bacteria it recognizes. This strategy can be to used engineer synthetic SCORE and provide plants, particularly crops and trees, with a means to defend themselves against whatever pathogens is plaguing them.