A research team from the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló, led by Carolina Clausell Terol and Aurelio Gómez Cadenas from the Eco-physiology and Biotechnology research group, has developed a biostimulant composition that protects crops against adverse environmental conditions and improves their performance.

The new compound incorporates proline particles encapsulated in silica, an amino acid that protects cellular structures and enhances plants’ ability to tolerate adverse conditions. Its production process, based on aqueous suspension and spray drying, is easily scalable, cost-effective and reproducible, ensuring protection of the active ingredient against thermal degradation and its controlled release.

“The controlled release of proline”, the research team explains, “activates the plant’s natural defence mechanisms and improves its tolerance to drought, high temperatures and salinity, among other types of stress. In this way, damage is reduced and growth and production are maintained".

It's a small number of research labs inside tech giants that are driving the rapid rise of AI today. But this is not the first time such labs have taken center stage, a new study shows: The United States' rise as a technological superpower was fueled not just by inventions, but by the emergence of industrial research labs in the 1920s – which reshaped who invented, where innovation happened, and how breakthroughs were made.