Old charcoal kilns hidden in Mediterranean forests may offer a natural window into one of today’s most discussed soil technologies: biochar. A study published in Biochar shows that charcoal left in forest soils for decades undergoes clear chemical aging, develops oxygen-rich surface groups, and helps create distinctive soil microsites shaped by both biology and geology.

Over the past decade, potassium deficiency has become more common across the U.S. Cotton Belt as farmers use more modern, high-yielding cotton cultivars that have greater nutrient demands. In 10 field trials conducted by Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers during the 2023 and 2024 growing seasons at three Arkansas locations, results showed that potassium fertilization increased cotton yields by up to 70 percent in potassium-deficient soils. No response was observed in soils with optimum potassium availability. The study also showed that lint turnout and quality are positively affected by potassium fertilization, with fiber elongation and strength being more strongly related to potassium availability than other lint quality parameters. As part of their studies on potassium monitoring in cotton, the experiment station researchers also tested methods for collecting cotton tissue samples. The study suggested that concentrations in the petiole had a stronger relationship with relative cotton yield — compared to maximum potential — than in the leaf throughout the growing season. Still, the researchers proposed season-long follow-up tests of both the leaf and petiole for potassium levels.

The review highlights: the importance of hierarchical pore engineering for rapid ion transport; the role of heteroatom doping and surface functionalization in enhancing capacitance and electrochemical stability; and the integration of conductive nanostructures to improve energy density and long-term cycling performance.

For about half the global population, rice is the staple food. Yet every year, a fungal disease – rice blast – destroys harvests that could feed 60 million people. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have uncovered how the pathogen outsmarts the rice plant’s defense system. The findings open up new possibilities for making rice more resilient, directly benefiting global food security. 

A research team has mapped how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape cardiac arrest care, from early warning and emergency response to cardiopulmonary resuscitation and recovery after survival. By reviewing 114 studies involving more than 9.57 million patients, the study shows that artificial intelligence is most often used to predict cardiac arrest, guide resuscitation decisions, and estimate post-arrest outcomes. The findings suggest that artificial intelligence could become a practical tool for identifying high-risk patients earlier, supporting time-critical decisions during resuscitation, and improving post-arrest care, while also highlighting the need for stronger real-world validation before these tools can be widely adopted in emergency medicine.