The soil microbiome is critical for the ecosystem, and agricultural practices that promote microbial diversity can support plant health and help protect against pests. But it is unclear which practices are most beneficial, and what motivates farmers to choose them. In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Cornell University analyzed surveys and soil samples from 85 organic farmers in New York to investigate the interaction between beliefs, management practices, and soil microbiome functions.

Many people with hypertension, a risk factor for strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease, do not have elevated blood pressure when examined in a doctor’s office.

For the first time, scientists have been able to watch the flu virus live as it infects human airway cells. They developed a new technique which makes the viral genetic material light up under the microscope. By tracking the virus throughout the steps of its life cycle, the researchers found out that only a minority of flu infections is successful. This is mostly due to errors in reading out the viral genetic material. The new technology can be used to address unanswered questions about the flu virus life cycle, which could help in the development of better antiviral drugs and preparation for future epidemics. The study from the Tanenbaum group at the Hubrecht Institute was published in Cell Systems.

In the last year, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), commonly known as bird flu, swept through chicken coops across the nation, killing egg-laying hens and contributing to rising egg prices. The outbreaks underscored how vulnerable food systems can be to rapidly spreading biological threats and how urgently new predictive tools are needed to help producers respond.

Researchers have employed granulation technology to resolve the challenges of decreased CO₂ capture performance and powder elutriation in alkaline metal salt-promoted MgO sorbents. The optimized alkaline metal salt-promoted MgO sorbent pellets exhibited a CO₂ capture capacity of 11.46 mmol·g⁻¹ and a mechanical strength of 11.14 MPa. This mechanical strength was nearly three times greater than that of alkaline metal salt-promoted MgO sorbent pellets without granulation promoters. After 20 cycles, CO₂ capture capacity stabilized at 8.71 mmol·g⁻¹, while mechanical strength was maintained at 8.92 MPa.