As the global population grows and traditional livestock production increasingly strains environmental resources, there is a rising interest in alternative protein sources. Edible insects, particularly grasshoppers, are abundant in regions like Cameroon and provide essential nutrients, including proteins, amino acids, and minerals vital for health and growth. Addressing these challenges calls for in-depth studies on the nutritional benefits of insects such as Ruspolia nitidula.

While agriculture producers apply nitrogen fertilizer to supply nutrients to their crops, they can't always keep those nutrients in the soil for maximum efficiency, often losing them into the atmosphere or water supply as nitrates and nitrous oxide.

The recent discovery of the Ug99 wheat stem rust strain in Nepal, published in the Plant Disease journal, has once again emphasized the need for vigilance to protect Nepal's third most important food crop from any large-scale outbreaks of this devastating wheat disease.

Flowers like hibiscus use an invisible blueprint established very early in petal formation that dictates the size of their bullseyes—a crucial pre-pattern that can significantly impact their ability to attract pollinating bees.

Volcanic activity alters the Earth's surface and promotes the development of new ecosystems, providing valuable models for studying soil formation processes such as microbial composition and vegetation succession. Increasing evidence suggests that soil microbes are pivotal in numerous ecological and biogeochemical processes, encompassing carbon mineralization, humus formation, and nutrient cycling.

Tree stems in tropical forests recovering from logging produce carbon dioxide at a greater rate than those in unlogged forests, according to a new study from the University of Leicester.

Since many kinds of wildlife have started living in urban environments, urban environments have been recognized as places of biodiversity conservation. What kind of factors facilitate or prohibit wildlife from living in urban environments?

Indigenous Peoples play an indisputable and critical role in the conservation of the planet's biodiversity. Their lands and livelihoods sustain life in myriad forms. However, a study by researchers at the ICTA-UAB published in Nature concludes that this vital activity can be misrepresented and misunderstood.

News about biofuels sometimes mentions used cooking oil as a feedstock, but if these substances contain animal fat, they can solidify in colder temperatures. This happens because, chemically, the fatty acids of these and many other saturated fats have long carbon chains with single bonds. Enter the Euglena.

Africa currently imports around 40 million tons of wheat annually at a staggering cost of $15 billion. Most African countries rely heavily on wheat imports, with some importing up to 100% of their supply. However, countries like Ethiopia and Zimbabwe have made significant strides toward self-sufficiency.

In the face of the global biodiversity crisis, more and more biobanks are being set up to safeguard and potentially restore genetic diversity. Preserved tissue or cells allow scientists and conservationists to overcome spatial and even temporal fragmentations of dwindling wildlife populations and employ assisted reproduction technologies—as long as biobanks can be used in a safe and ethically appropriate manner.

Pamela Hallock, a biogeological oceanographer and distinguished university professor at the University of South Florida College of Marine Science, typically finds little comfort in climate change.

Though a founding concept of ecology suggests that the physical environment determines where organisms can survive, modern scientists have suspected there is more to the story of how microbial communities form in the soil.

Large yellow croaker is a highly nutritious and economically valuable mariculture species, but its perishable nature poses significant challenges in storage and transport. Cold chain logistics play a crucial role in maintaining seafood quality, but frequent temperature fluctuations during transit and handling can trigger microbial growth, enzymatic activities, and chemical reactions that degrade fish quality.

Researchers at University of California San Diego have published new guidelines that could help scientists significantly improve their results when quantifying the interactions between DNA and proteins. Understanding these interactions is critical to our understanding of human biology in general, and can also help scientists develop new treatments for a wide range of diseases, including many cancers.

Researchers from the UAB have observed that the rise in temperatures and episodes of heat waves in the past two decades has accelerated the presence of genetic variations that increase tolerance to high temperatures in populations of flies commonly found in European forests, the Drosophila subobscura.

Paprika oleoresin (PO), extracted from chili peppers, is renowned for its vibrant color and beneficial health properties, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. However, its lipophilic nature and sensitivity to factors like oxygen, heat, and light restrict its use in water-based foods. While previous approaches, including emulsions and liposomes, have aimed to improve PO's stability, the results have been limited. These persistent challenges underscore the need for new stabilization methods for PO.

Scientists at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS) have uncovered new details about how cells manage the distribution of lipids in their cell membrane. These lipids, known as phospholipids, are arranged in a bilayer of membranes, regulating entry and exit of certain molecules to maintain a stable internal environment.

A research group has developed an innovative method for the biofortification of leaves and other green plant tissues, increasing their content of healthy substances such as beta-carotene, the main precursor of vitamin A in the human diet.

When we think about bacteria, we may imagine single cells swimming in solution. However, similarly to humans, bacterial cells often socialize, using surfaces to coalesce into complex heterogeneous communities called biofilms. Within a group, bacteria in the biofilm are extremely robust in resisting various environmental stresses—a crucial feature making biofilm-associated infections extremely difficult to treat with antibiotics.

Through genome editing using CRISPR/Cas9, researchers stably create euglena mutants that can produce wax esters with improved cold flow, making the esters suitable as feedstock for biofuels.