Plants

Physics

An ancient plant inspires a new lab tool

Researchers have designed a lab tool that moves liquids from one place to another by mimicking a plant called a liverwort.

Animals

Scientists Say: Invasive species

These are foreign species that are causing problems for native organisms and ecosystems.

Climate

Analyze This: Climate change could make food less healthy

Levels of important nutrients are lower in crops exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. How high? Try levels expected to be typical 30 years from now.

Animals

Venus flytraps tend not to eat their pollinators

A first-ever study of what pollinates a Venus flytrap finds little overlap between the critters that serve as pollinators and those that are prey.

Animals

Blooms on ‘chocolate’ tree are crazy-hard to pollinate

The cacao trees must be pollinated or those seeds that give us chocolate will never form. The rub: The trees’ flowers challenge all but some of the tiniest pollen-moving insects.

Chemistry

Increasingly, chocolate-makers turn to science

Chocolate is delicious and may even have health benefits. To make sure there’s enough to go around, scientists are growing heartier cacao trees.

Climate

Here’s why scientists have been fertilizing the Arctic

For more than 30 years, scientists have been fertilizing small parcels of Arctic tundra. Here’s what happens when you push an ecosystem to the brink.

Agriculture

Explainer: The fertilizing power of N and P

Two elements — nitrogen and phosphorus — help plants grow. When the soil doesn’t have them, farmers might add them in the form of fertilizer.

Climate

Tropics may now emit more carbon dioxide than they absorb

Analyses of satellite images suggest that degraded forests now release more carbon than they store.

Climate

Thawing mosses tell a climate change tale

Plants long entombed beneath Canadian ice are now emerging. They’re telling a story of warming unprecedented in the history of human civilization.

Animals

Earthworm invaders may be stressing out some maples

Worms are great for soil when ecosystems have evolved with them. But in earthworm-free places, like parts of the U.S. Upper Midwest, they can cause problems for plants and animals.

Plants

Cool Job: Rethinking how plants hunt for water

Studies probing the very beginnings of root development may have important implications for growing food in a world where the climate is changing.