Agriculture

Boston Dynamics’ dog-like Spot robot can now be remotely controlled from anywhere in the world thanks to a partnership with Rocos. To demonstrate its new capabilities the US team remotely monitored the robot working on an isolated farm in New Zealand.

As factors such as habitat loss decrease the number of flowering plants in the environment, beekeepers are starting to augment their insects' diet with artificial feeds. It now turns out that microalgae may be a particularly good form of "bee chow."

Geneticists at Penn State University have manipulated the expression of one gene in a plant that makes them more resilient to environmental change – and found that this is passed down to future generations.

Responsible for millions of dollars in crop losses annually, the red palm weevil is a flying beetle that lays its eggs inside date palm trees. It could soon be possible to detect such infestations earlier than ever, using fiber optic cables.

When it comes to safer, less painful, slow-release alternatives to the hypodermic injection of medications, "microneedle patches" show a lot of promise. Now, MIT scientists have adapted the technology for use on plants.

Many vegans swear by soy as a meat-free protein source, but concerns have been raised over the environmental sustainability of soybean farming. With that in mind, research now suggests that specially-prepared fava beans may be a better alternative.

Over 10,000 years ago ancient human settlers began the construction of around 4,700 artificial forest islands in ancient Amazonia to farm savanna land, according to the results of a newly published paper.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have discovered that adding a single supplement to the feed of cows can cut their methane emissions by around 25 percent, without affecting their milk-producing capacity.

A few years ago, for the first time ever, astronauts ate lettuce that had been grown aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It has now been determined that the "space lettuce" was at least as nutritious as similar plants grown on Earth.

Pesticide contamination may be triggering abnormal brain development in baby bumblebees, according to the results of a newly published scientific paper during which researchers scanned the brains of 92 worker bees using micro-CT technology.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault has received a major a new deposit of seeds from several hundred plant species. The addition of seeds from 35 gene banks spread over seven continents brings the total number of seed samples to over a million.

Shipping fertilizer to colonies on Mars could be quite a hassle – it would be better if the colonists could grow crops using whatever's on hand. The continuation of an existing study now indicates that urine might in fact serve as a good fertilizer.