Plants

Fertilizers typically contain phosphorous, as it's essential to growing plants. Unfortunately, though, it can become "locked" in the soil, and thus not available to crops. That said, it turns out that the addition of a microbe could unlock it.

If you want to know the local soil conditions, it would be good if you could just ask an earthworm. Given that that's an impossibility, though, scientists are now working on the next-best thing – earthworm-inspired soil-analyzing agricultural robots.

Gardening is very therapeutic for many people, but there are nonetheless some yard-related tasks that can be a hassle. The Yardroid robot was designed to autonomously handle those jobs, utilizing artificial intelligence.

When plants perform movements such as curling their leaves, they do so by drawing water into the cellulose fibers in that part of their "body." Scientists have now replicated that technique to produce self-folding paper structures.

Generally speaking, you don't see many crops being grown in arid regions – especially when irrigation isn't practical and/or affordable. That could be about to change, though, with the development of what's being described as "self-watering soil."

Just like us, crop plants are subject to bacterial infections. And while antibiotics are often used to kill those microbes, compounds extracted from fly larva fat may prove to be a more eco-friendly alternative.

The Close-up Photographer of the Year competition highlights seldom-seen close-up textures and details of animals, insects, plants and materials. Galice Hoarau's electrifying image of an eel larva snapped during a blackwater dive is the 2020 winner.

In order to keep water from evaporating from the soil, farmers often cover the ground around their crop plants with sheets of polyethylene plastic. There could soon be a more eco-friendly alternative, though, in the form of soybean oil-coated sand.

Australian researchers have solved the mystery behind the sting of one of the most venomous plants on the planet. The newly discovered neurotoxin explains how Australian stinging trees cause pain that can last for extraordinarily long periods.

It can be hard enough for search parties to find human remains on open ground, but in dense forests, it's even more difficult. That's why scientists are now proposing the use of aerial drones, which would look for telltale changes in trees' leaves.

Not everyone has a green thumb, which is why we've seen a number of smart pots designed to make plant-care easier. One of the latest systems, known as Pico, consists of multiple mini-pots that can be electrically linked together.

That tiny plastic fragment exists in soil is perhaps not so surprising, but researchers have now conducted one of the first studies on what this means for plant life, finding that it can reduce the total biomass of the finished product.