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A gene that gives rice plants deeper roots can triple yields during droughts, according to Japanese researchers writing in Nature Genetics this week (4 August). ADVERTISEMENT Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world’s population, but is also particularly susceptible to

Iraq’s Council of Ministers has approved the designation of the country’s first national park, in the Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq. ADVERTISEMENT Once the third largest wetland in the world, the Mesopotamian Marshes are widely thought to be the original ‘Gar

ENN Twitter 6 Oceans started out as a pilot project. The main focus of this project is to ensure sustainable management of marine and freshwater species and to encourage breeding programs for vulnerable and endangered species. 6 Oceans will also maintain a database of thousands of mar

ENN Twitter Gary Jacob planted his Chestnut orchard in 2004 in association with the local chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF). The foundation has worked at a national level since 1983 to develop an American chestnut resistant to chestnut blight, an Asian fungus introduc

The world’s soil is in trouble. Ecologists say without dramatic changes to how we manage land, vast swathes of grassland are at risk of turning into hard-packed desert. To make sure that doesn’t happen, researchers are testing out innovative ways to keep moisture in the so

ENN Twitter Conservationist’s faced a crushing blow last month as two butterfly species native to Florida were declared extinct. “Occasionally, these types of butterflies disappear for long periods of time but are rediscovered in another location,” said Larry William

ENN Twitter How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth’s first life began at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans

Further investment in agricultural research is essential if we are to avert a global famine caused by inadequate crop yields and a growing population in the coming decades, according to the director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. A

Last week, the journal Nature published a new paper warning of a $60 trillion price tag for a potential 50 Gigatonne methane pulse from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) over 10-50 years this century. The paper, however, prompted many to suggest that its core scenario – as A

ENN Twitter When the National Park Service re-introduced Wolves to Yellowstone National Park, there was no way to know what this would mean to the ecology and in particular to the Grizzly bears. It turns out the the Wolves have been helpful to the bears! ADVERTISEMENT <!–/* *