Food
3 ways autonomous farming is driving a new era of agriculture
Could autonomous tractors, drones, and seed-planters fill the growing labor shortage in the agricultural industry?
Artificial photosynthesis lets us grow plants in total darkness
A new artificial photosynthesis technique could boost crop yields on existing farms or allow us to grow plants in new locations — like space.
Spray-on “peel” for produce helps reduce plastic pollution
A Bill Gates-backed startup is helping reduce plastic pollution and food waste by coating produce in an edible spray.
After millennia of agricultural expansion, the world has passed “peak agricultural land”
This marks a historic moment in humanity’s relationship to the planet.
This starchy wondercrop could help alleviate food insecurity
Enset, a perennial banana-like fruit cultivated in southwestern Ethiopia, is an underexploited starch crop with significant potential.
Real cheese without the cow
Biotech startup Formo uses genetically modified microorganisms to produce a completely lab-grown milk that can be made into cheese.
What foods will 9.3 billion people be eating in 2050?
Algae, fried insects, and exotic lab-grown meat could all be on the menu.
Scientists grow plants in real lunar soil for the first time
Lunar soil was used to grow plants for the first time, suggesting that we may be able to produce food for astronauts off-world.
‘Mad honey’: The rare hallucinogen from the mountains of Nepal
On the mountainsides of Nepal and Turkey, bees sometimes produce a strange and dangerous concoction: mad honey.
Inspired by kombucha tea, engineers create living materials
A symbiotic culture of specialized yeast and bacteria can generate tough materials able to perform a variety of functions.