Earliest Farming Site in Europe

Closed to Western researchers until the collapse of communism, one of the earliest sites of human farming in continental Europe has been discovered in the town of Vashtëmi in a former wetlands region in southeastern Albania, dating to around 6500 B.C.

Termites Boost Crop Yields

Termites and other burrowing insects have been shown to increase crop yields by as much as 36% in arid areas such as Australia by aerating the soil and providing natural fertilizer in their feces, reducing the need for artificial fertilizer and insecticides.

Ancient Beer and Antibiotics

A chemical analysis of 2000-year-old Nubian bone samples reveals regular doses of the antibiotic agent tetracycline in their diet, derived from streptomyces bacteria included in the soil that produced grain and cultivated in their brewing of beer intentionally for medicinal purposes.

Wheat Genome Completed

The decoding of the wheat genome has finally been fully sequenced and published online, being five times longer than that of humans, with hopes that such data can improve the yields and quality of crops worldwide.

Pokeberries Enhance Solar Cells

Red dye made from the widespread fruit-bearing weed known as pokeberries have been used to enhance fiber-based solar cells, with the dark dye acting as an inexpensive absorber of photonic energy that boosts output to almost twice that of current flat-cell technology.

Lightning Grows Mushrooms

Recent Japanese experiments have demonstrated that lightning bolt-strength applications of electricity to the soil can more than double the yield of certain varieties of mushrooms, essentially proving an old farmer's superstition.