Using Nitrogen-15 in agricultural research: Improving crop productivity in Panama

Nitrogen-15, a stable isotope of nitrogen and an essential plant nutrient, is used to determine the fertilizer use efficiency of crops. It is also used to quantify the amount of nitrogen that crops can acquire from the atmosphere through a process known as biological nitrogen fixation. This helps to reduce the application of purchased nitrogen for crop and livestock production, and can result in very significant cost-savings in agriculture. Nitrogen-15 is also used to assess integrated soil-water management practices to optimize crop productivity. It can be applied to various vital crops including rice and sugar cane. Read more.

Copper axe owned by Neolithic hunter Ötzi the Iceman came all the way from Tuscany

Five thousand years before the British middle classes flocked to “Chiantishire” to buy wine, cheese and olive oil, products from Tuscany already had a certain cachet, it has emerged.

New research has shown that a copper axe carried by a Neolithic hunter known as Ötzi the Iceman came from southern Tuscany. The find has surprised experts because hundreds of miles separate Tuscany from the Alpine pass where the mummified body of Ötzi was discovered 25 years ago. Read more.

Remains from a medieval cemetery in Finland reveal 15th century villagers ‘found a way to survive’ the Little Ice Age

A new analysis of skeletal remains from a medieval cemetery in Finland has revealed the remarkable adaptability of an ancient village.

Hundreds of years ago, Finland experienced a period of cooling dubbed the ‘Little Ice Age,’ during which temperatures reached exceptionally low levels. Despite these conditions, researchers discovered that the people in Ii Hamina during the 15th and 16th centuries ‘found a way to survive’ – and the evidence suggests they maintained a similar diet across the years, with little sign of poor nutrition. Read more.

Easter Island not victim of ‘ecocide,’ analysis of remains shows

Analysis of remains found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely-held belief that the ancient civilization recklessly destroyed its environment, according to new research co-conducted by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

“The traditional story is that over time the people of Rapa Nui used up their resources and started to run out of food,” says Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Carl Lipo. “One of the resources that they supposedly used up was trees that were growing on the island. Those trees provided canoes and, as a result of the lack of canoes, they could no longer fish. So they started to rely more and more on land food. As they relied on land food, productivity went down because of soil erosion, which led to crop failures ... painting the picture of this sort of catastrophe. That’s the traditional narrative.” Read more.

Scientists can now locate oxygen in the structure of catalysts with a precision of one-trillionth of a meter

A major new application of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization NMR technology at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has led to the ability to examine the chemical structure of catalysts with a spatial resolution of less than a picometer, or one-trillionth of a meter. That capability enables scientists to better understand, and design more effective catalysts for, the production of fuels and high value chemicals. Read more.

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