Central Asia is the point of origin for a wide diversity of fruit and nut trees; including many local and wild varieties that have not been scientifically documented. A new study has analyzed the ongoing role of home gardens in conserving this agrobiodiversity, which has provided a food safety net in times of food insecurity.

Discovery by Brazilian researchers featured on cover of the journal Nanoscale is noteworthy because of possible applications in next-generation electronic devices.

The strategy was tested at the Federal University of São Carlos. The conversion took place under ambient temperature and pressure conditions, which could enable methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to be used to produce fuel.

Brazilian researchers have developed an algorithm to identify the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi in photographs of blood samples taken with a mobile phone camera. The low-cost method is described in the journal PeerJ and can be reproduced

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) has just launched Melisa chatbot, an artificial intelligence system that provides agro-climatic forecasts. Available on Whatsapp, Facebook and Telegram, Melisa chatbot can be found and added as a friend on these social networks. Through the chat, members can ask her about what the weather will be like in the coming months, how much it will rain, and rice and corn crop yields - depending on the day the crop is sown and the variety of seed used.