Eric Markvicka and graduate students Ethan Krings and Patrick McManigal recently unveiled their invention of a robotic actuator -- the "muscle" that converts energy into a robot's physical movement -- that has the ability to detect punctures or pressure, heal the injury and repair its damage-detecting "skin." The trio presented their findings earlier in May at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta. Their technology would mark an improvement for robotic system used in agriculture and manufacturing that are susceptible to puncture by thorns, twigs, plastic and glass and also could be used to prolong the life of wearable health monitoring devices and consumer electronics,  thus stemming the tide of toxins like lead and mercury entering waste streams and endangering the environment and human health. 

Solar energy production is increasingly being used to meet both energy needs and zero net emissions goals within the United States. Arkansas is following this trend with several utility-scale solar energy production systems built in 2023 and 2024, and more scheduled to come online in the following years. This has raised some concerns over the displacement of agricultural land for non-food production purposes. Researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture investigated current and potential utility-scale solar projects on agricultural lands in the state of Arkansas and found that the alternative energy generation platforms occupy 0.2 percent of the state's 13.7 million acres of agricultural land.

Salk Institute scientists analyzed almost 200 cannabis genomes to create the most comprehensive, high-quality, detailed genetic atlas of the plant to date. The atlas reveals unprecedented diversity and complexity within the species, sets the stage for advances in cannabis-based agriculture, medicine, and industry, and builds on a 10,000-year long relationship between humans and cannabis, showing that cannabis can be as important as other crops like corn or wheat.

A virus responsible for damaging cotton crops across the southern United States has been lurking in U.S. fields for nearly 20 years – undetected. According to new research, cotton leafroll dwarf virus (CLRDV), long believed to be a recent arrival, was infecting plants in cotton-growing states as early as 2006.

UH scientists helped pioneer a new way to breed climate-resilient crops faster by combining plant genebank data with climate and DNA analysis. The method, tested on sorghum, could speed up global efforts to secure food supplies in a changing climate.

In a review in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Stephen Long, a professor of crop sciences and of plant biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, describes research efforts to “future-proof” the crops that are essential to feeding a hungry world in a changing climate. Long, who has spent decades studying the process of photosynthesis and finding ways to improve it, provides an overview of key scientific findings that offer a ray of hope.