Fresh Science

Researchers have found the key to increasing the rate at which maize absorbs nitrogen in the lab, a crucial step in growing higher yielding crops while using less fertiliser. “Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth,” explains researcher Dr Zhengyu Wen from the University of Sydney. “Crops absorb nitrogen from fertilisers and the soil…

Swinburne University researchers have discovered that well-fed bacteria won’t damage ships hulls. By giving bacteria tasty food, in the form of different chemicals, Muhammad Awais Javed is distracting bacteria from eating metal and other surfaces. Bacteria are well known for the risk they pose to human health. But they also pose a risk to inanimate materials,…

Australia wastes 7.3 million tonnes of food a year, with Australian households responsible for dumping more than half of that: about 4.1 million tonnes or around 9kg of food from every home, every week. But for the first time, we know exactly what we waste, how it is wasted, and where it goes. Researchers from…

Food waste has reached ‘pastrygate’ proportions, with government, industry and households throwing away enough pies, pastries and cakes to fill 24 Sydney Opera Houses in one year, an Adelaide economist has shown. Christian Reynolds, of The University of South Australia, estimated that over 629,000 tonnes of pies, pastries and cakes were discarded in 2008, with…