Swapping barley for wheatgrass
All cereal crops – wheat, barley, rice and rye – are annual grasses. They need to be sown and harvested each year, which means regular tilling of the soil.
Renewable power boost
Last year saw the biggest boost to renewable energy capacity for 30 years, according to the IEA’s 2021 Market Update. And markets are set to continue to grow into 2022. Exceptionally high capacity additions will become the ‘new normal’ in 2021 and 2022, with renewables accounting for 90% of new power capacity expansion globally.
Roundup proposal rejected
A US district judge in California has rejected Bayer’s $2bn proposal to settle potential future lawsuits alleging weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Read more in C&I magazine.
Cannabis trial commences
A trial in California is to evaluate cannabis as a potential treatment for acute migraine. This will be the first such randomised, placebo controlled clinical trial, say the clinicians involved. The trial began earlier in 2021 and is continuing to recruit patients. Read the C&I Magazine article.
New carbon allotrope
Researchers have discovered a new form of carbon which is atomically thin like graphene, but made up of an ordered lattice of squares, hexagons, and octagons rather than the hexagonal honeycomb structure of graphene (Science, doi: 10.1126/science.abg4509). Read the C&I article/
Pan-coronavirus vaccine
A new kind of vaccine may offer protection against a range of coronaviruses, animal studies show. A Duke University, US, research group developed the approach using a nanoparticle studded with 24 segments of the spike protein from SARS-CoV-2. It generated an outstanding antibody response against the pandemic virus in monkeys (Nature, doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03594-0).
Programmable fibre
Scientists have produced a polymeric fibre that can measure and store digital information – the first fibre to exhibit digital capabilities (Nature Commun. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23628-5). Read more in C&I Magazine.