News
The kiwifruit was once called the Chinese gooseberry, until New Zealand growers renamed it in 1959 to escape Cold War suspicion, berry tariffs, and a name shoppers did not want
2+ week, 3+ day ago (304+ words) In June 1959, the Auckland exporter Turners and Growers renamed the Chinese gooseberry "kiwifruit" to dodge US Cold War tariffs and the political toxicity of anything labelled Chinese. The fuzzy brown skin happened to resemble the plumage of New Zealand's flightless…...
In 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa carried hundreds of tree seeds around the Moon in his personal kit, and the ordinary-looking seedlings that came home were planted in courthouses, schools and parks where many grew for decades with their flight history hidden in small plaques
4+ week, 13+ hour ago (886+ words) In 1971, Apollo 14 command module pilot Stuart Roosa carried roughly 500 tree seeds in his personal kit on a lunar flight. The seedlings grew into normal trees now scattered across courthouses, schools and parks across the United States, hiding in plain sight....
Cows have best friends, get visibly stressed when separated from them, and have measurably lower heart rates when reunited " and the dairy industry has known this since at least 2011
1+ mon, 5+ day ago (284+ words) The animal whose milk most people in the world drink can recognise individual members of its own herd, choose a preferred partner from among them, and respond physiologically to that partner's presence in ways that look unmistakably like the behavioural…...
ASII launches national geospatial digital twin for Australian agriculture
4+ mon, 6+ day ago (576+ words) The flagship project will develop a sovereign, AI enabled geospatial digital twin that fuses satellite Earth observation, Internet of Things and sensor streams, climate records and agronomic models into a shared digital environment representing Australia's agricultural landscapes as a whole…...
Hydroponic plant factories enable continuous urban edamame harvest
7+ mon, 1+ week ago (155+ words) Edamame produced using the nutrient film technique formed more pods and seeds, with yields exceeding traditional methods. "Recent global warming and extreme weather events have raised concerns about reduced yields in open-field crop production. Our hydroponics technology offers a promising…...