CNN Hero of the Year Turns Vacant Lots on Chicago’s South Side into Flower Farms

Quilen Blackwell – credit, CNN Newsroom, released Hope and opportunity are blossoming on the South Side of Chicago where a man and his wife have used flowers to help poor communities turn over a new leaf. Running two nonprofits, Southside Blooms and Chicago Eco House, Quilen Blackwell and his wife Hannah Bonham are helping at-risk … Read more

Genetic Mutation Could Pave the Way for Self-Fertilizing Cereal Crops and a Revolution in Agriculture

Cphotos – via Unsplash+ Danish researchers have found a molecular switch that lets plants partner with nitrogen-fixing bacteria instead of fighting them, opening the way to self-fertilizing cereal crops like wheat and barley. Their new research highlights an important biological clue that could help reduce agriculture’s heavy reliance on artificial nitrogen fertilizer. Plants require nitrogen … Read more

Birds Start to Show Signs of Recovery After Bee-Harming Pesticide Ban in the EU

A chaffinch, one of the birds that recovered in the study – credit, 4028mdk09 CC 3.0. The first large-scale study to investigate the impact on bird populations from the 2018 European Union ban on a universal insecticide has determined that birds have recovered as much as 3% since 2018. Given that 57 species of birds … Read more