Fertilize

It has long been known that insects such as bees help plants reproduce, by spreading pollen from one plant to another. Now, however, a similar arrangement has been discovered in the undersea world – involving red algae and tiny crustaceans.The research was led by PhD student Emma Lavaut, from France's Sorbonne University, and population geneticist Myriam Valero of CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). They collaborated with colleagues from their institutes and the Austral University of Chile.Working…

These days, peeing on your food plants may be considered a gross and wacky gardening hack, despite the practice having been proven beneficial for thousands of years.But our modern squeamishness has meant gardeners and farmers alike must resort to expensive fertilizers to provide their crops with the much-needed nutrients found free in our pee.  Yet some of the farmers most in need of these additional nutrients often don't have access to fertilizers. Many farmers, like those in remote regions of the Republic of Niger, are…