Research Ideas, Tips & Guides

As a researcher of urban agriculture, I was shocked to see a recent news article bearing the headline “Food from urban agriculture has a carbon footprint six times larger than conventional produce, study shows.” I had spent five years researching and publishing peer-reviewed articles and book chapters about urban agriculture during my Ph.D. with the Berkeley Food Institute, and this conclusion seemed to fly in the face of all that I’d read. How could this be? 

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In 2008, Jessica Eikleberry was 29 years old and had just read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. She wanted to start eating locally and, with the help of her mom, she made a goal for the coming Thanksgiving: an all-local meal.

Electric Mower Upgrade For the Win! Jamie shares that feeling when you finally get to upgrade your old decrepit mower for a shiny new electric model. The saga of our mower

Better Homes & Gardens / Dylan Chandler

Header image: Window View of Astronaut Holding DoubleTree Cookie. Image credit: Hilton

We shared this on Chemistry Cachet several weeks ago, and we are already having readers write in saying they love it!

Le Creuset

Cannabis is a plant made up of over 120 cannabinoids that boast a variety of uses, including a range of potential health benefits and is currently being used across the medical industry in the treatment of patients all over the world.

We are all familiar with stress coping mechanisms like deep breathing, exercise, and quality sleep. But did you know that eating habits can have an impact on stress and anxiety as well? Research shows that there are some foods that can help lower cortisol levels, which is the hormone in our bodies that is predominantly responsible for feelings of stress. Below, we’ll go over some foods that can help us manage stress and anxiety in a healthy way when consumed as part of a varied diet.

What is this maggot-looking insect on the bottom of this strawberry leaf?

Good things come to those who wait, and this is especially true when establishing young fruit trees. Pruning to encourage proper branching structure and the production of high-quality fruit requires a great deal of patience, proper cultural care, and a keen eye for detail.

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Richard Hawke is the Director of Ornamental Plant Research at Chicago Botanic Garden, where he oversees comparative evaluations of ornamental plants. The CBG Plant Evaluation Program has included 117 distinct trials over the past four decades, with 26 comparative trials currently underway in three evaluation areas. In 2011, Richard began reporting trial results in Fine Gardening magazine, and has since written dozens of feature articles that can be found by visiting his author page.

I was caught by the headline ‘On the Eighth day God Created Allotments

Fungus is usually a good sign of things going bad. But it can also indicate good things happening to very bad stuff.

Though it might sound impossible or outrageous, breast milk can be an effective way to promote plant care!

In yoni steaming, you sit over a bowl of hot water with herbs to tighten the muscles down there. Mugwort, Rosemary, Lavender, Calendula, and Basil are good herbs for this. But, doctors say there's no strong research proving it works and it might not be safe. It's important not to steam for too long or with water that's too hot. Remember, the vagina cleans itself and just needs warm water and some natural oil for care.

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Aloe has many benefits — it's a natural remedy for sunburn, promotes skin health, and aids in wound healing. Use it for hair care, acne treatment, and as a makeup remover. But that's not all, it's for improving digestion, soothing minor burns, and repelling insects. You can create homemade lip balms and hand sanitizers with its gel, too. With potential health advantages like blood pressure regulation and immune system boosting, aloe is a versatile plant. Read more below!

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Header image: ESA’s Large Diameter Centrifuge (LDC) running at full speed. Image credit: ESA –A. Le Floc’h

Boglarka Zilla Gulyas, University of Sheffield and Jill Edmondson, University of Sheffield

Header image: Artist’s concept of astronauts and human habitats on Mars. NASA

Header image: Steve Gale (pilot) and Gail Iles (right) next to the Marchetti jet. Kieran Blair, Author provided

Common Name: Mother-in-law’s tongue, Viper’s bowstring hemp

In the fall of 2016, Dr. Connally won a $1.6 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control to fund a four-year study, in coordination with the University of Rhode Island, to gauge the effectiveness of various tick control methods in the areas around people’s homes. She’ll tell us more about the angles being pursued, and also about self-care topics, from treated clothing to the use of topical repellents and more.Read along as you listen to the Dec. 11, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).backyard tick research, with dr. neeta connallyQ. A little context first: You’re in the Northeast, where a lot of the cases of Lyme in the United States occur, but there are multiple tick species around the nation. You

All growing season, I get questions asking how to prevent, or cure, one vegetable garden disease or pest or another–especially on Cucurbits.  My answers are mostly not perfect ones, because almost faster than we figure out some effective tactic, plant diseases can outsmart us by mutating, or getting an edge from dramatically changing weather patterns–or by moving into regions where they were not previously known.So what can be done, longterm, beyond trying to “fix” the one outbreak in just your, or my, backyard, and especially: What’s the bigger answer without turning to chemicals?The answer hopefully lies in research: research that identifies the best current varieties, and often leads to breeding of more disease-resistant and regionally adapted var

WHY ARE bluebirds blue? The obvious answer seems to be, “Because they have blue feathers,” but that’s not it, says a recent segment on the public-radio show BirdNote. It’s all about the feathers’ structure—and the light trick they create right before our eyes.Listen in to learn what’s going on. (Tom Grey photo from BirdNote.)ticks arrive earlier, plus an avian connectionAS THE WORLD WARMS, life cycles shift—including those of disease-bearing ticks, which are awakening earlier and spreading into new areas. Recent research from Cary Institute warns Northeasterners to be vigi

To find out what scientists know so far, I called researcher Brad Herrick of University of Wisconsin-Madison, who gave us a 101 last year on these destructive worms, and has since published some new insights–specifically about the impact of heat on the embryo-filled cocoons that contain next year’s worms-to-be–that may in time help lead to answers in some situations.Brad is Arboretum Ecologist and Research Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum, where the staff first noticed the destructive effects of Asian jumping worms in 2013. He’s been studying them ever since.Learn how to diagnose the presence of Asian jumping worms; what corrective tacti

HOW ARE WE DOING in the effort to reduce tick encounters and the diseases that ticks carry and transmit to humans? The results from a multi-year study in Dutchess County, N.Y., one of the areas of the United States with the highest rates of Lyme disease, shed some light on that question.

Coco peat is a growing medium and normally used for soil amendments. It’s made from the husks of coconuts. It’s a beneficial product for plant growers and provides an alternative growing medium. It’s used much like sphagnum peat in garden applications. It increases water retention, aeration and provides antifungal benefits when used alone or incorporated into the soil as an ingredient.