Farmers in a small area of southern Mexico knew that a variety of corn grown in the area was special.

But a group of researchers — including a contingent from the University of Wisconsin-Madison — believe the corn could ultimately transform the way the largest crop in America and the world is grown.

The potential improvements in water and air quality — not to mention financial savings — are staggering. In fact, the lead researcher from Madison acknowledged that he and his colleagues spent a decade studying the corn before going public this month because the conclusions were “almost outrageous.”

And, like so much research in its early stages, there are still a lot of “ifs.”

But scientists at University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California-Davis and Mars Inc. (yes, the candymaker) have determined that farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico, have been growing corn that creates its own fertilizer for centuries if not millennia.

Understanding the process requires a short course in biology.

The plants in Mexico have bizarre fingerlike roots sticking out of their stalks. The roots secrete a goopy mucus, in which bacteria live. The bacteria take nitrogen from the air — which plants can’t use — and convert it to a different form of nitrogen that they can use. The plants soak up the fixed nitrogen in the gel through the fingerlike roots.

The nitrogen is a critical nutrient for all plants; it’s the primary ingredient in chemical fertilizers.

The process is part of a cycle. The bacteria live on carbon, which the plant supplies in the form of sugar. The sugar is produced through photosynthesis. Through this odd trade agreement, the plant gets usable nitrogen, the bacteria get necessary carbon and both parties are happy.

Nitrogen fixation is best known for occurring in legumes like soybeans. The bacteria live in their roots and the surrounding soil. But this had not been demonstrated in grasses like corn.

A decade of research

The researchers found out about the corn from Howard-Yana Shapiro, the chief agricultural officer at Mars and adjunct professor at UC-Davis. Decades ago, he had the idea to look for unusual traits in crops that traditional farmers have adapted to their particular climate and soil. He hoped to find something that could improve crops globally.

When Shapiro came across 16-foot tall cornstalks growing on an Oaxacan mountain slope where nutrient levels and fertilizer availability should have been low, he knew they deserved a closer look.

Jean-Michel Ané, professor in the UW-Madison Department of Agronomy, has been involved in the project since 2010. “They came to me and asked if I thought it was possible that corn could be associated with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and I thought, no way.”

The research group first collected samples from cornfields in the Sierra Mixe area of Oaxaca in 2010. When they noticed the goopy aerial roots, “We were like, that’s weird,” Ané said.

They tested the goopy gel, and it tested positive for one of the byproducts of the nitrogen fixation process.

But that alone didn’t prove the plant was getting nitrogen from the bacteria instead of the soil, Ané said. The researchers ran tests from every angle they could think of: Are any of the bacteria found in the gel known nitrogen-fixers? Does the corn soak up less nitrogen from the soil than a similar, non-nitrogen-fixing variety? Does the corn for sure soak up nitrogen from the gel?

The answers were yes, yes and yes.

“It took us several years to convince ourselves that it was true. That’s why it took us almost 10 years to publish that paper. It’s a big claim. We wanted to be sure,” Ané said.

An ancient trait

Researchers have spent decades trying to get corn to create its own fertilizer by partnering with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, with no luck. But these new findings show that nature had already given corn that potential.

The researchers decided to essentially turn back the clock and examine a type of grass native to Mexico and Central America thought to be the ancestor of corn. In the same way that modern dogs were bred from ancient wolves, corn had been bred from teosinte. 

They looked at species of teosinte to see if any had signs of the gel or the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that the Oaxacan farmers could have amplified over time, just like Midwestern farmers later amplified traits like kernel size and uniformity.

They did.

“I see this as a good argument for preserving biodiversity,” said Chase Mendenhall, tropical biologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. “Nature had innovated something we would never be able to innovate. The lab couldn’t have developed that on its own.”

A sustainable future?

The researchers found that the Mexican corn gets 29% to 82% of the nitrogen it needs from this partnership instead of the soil. Its nine-month growing season and other traits mean it’s not ready to grow as-is worldwide. But if that trait can be bred into other corn, it would mean an equivalent reduction of nitrogen fertilizer use globally.

Christopher Kucharik is associate professor and department chair of the UW-Madison department of agronomy. Not involved with this research, Kucharik studies agriculture issues related to land management, climate change and sustainability. He said the study has the potential to be a watershed moment. 

Kucharik said that some people argue the energy use that will be saved from reducing fertilizer use on corn is “only” 1 percent to 2 percent. “But any little bit helps. There’s no silver bullet to reduce our energy use. If we can come up with 30 or 40 things that each reduce our energy use 1%, that’ll add up.”

He said the biggest impact locally, if Wisconsin farmers could dramatically reduce fertilizer use, would be to water quality. Less than half of the nitrogen in crop fertilizer is actually used by plants; the rest ends up in groundwater or runs off into waterways.

The EPA reports that 1,200 square miles of Wisconsin’s groundwater have nitrate concentrations above 5 mg/L, half of the maximum contaminant level allowed by the EPA. Almost one-third of Wisconsin residents get their drinking water from groundwater wells.

Of the new research, Kucharik said, “It’s pretty encouraging and could be a game-changer.”

Credit where credit’s due

Samples of the corn are now back in labs at UW-Madison, where Ané and his colleagues are putting it through more tests.

Ané said the people of Sierra Mixe agreed to the researchers publishing the findings and that the Mars company is working to make sure they are protected and will benefit from the discovery. “They and their ancestors are the ones that did the breeding to amplify that trait,” emphasized Ané.

“The people have a strong cultural attachment to that corn and they’re proud of that corn. One interesting fact not in the (published research) paper is the farmers who are there actually collect the gel and keep it in their homes in jars. They use it in various rituals. They know that the gel is special — the more gel the corn is producing, the better the corn is producing.”

 

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West Brom’s Northern Ireland midfielder Chris Brunt has retired from international football.

Brunt, 33, won 65 international caps and scored three goals after making his debut against Switzerland in 2004.

He missed out on Northern Ireland’s thrilling Euro 2016 finals campaign owing to a serious knee injury.

Brunt, who also featured at left-back, played his final game for his country in the 2018 World Cup play-off second leg against Switzerland last November.

O’Neill’s side drew 0-0 in Basel to lose 1-0 to the Swiss on aggregate and miss out on a place at this summer’s World Cup finals in Russia.

Manager Michael O’Neill left Brunt out of his recent squads to give the player time to consider his international future following the defeat by Switzerland.

“I am disappointed Chris is retiring as I believe he still has much to offer the team, however I completely understand his decision to spend a bit more time with his young family and to concentrate on his club career,” said O’Neill.

“I want to thank him for everything he gave me on the pitch. He was a model professional and his contribution to the Northern Ireland team over the past 14 years will be remembered for a long time.”

Brunt played in eight of the games that saw Northern Ireland reach Euro 2016 – their first appearance in a major finals for 30 years.

Despite a knee injury ruling him out of the tournament, the former Sheffield Wednesday player travelled to France to support his team-mates.

His first and last goals for his country were free-kicks – the first away to San Marino in 2009 and the last against the Czech Republic at Windsor Park in September 2017.

He also scored the last of Northern Ireland’s goals in a 4-0 home World Cup qualifier win over Azerbaijan in Belfast in November 2016.

Russia will begin S-400 missile system deliveries to Turkey in 2019 – a year earlier than previously announced.

The move comes amid a growing rift between Turkey and its NATO allies in the West.

“The contract on the S-400 to Turkey is being executed within the agreed timeline,” said Alexander Mikheyev, chief of Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state weapons exporter.

“In 2019, we will begin to fulfil this contract,” Interfax news agency cited him as saying on Tuesday.

Last year, the chief executive of S-400 manufacturer Rostec said the missile system deliveries would start in 2020.

Rosoboronexport also said it would switch to using local currencies in deals with foreign trade partners instead of using the US dollar, RIA news agency reported.

$2.5bn deal

Turkey will be the first NATO member state to acquire the advanced Russian surface-to-air missile system in a deal worth $2.5bn, Rostec’s Sergei Chemezov told Russian newspaper Kommersant in December.

The S-400 system, incompatible with NATO systems, is touted as being able to engage aerial targets within a 400km range.

US military officials and politicians have expressed concerns over Turkey’s intention to buy the Russian missile system.

The United States in recent weeks imposed sanctions against Turkey in an effort to effect the release of a US pastor allegedly linked to plotters of the country’s failed 2016 military coup.

The sanctions have played a role in sending Turkey’s economy into a tailspin.

Image: Kirk Mckoy/Getty Images

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals just freed five circus animals — well…kind of.

The animals pictured on boxes of Barnum’s Animals Crackers have been released from their cages after PETA pressured Nabisco to redesign the snack’s box art. 

According to a report from the Associated Press, PETA sent a letter to Nabisco’s parent company Mondelēz International in 2016 criticizing the box art that it said glorified the use of circus animals. 

“Given the egregious cruelty inherent in circuses that use animals and the public’s swelling opposition to the exploitation of animals used for entertainment, we urge Nabisco to update its packaging in order to show animals who are free to roam in their natural habitats,” PETA wrote in the letter, according to the AP.

The company reportedly took what PETA said into consideration, and just recently made the change. The new boxes have started rolling out, and the animals are pictured cage-free and out in the wild. PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman celebrated the change, telling the AP, “The new box for Barnum’s Animals crackers perfectly reflects that our society no longer tolerates the caging and chaining of wild animals for circus shows.”

While Nabisco reportedly didn’t really fight the issue much, the new change has gotten mixed reactions from Twitter. 

Some are here for the new box art, and praised PETA for its advocacy:

Other users feel that it was an unnecessary change:

Regardless how folks feel about the redesign, at least the crackers stayed the same. 

Two days after shocking allegations surfaced that #MeToo leader and Harvey Weinstein accuser Asia Argento had sex with an underage boy and paid him hush money, the Italian actress finally responded: “I strongly deny” the claim, she said in a statement.

Her statement appeared on Twitter Tuesday, posted by New York magazine writer Yashar Ali. She decried the allegations, hinted she might take unspecified legal action, and lamented she is the victim of “long-standing persecution.”

“I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false,” her statement opened. “I never had any sexual relationship with (Jimmy) Bennett.”

Argento’s statement said that her late boyfriend, Anthony Bourdain, considered her accuser “dangerous” but decided Bennett’s need for money was worthy of “compassion.” 

She said Bourdain, who committed suicide in June, helped arrange to pay Bennett $380,000. She did not mention Bourdain’s suicide or what role, if any, her arrangement with Bennett may have played in his death.

Bennett, a former child actor-turned-rock musician who is now 22, had just turned 17 when he claims he and Argento, then 37, had sex in a hotel room in Marina del Rey near LAX in 2013, according to a stunning New York Times story posted Sunday.

The paper said the story was based on an encrypted email the reporter received from an unknown source; it contained documents about the settlement between Argento and Bennett and her lawyer over his demand for compensation, and included a selfie of the two in bed. 

The story said Bennett approached Argento in 2017 shortly after she went public with her accusation that Weinstein raped her, becoming one of the first women to do so. She thus called world-wide attention to herself and helped to set off the #MeToo movement to call out sexual abuse by powerful men in multiple industries, especially Hollywood. 

Bennett and Argento were former cast mates in a 2004 movie she wrote, directed and starred in; Bennett was 7 and was cast as her son in the film. 

Argento, who declined to comment to the Times when its story was published and did not return calls from USA TODAY on Monday, portrayed Bennett as opportunistic and in desperate need for money, having sued his own relatives for millions for allegedly mishandling money he earned as a child actor.

Argento acknowledged in her statement that she was “linked” to Bennett by “friendship only.”  That ended when her role in accusing Weinstein became public in October 2017 and Bennett “unexpectedly made an exorbitant request for money from me.”

Her statement said Bennett knew Bourdain and “perceived” that he was wealthy with a reputation to protect. 

“Anthony insisted the matter be handled privately, and this was also what Bennett wanted,” the statement said. “Anthony was afraid of the possible negative publicity that such person, whom he considered dangerous, could have brought upon us.

“We decided to deal compassionately with Bennett’s demand for help and give it to him. Anthony personally undertook to help Bennett economically, upon the condition that we would no longer suffer any further intrusions in our life.”

Argento’s statement, which may have been originally composed in Italian, said that this latest development “of a sequence of events” brings her “great sadness and constitutes a long-standing persecution.”

She said she had no other choice but to “oppose such false allegations” and will seek “all necessary initiatives” for my protection before all competent venues.”

So far, Argento’s lawyer, Carrie Goldberg, has not responded publicly to the allegations, even though the encrypted email the Times said it received included private messages between the lawyer and her client. 

Bennett’s lawyer, Gordon Sattro, also has declined to comment, saying his client would continue to focus on his music. 

But the allegations against Argento are already having some consequences. The #MeToo movement was stunned by the Times story, then rushed to reassure supporters that the movement is bigger than one accuser or one story. 

But if the alleged encounter between Argento and Bennett actually did happen, it was a crime and the statute of limitations in California for child sexual abuse has not yet run out. 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the police agency for Marina del Rey, said Monday there has been no report filed but detectives are aware of the reports and are looking into the matter.

“To date, the LASD has not located any police report alleging criminal activity within our jurisdiction in relation to this incident,” according to a statement posted online by Capt. Darren Harris of the Sheriff’s Information Bureau. “The LASD’s Special Victims Bureau is attempting to reach out to the reported victim and/or his representatives in an effort to appropriately document any potential criminal allegations.”  

 

 

 

 

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. – While concerns about a potential eruption of the supervolcano beneath this iconic park may garner the most alarming headlines, a more likely hazard in the coming decades is a large earthquake.

“The biggest concern we have for Yellowstone is not with the volcano, it’s with earthquakes,” said Michael Poland, scientist-in-charge at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, a consortium of eight organizations led by the U.S. Geological Survey. “This is an underappreciated hazard in the Yellowstone area. There can and there will be in the future magnitude-7 earthquakes.”

On average, Yellowstone experiences 1,500 to 2,500 earthquakes a year, most of them so small they can’t be felt. But large quakes can – and have – occurred in the not-too-distant past.

On Aug. 17, 1959, a magnitude-7.3 earthquake rocked the park, killing 28 people when a massive landslide pummeled into a campground. More than 80 million tons of rock fell, blocking a river and forming a lake, aptly named Earthquake Lake, that remains today.

At the time, the quake was the second-largest to occur in the lower 48 states in that century. It remains the largest historical earthquake in the Intermountain West, a region between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada to the west.

 

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Compared to even a minor eruption of Yellowstone’s supervolcano, the threat of an earthquake on a similar scale happening again is more likely.

“That’s something that happens on a human life scale,” Poland said. But unlike a volcano, large earthquakes don’t show warning signs. “We can say where they are likely to occur, but we can’t say when.”

The hazards posed by a large quake today would be greater than what happened nearly 60 years ago due to a higher influx of visitors, especially in the summer. More than 4 million people visit Yellowstone every year, with peak visitation in July and August.

“It would be a lot worse today with more people in the area,” said Jamie Farrell, a geology professor at the University of Utah.

Yellowstone sits in a rural area with few roads. If one road goes out, it creates a huge detour, Farrell points out. If two roads become impassable, sometimes you can’t even get there by car.

“The good thing is that Yellowstone is one of the best seismically monitored regions in the world,” he said.

More than 40 seismic stations with the University of Utah continuously record the Earth’s movements in and around the Yellowstone region and report it back to the National Park Service.

“We can’t predict them, but by looking at past data, these earthquakes tend to cluster in areas,” Farrell said. “Given what’s happened in the past, we can give a probability of having an earthquake over the next X amount of time.”

Minor earthquakes rattle the park pretty much every day. But visitors wouldn’t know it: The quakes are so small, they’re only picked up on seismographs. 

Scientists watch those quake swarms diligently, keeping a close eye on the timing, location and depth. “We’re well aware there is a potential, because it’s a dynamic system, that we might want to actually move people away from an area or close an area,” said Jeff Hungerford, the park’s geologist.

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The Yellowstone system has two main contributors to its earthquakes: the volcanic system, which puts stress on the crust, and the tectonic system, which is represented here by an area of active stretching of the crust from east to west. 

The earthquakes also play an important role in helping keepgeysers like Old Faithful rumbling. “We need this seismicity to keep these beautiful features alive because they clean the throat of many of our geysers and pools,” Hungerford said.

In addition to a major quake causing landslides and damaging or collapsing buildings and bridges, there’s another hazard: It could trigger a hydrothermal explosion, a mixture of hot water, hot mud and rocks that could injure people if they happened to be nearby at the time.

As for a large earthquake triggering a volcanic eruption: While that is possible, a lot of things would need to already be in play. The 1959 quake, for example, didn’t trigger a volcanic eruption.

“In order for a large earthquake to trigger a volcanic eruption, you probably already need to have an eruption almost ready to happen,” Farrell said.

Regardless, Farrell said visitors shouldn’t be on high alert for a geological event of any sort.

“We like to talk about these big, grandiose things happening like big earthquakes or large volcanic eruptions, but those are highly unlikely events,” he said. “You’re in much more danger driving to Yellowstone than you would be by any of these things happening while you’re there.”

 

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England’s Jos Buttler reaches his maiden Test century with a four as England dig in against India on day four of the third Test at Trent Bridge.

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Move over, Love Island.

A new dating show is coming to town and we can only hope it’s going to be as refreshing as it sounds.

While dating shows on TV are always drama filled and generally fun to watch, they also tend to focus almost exclusively on dating between straight people.

The Bi Life will be the title of the new dating show on E! UK and Ireland, focusing on bisexual+ dating, meaning dating between people who identify as bisexual, pansexual or questioning. It will the the first dating show in the UK to focus exclusively on the bisexual+ dating experience. 

Coming to our screens in October, the ten-part show will send a group of singles looking for love to Barcelona to party, date, and “navigate the rocky road of bisexual+ dating,” according to E!

The show will be hosted by drag queen Courtney Act, who is perhaps best know as a contestant in RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“In 2018 we know that sexuality is fluid and sharing the stories and experiences, the laughter and the love making, of young bi people is so important,” Courtney Act told E!.

Kim Sanders, Head of Media Engagement at the UK LGBTQ rights organisation Stonewall, told Mashable The Bi Life is an important step in the right direction for bisexual people. 

“It’s great to hear there will be a new dating show about bi people,” says Sanders. “Representation is so important, especially for bi people who continue to be seriously underrepresented in mainstream media.”

“We hope this show will breakdown harmful stereotypes as well as exploring the unique challenges that bi people face when it comes to dating, whether that’s having to come out to their partner or using dating apps that force you to pick a gender,” says Sanders. 

Up until now, bisexual representation on dating shows has been rare — apart from the occasional bisexual contestant on mainstream dating shows. 

Only a few modern dating shows have been centred around bisexual dating, an example being MTV’s 2007 reality dating show A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, where both men and women competed to date the bisexual television personality. Earlier this year Australia got its first bisexual dating show What’s your Flava?

We are so ready to obsess over every interaction on The Bi Life. 

Is it October yet?