This study reviews the use of extrusion in processing wheat-based products. It highlights that extrusion parameters—such as temperature, pressure, die size, and shear rate—significantly influence the microstructure and nutritional properties, including starch gelatinization and protein denaturation. These findings suggest that extrusion can enhance nutrient retention and drive product innovation, addressing challenges in traditional wheat processing.

Agricultural fertilizers are critical for feeding the world’s population, restoring soil fertility and sustaining crops. Excessive and inefficient use of those resources can present an environmental threat, contaminating waterways and generating greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Agricultural Science & Technology have addressed those challenges with glass fertilizer beads. The beads control nutrient release, and the researchers say they’re environmentally compatible.

Highly valued economically, ecologically and culturally, the white oak (Quercus alba) is a keystone forest species and is one of the most abundant trees across much of eastern North America. It also faces declining seedling recruitment in many parts of its range.

In a paper published in New Phytologist, researchers representing the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, Indiana University, the University of Kentucky, the U.S. Forest Service and several more institutions describe for the first time the species’ complex genome, providing insights into fundamental questions about plant evolution, tree breeding and genetic improvement efforts that could help forest managers plan for and address future forest resources.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers have succeeded in establishing a method for producing recycled liquid fertilizer that contains high concentrations of phosphorus.

In regions where it hardly ever rains, water is valuable, and access to it is unequal. One such place is Alto Hospicio in Chile, located in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert region. Now, researchers have tested if making water from fog could be a solution to the city’s troubled water supply. Using fog collectors, they found that up to 10 liters per square meter each day could be collected; enough to supplement water needed for drinking, irrigation, and agriculture.