It’s time to include developing nations more holistically in circular economy discussions

Researchers at the University of Oxford have made a discovery about how plants interact with soil bacteria that they claim could eventually help reduce the use of nitrogen fertilisers in farming.  The research, published today in academic journal PNAS, has demonstrated for the first time that pea plants weigh up different bacterial partners in the soil based on their ability to provide nitrogen, and then provide sugar to the best available strains.

Get ready for some big changes at grocery stores and restaurants across the country starting next year. The Liberal government announced this week that a ban on some single-use plastics will go into effect by the end of 2021.
“Your local stores will be providing you with alternatives to these plastic products, like reusable or paper bags in place of plastic,” said Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. Read more

Scientists said on Thursday the fossils include more than 100 dinosaur eggs and the bones of about 80 juveniles and adults of a Jurassic Period plant-eating species called Mussaurus patagonicus, including 20 remarkably complete skeletons. Big John – named after the owner of the land where the dinosaur’s bones were found – roamed modern-day South Dakota more than 66 million years ago.  Goodbye, Columbus: Vikings crossed the Atlantic 1,000 years ago – Long before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, eight timber-framed buildings covered in sod stood on a terrace above a peat bog and stream at the northern tip of Canada’s island of Newfoundland, evidence that the Vikings had reached the New World first. But precisely when the Vikings journeyed to establish the L’Anse aux Meadows settlement had remained unclear – until now.