Wild red deer contribute to the preservation of open landscapes

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) mother and calf.

Similar to farm animals such as cattle or sheep, wild red deer grazing in open landscapes can also contribute to the conservation of protected habitats.

FG concessions 19 silos, to earn N6b annually from deal

There Federal Government (FG) has handed over 19 silos located in 18 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to six concessionaires for storage of food at a sum of six billion naira annually. The handover of the silos was done by the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, in Abuja, recently.

Ministry sets up committee to review project performance

* Director commends Fadama programme

The Director, Project Coordinating Unit (PCU), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Dr. Maimuna Habib 

·    A 40-man committee has been set up by the government to review the Climate Change Adaptation and Agric Business Support Project (CASP).

Scientists determine four personality types based on new data

Northwestern University researchers have sifted through data from more than 1.5 million questionnaire respondents and found at least four distinct clusters of personality types exist: average, reserved, self-centered and role model. The findings challenge existing paradigms in psychology.

Great chocolate is a complex mix of science, physicists reveal

Mixing chocolate.

The science of what makes good chocolate has been revealed by researchers studying a 140-year-old mixing technique.

Researchers crack the peanut genome

Soroya Bertioli inspects peanut plants at the UGA Institute for Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics greenhouse.

Working to understand the genetics of peanut disease resistance and yield, researchers led by scientists at the University of Georgia have uncovered the peanut's unlikely and complicated evolution.

Broccoli sprout compound may restore brain chemistry imbalance linked to schizophrenia

Broccoli sprouts.

In a series of recently published studies using animals and people, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have further characterized a set of chemical imbalances in the brains of people with schizophrenia related to the chemical glutamate. And they figured out how to tweak the level using a compound derived from broccoli sprouts.

Mathematician's breakthrough on non-toxic pest control

A University of Sussex mathematician, Dr Konstantin Blyuss, working with biologists at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, has developed a chemical-free way to precisely target a parasitic worm that destroys wheat crops.

Running may have made dinosaurs' wings flap before they evolved to fly

Caudipteryx robot for testing passive flapping flight.

Before they evolved the ability to fly, two-legged dinosaurs may have begun to flap their wings as a passive effect of running along the ground, according to new research by Jing-Shan Zhao of Tsinghua University, Beijing, and his colleagues.

Ayahuasca fixings found in 1,000-year-old bundle in the Andes

Today's hipster creatives and entrepreneurs are hardly the first generation to partake of ayahuasca, according to archaeologists who have discovered traces of the powerfully hallucinogenic potion in a 1,000-year-old leather bundle buried in a cave in the Bolivian Andes.