The Agricultural Reference Index for Drought, or ARID, used more than 100 years of climate data to reasonably predict drought levels in crops on several farms in Florida and Georgia. Scientists say its implications are far wider. If growers know when their crops need the most water, they can plant accordingly, said one researcher.

New research overturns common ideas about the different types of climate changes between the middle latitude areas of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Scientists demonstrate that satellite-collected data can accurately measure aquifer levels, a finding with potentially huge implications for management of precious global water sources.

The world’s first technology to control specific protein functions in living cells by using lights has been developed, which may be useful in future cancer cell research. The research group has found that this technology allows scientists to inactivate critical biological phenomena, including cell migration and cell division, by using only lights, and without the assistance of chemical drug treatments or genetic modification.

European wheat production areas have to prepare for greater harvest losses in the future when global warming will lead to increased drought and heat waves in southern Europe, and wet and cool conditions in the north, especially at the time of sowing, researchers warn. More frequent extreme weather conditions in Europe also threaten global food security since it produces almost a third of the world’s wheat.