According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aquaculture in the United States represents a $1.5 billion industry annually. Like land-based farming, shellfish aquaculture requires healthy seed production in order to maintain a sustainable industry. Aquaculture hatchery production of shellfish larvae — seeds — requires close monitoring to track mortality rates and assess health from the earliest […]
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The King Climate Action Initiative (K-CAI) is the flagship climate change program of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), which innovates, tests, and scales solutions at the nexus of climate change and poverty alleviation, together with policy partners worldwide. Claire Walsh is the associate director of policy at J-PAL Global at MIT. She […]
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Using a pair of sensors made from carbon nanotubes, researchers from MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have discovered signals that reveal when plans are experiencing stresses such as heat, light, or attack from insects or bacteria. The sensors detect two signaling molecules that plants use to coordinate their response to […]
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The state rebates and federal tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act are helping, but the main reason heat pumps are being adopted so quickly, this story suggests, is that once one household installs a heat pump as proof of concept—often despite strong initial skepticism—everyone else wants one. From the Times: “Ten years ago, they […]
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Nike’s competitive advantage is not in its products but in its brand. Nike spends most of its time and energy putting together ad campaigns featuring the swoosh. A generic gray shirt might sell for $10, but the same shirt made in the same factory with a swoosh printed on it sells for three times more. […]
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A bill that aims to provide municipal property tax relief to Alaska farmers cleared the Senate on Monday, March 18, with unanimous support from lawmakers. The bill, Senate Bill 161, is sponsored by Nikiski Republican Jesse Bjorkman and changes the way tax breaks and exemptions for Alaska farmers are structured. The legislation would expand an […]
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Hydrosocial displacement refers to the idea that resolving water conflict in one area can shift the conflict to a different area. The concept was coined by Scott Odell, a visiting researcher in MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI). As part of ESI’s Program on Mining and the Circular Economy, Odell researches the impacts of extractive industries […]
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When it comes to global climate change, livestock grazing can be either a blessing or a curse, according to a new study, which offers clues on how to tell the difference. If managed properly, the study shows, grazing can actually increase the amount of carbon from the air that gets stored in the ground and […]
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Farming can be a low-margin, high-risk business, subject to weather and climate patterns, insect population cycles, and other unpredictable factors. Farmers need to be savvy managers of the many resources they deal, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides are among their major recurring expenses. Despite the importance of these chemicals, a lack of technology that monitors […]
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