We may earn a commission from links on this page.Vegetable plants are expensive. To get the best yield out of them, you need to pay attention to more than just the soil, sun, and watering. You need to get your plants off on the right foot by planting them the right way. Here's what I mean. Choose the right plant at the nursery Credit: Amanda Blum When I first started gardening, I thought the best vegetable starts to buy were the ones that were the biggest, with flowers and fruit already on them. This would give the plant a head start, right? Sadly, no. Plants go through something called "transplant shock" when you move them. You’re disturbing the plant's roots, and moving it to a new environment. To survive, the plant needs to focus all its energy on the plant's roots, and if there's a lot of plant matter like leaves, flowers, and fruit to support, energy is wasted supporting them. Plants with established fruit, in particular, struggle during the transplant process. Choose plants that look healthy, with strong stems and leaves without damage, but that don't yet have flowers or fruit. Prepare your soil Credit: Amanda Blum There are legions of ways to handle your garden from season to season. Some people till the soil, while others employ a no-till method, and still others use something called "chop-and-drop." Regardless of the method, the soil you’re planting into has to be pliable enough that roots can flourish in them. For that reason, ensure that the soil is turned over and broken up—from a shovel to a shovel and a half’s depth. You can use a broadfork for this, if you don’t want to disturb the soil structure, but otherwise, just use a shovel. Breaking up the soil will help you see the texture—so you can add sand if the soil has too much clay in it, or compost if it isn't holding any moisture. You can use this time to add amendments such as vegetable fertilizer and lime. Fertilizer is obvious, but lime is used to turn your soil less acidic, which happens over time through watering and growing. Most vegetables don’t enjoy acidic environments. Turn the amendments into the soil. Choose an overcast dayYour plants will already be stressed by transplanting. Planting them into the blazing sun is even more stress. A stretch of overcast days is the perfect planting time. If that's not an option, plant at twilight to give your plants a night to adjust. Consider giving the plant some shade the next day to help it acclimate.Get the plant out of the pot without damaging the roots Credit: Amanda Blum By the time plants reach the nursery, they’re often root-bound in the plastic pots or six packs you buy them in. Roots are resilient, but you don’t want to disturb them more than necessary. The best way to break a plant free from a plastic pot is to use two fingers and squeeze the bottom of the pot. This should free the plant. Don’t turn the pot over or pound on it with your palm, and definitely don’t try to pull it loose by the plant’s stem.  on the left, the eggplant seedling just out of the pot, and on the right, after the roots have been broken up Credit: Amanda Blum Once the plant is out, you want to break up the roots by using your fingers like a comb on the bottom of the plant, so that roots are freed. That said, these plants do not enjoy their roots being disturbed: cucumbers, beans, pumpkins, luffa, beets, and most root vegetables. For these, I simply dig a hole, remove the plant from the plastic tray, carefully plop the plant in, and walk away.  Separate plants as necessary Credit: Amanda Blum Most pots have more than one seed in each cell. In some cases, like tomatoes, someone usually culls the seedlings so only one is left to flourish. However, in some cases, like herbs and lettuce, nurseries leave the seeds alone and let multiple seeds grow. In other cases like onions and carrots, the cells are purposely overseeded to be filled with lots of seedlings. Strawberries usually come in a pot of five to 10 starts.  If you take a cell of onion seedlings out, you can separate them by diving the block in half over and over again, until you have individual seedlings. Credit: Amanda Blum When there’s more than one seedling, you need to separate them. You shouldn’t try to plant them altogether. For lettuce or herbs, this is simple: Remove one cell, and with your fingers, gently pull the soil pod apart. Start by pulling the pod in half, and then keep dividing until all the seedlings are free. This works on larger plants like squash, and smaller plants like carrots where there can be 20 or more seedlings in a single cell. Once the individual seedlings are free, they can each be planted as if they’re a whole plant. This is how you get a whole row of carrots or onions. This is also a great way to save money, since you usually get far more than six lettuce heads from a six-pack of lettuce. Know the right depth Credit: Amanda Blum Plants need to go in the ground at the right depth, ensuring that the base of the plant is at soil level. In some cases, though, you can (and should) plant the stem deeper.Leeks and onions, for example, can be planted deeply. In particular, leeks can be planted as deeply as possible, with only an inch or two of seedling above the surface of the soil. This will help blanch the leek (keep it white). Tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers can be planted deeply, as they’ll form roots along their entire stem. If your tomato is leggy (tall with little horizontal branching), this is a spectacular way to fix the problem. When in doubt, follow the directions on the plant tag, or simply plant at a standard depth so the roots are covered, but the stem is exposed above the soil. Don’t mulch against your stemsWhile mulch is an important part of insulating your vegetable plants and keeping moisture in the ground, it’s also a way to spread pathogens. You want to ensure plants have a few inches of clearance between them and the mulch. Keep your labels or make new ones Keep those plant tags. Credit: Amanda Blum In the melee of planting, it’s common to lose your plant tags. After all, a tomato is a tomato. However, you’ll be sad at the end of the season when one tomato does spectacularly and another doesn’t, and you don’t know what variety each was. Label your plants! 

In March, technologies were put through a live demonstration inside an abandoned mine, where the rover and its support equipment ran under field-like conditions.   Image: KIGAM Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An abandoned mine has reopened its doors–not for miners, but for scientists. The Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) is converting a former mine shaft in Taebaek City into a research facility to test and validate technologies for extracting lunar resources. The plan involves partnering with Taebaek City to transform the site into a large-scale demonstration complex for space technologies. Taebaek City was once renowned for its coal production. When coal dominated South Korea’s energy mix, the city supplied roughly 30 percent of the nation’s total output and earned the nickname “black-gold city.”  But as the energy landscape shifted, its mines shut down one by one. This closure led the city to look for new paths to revitalization. Scientists saw potential in these abandoned shafts, redefining them as experimental sites that can simulate lunar-like conditions.  Dr. Kim Kyeong-ja, director of KIGAM’s Space Resources Exploration and Utilization Center, explained why the team selected an abandoned mine for the new research and demonstration facility: “Subsurface regions and caves on the moon are relatively shielded from radiation and meteorite strikes, so they are leading candidates for future lunar bases. An abandoned mine on Earth can replicate those conditions and serve as an ideal proving ground for the technologies we need,” she said. “A coal mine’s perpetual darkness and stable temperature closely match the sunless environment beneath the lunar surface.” Dr. Kim also stressed the cost-effectiveness of reusing existing infrastructure. “If we didn’t have a site like this, we’d have to build a dedicated facility, and that would consume a great deal of energy and resources. Because the essential structures are already in place and can be adapted with minimal modification, we can conserve both funds and materials.” KIGAM’s rover, equipped with its own Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system, is purpose-built to survey and map resources on the Moon. Image: KIGAM Scientists Dream of Mining Lunar Resources Researchers working in the mine will focus on demonstrating a range of technologies for extracting and utilizing resources directly from the moon.  The moon is believed to hold sizable quantities of key resources that are scarce on Earth. A prime example is helium-3, often cited as a potential future clean energy source. Fusion reactions that use deuterium and helium-3 generate virtually no radioactive waste, making helium-3 a potential source of environmentally friendly power. While only trace amounts exist on Earth, the moon is estimated to contain more than a million tons.  A KIGAM official explained, “Helium-3 is lightweight and takes up little space, so a large quantity can be shipped from the moon in a relatively small volume compared with metallic ores, making it highly economical. It is the resource we should prioritize returning to Earth.” Rare-earth elements are another set of resources potentially available on the moon. They are vital to sectors such as semiconductors, displays, and batteries. These elements are unevenly distributed on Earth, yet they are thought to be relatively plentiful on the moon. KIGAM says it is working to develop technologies for locating and extracting rare-earth deposits. Before such minerals can be recovered on the moon, the underlying technologies must be proven in environments that mimic lunar conditions. KIGAM is partnering with multiple domestic institutes to design advanced equipment and methods for lunar exploration and extraction. Last March, the institute demonstrated several key in-situ resource-development devices inside the abandoned Hamtae mine shaft. The event was announced as the world’s first use of an abandoned mine as a testbed for rigorously assessing the feasibility and safety of lunar resource-extraction operations. One highlight was a lunar rover designed to traverse the lunar surface and analyze soil. The vehicle can scout the terrain while simultaneously drilling underground to collect samples. Another KIGAM prototype rover carries a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system. The institute has also engineered a device that heats regolith to extract and collect valuable elements. Image: KIGAM LIBS can identify the composition and concentration of more than 50 elements in real time. It does so by blasting the soil with a powerful laser and analyzing the resulting plasma light.  During a live demo, the rover drove over a mock lunar landscape, collected soil, and used LIBS to analyze its makeup. In the future, LIBS is expected to work alongside a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (KGRS) to build comprehensive maps of lunar resources. KIGAM has already produced an elemental map of the lunar surface using the KGRS on Danuri, South Korea’s first lunar orbiter. Beyond mining, work is accelerating on In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) technologies that would enable astronauts to generate vital supplies on the moon. At the mine, KIGAM demonstrated a resource extractor built to remove essentials such as water or oxygen from lunar regolith. The device concentrates solar energy to heat the soil to extreme temperatures, breaking it down at the molecular level and releasing usable materials. During the test, it detected hydrogen, oxygen, and argon in real time. Dr. Kim noted, “With this technology, we can identify any substance with an atomic weight under 200.” Many other core technologies essential to space resource development will also be showcased at the site. They range from CubeSats that survey minerals and provide communications in low lunar orbit to heat-pipe reactors for continuous probe power and wireless power-transfer systems on the surface. Partners include the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), and Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER). However, researchers caution that replicating the lunar environment inside the mine still requires considerable effort. A KIGAM official explained, “We are still on Earth, and the differences start with gravity.” They added, “Our aim is to make the environment even closer to real lunar conditions by installing zero-gravity chambers or vacuum pumps in the center.” KIGAM intends to finish developing roughly 10 major pieces of exploration equipment by 2029 in partnership with government-funded institutes and private firms. Dr. Lee Pyeong-koo, president of KIGAM, said: “I find it profoundly gratifying that at the very place where we once mined the coal that fueled our nation’s economic growth, we are now embarking on research to bring helium-3 from the moon to Earth, potentially as a fusion fuel by 2100.” The story was produced in partnership with our colleagues at Popular Science Korea.

The world is awash in data about, well, the world — thanks to satellites and environmental sensors. But there’s still a lot we can’t see, and Fieldstone Bio thinks microbes can change that. “They’ve evolved to sense and respond to information. It’s just trillions of calculations going on at all times all around us,” Brandon Fields, Fieldstone Bio’s co-founder and chief science officer, told TechCrunch. “How do we take that and actually manipulate that to gain benefits for us?” Fieldstone’s technology emerged from that question. The startup was founded in 2023 after spinning out of MIT, where professor Chris Voigt’s lab had developed a way to turn microbes into sensors. The scientists programmed the microbes to change color when they encountered something of interest, whether it be nutrients in soil or landmines hidden in the dirt, and then figured out how to detect them. “The key technology out of Chris’ lab is this idea of, ‘How do we actually visualize these cells from really far away?’” Fields said. Fieldstone Bio recently raised $5 million in seed funding led by Ubiquity Ventures with participation from E14 and LDV Capital, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The startup has been testing its technology in the lab, and the funding will let it test those microbes in the real world. Each strain is tailored to sense a particular compound, such as nitrogen on a farm field or TNT residue from a landmine.  “We isolate microbes from the environments we want to sense,” Fields said. “We build our sensors the DNA pieces, and we just drop them into these different ones and see which ones behave the best, which ones can last the longest.” Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Once the microbes are ready, Fieldstone will broadcast them using drones. After the microbes have some time to sense their environment — several hours to days, depending on the target — the company will have another drone snap photos of the area. The images aren’t the usual aerial photography seen on Google Maps. Rather, they’re taken using what’s known as a hyperspectral camera, which divide visible and infrared light into as many as 600 different colors. Because Fieldstone’s microbes will reflect light at a very specific wavelength, it can train AI models to look for those signals amid a torrent of data. “That’s where the power of AI comes in, because we can start using that information to tease out these really faint signals to produce really cool heat maps of the microbe sensing the environment,” Fields said. In addition to agriculture and national security applications, Fieldstone is also programming microbes to detect environmental contaminants like arsenic, CEO Patrick Stone said. “Instead of going to do core soil samples over every 100 feet — and then you have 100 foot resolution — we could get a one-inch resolution and really map out exactly where they need to go clean up stuff,” he said. Gene edited microbial sensors broadcast over farm fields are sure to raise the eyebrows among people who oppose genetic modification. Fields said that the company has been in contact with the EPA to ensure that the company follows regulations. Fields said that, over time, he hopes the company’s database will become large enough that it can train models to associate other signals in the environment with whatever data is returned by the microbes. That would allow hyperspectral cameras to detect, say, arsenic contamination without needing to spread the engineered microbes. “Eventually, you don’t need to apply the microbe at all,” Fields said. “You have drones, planes, and satellites now collecting information about chemical information on a global scale.”

WASP, an Italian manufacturer of large-scale 3D printing systems for sustainable construction, has partnered with Columbia University’s Natural Materials Lab to support the fabrication of Earthen Rituals, a clay-based installation presented at the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture. The piece is located in the Arsenale’s “Natural” section and will be accessible to visitors until November 23. Earthen Rituals installation on display at the 19th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Photo via WASP. Columbia’s Natural Materials Lab has been using WASP’s 40100 LDM ceramic 3D printer as part of a research project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The research focuses on earth and fiber-based building materials. For this latest installation, the lab relied on WASP’s Residency Program to carry out production under a tight schedule. Researchers used the WASP 40100 Production system, designed for continuous custom manufacturing, and the 3MT LDM system equipped with a high-density continuous feeding unit. The project involved the 3D printing of hundreds of earth tiles, made from a mixture of construction waste soils and agricultural by-products. The formulation process drew on a “kitchen approach” informed by vernacular construction methods, including Terracruda (Italian), Lehm (German), Toub Laban (Arabic), and Udongo (Swahili). A digitized process converted earthen textures into printable code. Visual and structural references in the installation include techniques such as rammed earth, weaving, basketry, and figurine-making. Lighting and olfactory elements were integrated into the structure. WASP 40100 LDM extrudes earthen paste during tile fabrication. Photo via WASP. Earthen Rituals is framed by its authors as a response to extractive practices, colonial legacies, and global environmental crises. The project outlines three methodological approaches: ceremonial (relating to the interaction between hands, tools, and machines), radical (accepting the variable and porous characteristics of raw materials), and devotional (linking scientific rigor with critical design methods). Project lead Lola Ben-Alon is affiliated with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP). Additional contributors from the Natural Materials Lab include Associate Research Scientist Olga Beatrice Carcassi and Adjunct Research Scientist Penmai Chongtoua. Graduate assistants who participated in the project are Keenan Bellisari, Christopher Tillinghast Sherman, Trella Isabel Lopez, Kelechi Iheanacho, Neil Potnis, Sherry Aine Chuang Te, Nikoletta Zakynthinou Xanthi, and Amani Makee Hill. WASP acted as the technical collaborator, hosting the team at its facility in Italy and providing access to its latest 3D printing technologies. Detail of 3D printed earthen tiles showing layered textures and voids. Photo via WASP. WASP’s prior applications in sustainable and architectural 3D printing At Formnext 2024, WASP introduced a range of technologies focused on material reuse and large-scale additive manufacturing. Highlights included a recycling station for plastics, a multicolor extrusion system, and geopolymer-based construction modules developed with Eindhoven University. The company also presented a 100 m² low-carbon building prototype created by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) using a Crane WASP 3D printer and locally sourced soil. Additional displays featured coral reef restoration modules 3D printed in collaboration with rrreefs using the WASP 40100 Production system and Liquid Deposition Modeling (LDM) technology. These modules were printed live at the event. In early 2025, Japanese architecture studio Aki Hamada Architects constructed a 3D printed rest facility for Expo 2025 in Osaka using WASP’s Crane Stand Alone system. The installation, one of 20 rest stations commissioned for the event, included prefabricated panels, cylindrical washbasins, and planter-benches made from a mixture of clay, straw, seaweed glue, pigments, and magnesium oxide hardener. Stone shapes from across Japan were 3D scanned to generate the printed geometries, which were tested for stability and adjusted to meet overhang tolerances. Production took place in Toyama, with elements transported to the Expo site and installed onto timber frameworks using embedded wooden inserts. Ready to discover who won the 20243D Printing Industry Awards? Subscribe to the 3D Printing Industry newsletter to stay updated with the latest news and insights. Featured image showcase Earthen Rituals installation. Photo via WASP. Coral reef 3D printing in alliance with rrreefs. Photo via WASP. Anyer Tenorio Lara Anyer Tenorio Lara is an emerging tech journalist passionate about uncovering the latest advances in technology and innovation. With a sharp eye for detail and a talent for storytelling, Anyer has quickly made a name for himself in the tech community. Anyer's articles aim to make complex subjects accessible and engaging for a broad audience. In addition to his writing, Anyer enjoys participating in industry events and discussions, eager to learn and share knowledge in the dynamic world of technology.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The Ecosia search engine has just come up with a replacement for its tree counter Paul Hill Neowin · May 15, 2025 05:10 EDT The search engine that uses its income to plant trees, Ecosia, has just introduced a seed counter system to help users understand their impact a bit better. Previously, Ecosia used to have a tree counter that increased after a certain number of searches, but it was phased out a while ago to put more emphasis on the collective impact represented in the total trees planted counter. In its announcement, Ecosia said that many users missed the tree counter that used to be present, so it has decided to reimagine the impact counter. The company said that it does more than just plants trees nowadays, so its new impact counter has been designed to reflect this. It said: “Ecosia has always been about turning your everyday digital habits into real climate action — and that action now goes way beyond planting trees. Today, we support farmers who are restoring soil through regenerative agriculture, protect endangered animals and plants in biodiversity hotspots, invest in bold climate tech, and grow renewable energy capacity to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels.” The seed counter will increase daily when you use Ecosia, but if you’d like to save your score more securely, or view it across devices, then you need to make an account and login on your devices. There is no need to make a whole new account, you can just sign in with Google if you want (I know, it’s ironic). Once you’re logged in, you can go to your profile page and see your impact dashboard. You can see your level, which you can increase by getting more seeds, how many seedlings you’ve helped to plant (Ecosia plants 6 per tree to account for failure), how much energy you’ve helped produce via Ecosia’s solar panels, hours of tree care you’ve supported, and your impact on the amount of area restored. The latter two impacts are not unlocked until you reach level 5 and level 10, respectively. You can read in more depth about each of these stats on the help page. Ecosia is not giving up on displaying your collective impact. It has a section under the one mentioned above which says how much money has been raised and where it is being spent. While the new counter is not as simple as the tree counter, the presence of a dashboard is nice as that never existed before. The new setup also better reflects the other ways users are contributing to climate restoration. Switching to Ecosia is relatively straightforward if you want to give it a go. You can install the Ecosia extension for your browser to be switched over, or if you’re on Chrome, you can choose Ecosia from the search providers list - other browsers may or may not have it as a choice, in that case, get the extension. Tags Report a problem with article Follow @NeowinFeed

Fine soil particles once encased in ice were discovered in a cave about 20,000 years after the frozen sheet melted. This sediment is significant both for what it tells us about the past and what it could forecast for the future, according to an article in the journal Nature Geoscience.The sediment found in an Alaskan cave was likely once part of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, which melted at the end of the last Ice Age. Most of that ice — along with the sediment contained within it — ended up in the oceans. Finding traces of it on land is extremely rare.“This is the first evidence of land-based meltwater events from this ice-sheet,” Paul Wilcox, a geologist at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, and an author of the paper, said in a press release. “In a way, the cave acted as a kind of time capsule that preserved the sediments for thousands of years.”Preserving Ice Age LifeTwo aspects of the sediment help tell the story of Ice Age life. First, scientists detected plant pollen within the particles. That provides indirect evidence of biological refuges — even during peak ice coverage “[…] in which plants could survive even under extreme climatic conditions,” Daniela Festi, a pollen researcher with GeoSphere Austria and an author of the paper, said in a press release.The sediment also contained quartz — convenient because the presence of that mineral makes determining the particles’ age possible using a method that can detect when it was last exposed to sunlight. But more importantly, it also shows that the sediment must have been transported quite a distance before being deposited, since the cave is in a limestone region, where quartz would generally be scarce or non-existent.Glacial Meltwater and Climate ChangesDating the sediment allows scientists to look to the past to forecast the future. Although the Cordilleran Ice Sheet almost certainly melted due to a change in the Earth’s position relative to the sun, that alone doesn’t account for the ice’s backward retreat from western North America. Other forces must have contributed.Data from the last Ice Age show signs that glacial meltwater repeatedly pulsed into the North Atlantic. That cycle likely further disrupted the region’s heat and contributed to further warming.“This supports the hypothesis that climate changes in the Northeast Pacific were a prerequisite for the shifts observed in the North Atlantic,” Wilcox said in the release.Understanding how these events happened over space and time could inform us about the future. Continued warming could lead to similar increased freshwater flowing into the oceans. That, in turn, could disrupt circulation systems that impact temperature.The researchers plan to investigate additional Alaskan caves and compare the sediment archives to each other. That could provide a more detailed picture of the past ice sheet’s melting dynamics — and perhaps provide a glimpse into how a similar event could affect climate in the future.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.

Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin has said he wants the federal agency to accelerate scientific safety evaluations of various chemicals, including pesticides. The EPA reportedly has more than 500 pending reviews of proposed new pesticides and more than 12,000 overdue reevaluations of pesticides currently in use. The agency is under pressure from the chemical and agricultural industries to catch up, while health and environmental advocates demand it maintain high safety standards. The review process is careful for a reason – and perhaps the only real method of speeding it up is the one Zeldin has proposed: reassigning staff so there are more people to share the work. As a faculty member at a land-grant university who has studied the effectiveness of commercial and experimental pesticides in the southern U.S., I have seen how the federal pesticide regulatory process identifies risks to humans and the environment and mitigates them with specific use instructions. Here’s how the process works. First, what is a pesticide? The EPA, which regulates pesticides in the U.S., defines a pesticide as any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest, such as weeds, insects and organisms, that attack plants. Pesticides are often referred to as toxins when found in food, water bodies or other places where they are not intended. But just because something is detected doesn’t mean it’s harmful to humans or wildlife. Toxicity depends on how much of the substance a person or animal is exposed to, how they are exposed to it – such as breathing it, or getting it on their skin – and for how long. The Department of Agriculture began regulating pesticides in 1947 with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. Most of the department’s interest was whether a particular pesticide was effective against the target pests. In 1970, the newly formed EPA took over responsibility for pesticides. It shifted its focus to the safety of consumers, farmworkers and the environment after the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act took effect in 1972. Risk-benefit analysis Federal law requires the EPA to evaluate both the risks and the benefits of each pesticide – and to revisit that analysis at least every 15 years for every pesticide used in the U.S. The EPA determines whether the risks to people, animals or the environment are too high for the benefits the pesticide provides and whether any of those risks can be reduced. Sometimes a chemical’s risk can be lessened by recommending mitigation strategies such as wearing protective clothing, reducing environmental spread by barring the use of pesticides near the edges of a property, or decreasing the amount of a pesticide that’s legal to use. In its analysis of any given pesticide, the EPA requires a massive amount of data from the manufacturer about what ingredients the pesticide contains and how they work. The agency also reviews scientific research on the pesticide and uses its own scientists and independent experts to evaluate any studies that were submitted by the manufacturer. The EPA uses all the available data on a pesticide to evaluate the dose that would be toxic to a range of organisms, as well as what residues the pesticide may leave on plants, in the soil and in water. The data is incorporated into computer models that estimate the potential amount of the chemical that may come in contact with humans, animals and the environment. Those models’ results are then combined with toxicity data to determine risk. The models used by EPA scientists are very conservative. They often use significant overestimates of exposure, which means that when the models determine the risk of a pesticide is below a particular level, they are evaluating the risk posed by far higher quantities of the chemical than will ever actually be used. The risk from the amount actually used, therefore, is even less likely to cause harm. The EPA also provides opportunities for public comment on a pesticide and uses that information in its evaluations as well. Additional scrutiny The Endangered Species Act also requires the EPA to evaluate the effects of pesticides on threatened and endangered species. If a pesticide is found to potentially be dangerous to a protected species or its habitat, the EPA will discuss those findings with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforce the Endangered Species Act, and determine what to do to ensure the species aren’t harmed. The law’s requirement to reevaluate each pesticide every 15 years is based on the fact that science evolves and information becomes more precise. New data can shed light on potential risks and benefits, and even lead to pesticides being banned or more closely restricted. Until recently, for instance, pesticide residues on plants, food and in the environment were measured in parts per million. Newer equipment can measure even smaller amounts, determining parts per billion, which is as precise as identifying one single second in 32 years. Some chemicals can even be measured in parts per trillion, equivalent to one drop of water in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. That means exposures can be more accurately measured. While some chemicals can be toxic in very small concentrations, most pesticides can be detected at levels that do not pose a biological risk. Allowing a pesticide to be used If the EPA determines that a pesticide’s risks outweigh its benefits, then its staff will conduct additional analyses to determine how to mitigate the risks enough to justify using it. If that’s not possible, the EPA will reject the application and not allow the pesticide to be used in the U.S. If the agency determines that the benefits outweigh the risks, the EPA approves the pesticide for sale and use in the U.S. The law requires the pesticide come with a label providing a strict set of guidelines for how, when and where to use the pesticide. The guidelines define amounts and timing for applying the pesticide safely, and specific restrictions or protection strategies to control the target pests while eliminating or minimizing harm to the environment, workers and the public. The EPA also makes information on pesticides available to the public, so anyone can find out how to use them safely. Using the pesticide without following those directions is a violation of federal law. Jeffrey Gore is a professor of agricultural science and plant protection at Mississippi State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Think tap to pay — but smarter and safer. Visa is tapping into AI to enhance services for its global network of customers, focused on fraud prevention, personalization and agentic commerce. Sarah Laszlo, senior director of Visa’s machine learning platform, joined the AI Podcast to discuss how artificial intelligence is powering the next generation of payment experiences. Visa processes hundreds of billions of transactions each year, so even small technological enhancements can have a large impact. The company prevents $40 billion in fraud annually. “There’s so much attempted fraud that, even though we’re very good at preventing it, marginal improvements save large dollar amounts,” Laszlo said. AI also powers Visa’s personalization systems, delivering smarter, more relevant offers and recommendations to cardholders. The company’s unique dataset presents a huge opportunity to improve transaction predictions — but also brings privacy challenges. “The key to addressing those challenges is building abstract representations of users — embeddings that capture preferences without exposing private data,” Laszlo said. The company is also working toward agentic commerce — where AI agents help customers with payments. For example, AI agents with access to payment credentials can handle transactions on behalf of consumers, like booking travel arrangements, when instructed. Laszlo shared best practices for enterprises adopting generative AI. She also recommended using open-source models when possible and developing strong relationships between governance and technical teams. In one success story, Visa used GPT-4 to convert legacy code to Python, saving $5 million, with just one engineer completing 50 conversion jobs in a quarter. To learn more, watch Laszlo’s GTC session, The Next Era of Payments: How Generative AI is Shaping the Future. Time Stamps 03:28 – Visa’s priorities for AI use. 07:09 – How Visa optimizes resources using virtual GPUs. 14:42 – AI factories and unified pipelines. 18:52 – Best practices for AI in financial services. You Might Also Like…  NVIDIA’s Jacob Liberman on Bringing Agentic AI to Enterprises Agentic AI enables developers to create intelligent multi-agent systems that reason, act and execute complex tasks with a degree of autonomy. Jacob Liberman, director of product management at NVIDIA, explains how agentic AI bridges the gap between powerful AI models and practical enterprise applications. Firsthand’s Jon Heller Shares How AI Agents Enhance Consumer Journeys in Retail Jon Heller, co-CEO and founder of Firsthand, discusses how the company’s Brand Agents are transforming the retail landscape by personalizing customer journeys, converting marketing interactions into valuable research data and enhancing the customer experience with hyper-personalized insights and recommendations. Telenor Builds Norway’s First AI Factory, Offering Sustainable and Sovereign Data Processing Telenor opened Norway’s first AI factory in November 2024, enabling organizations to process sensitive data securely on Norwegian soil while prioritizing environmental responsibility. Telenor’s Chief Innovation Officer and Head of the AI Factory Kaaren Hilsen discusses the AI factory’s rapid development, going from concept to reality in under a year.