Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant growth, and nitrogen fertilization and is often used in agriculture in the developing world and in organic process farming in wealthy countries. But organic farmers have to worry about yield also, and that has led to overuse and misuse that has resulted in the accumulation of surplus nitrogen in soil and its eventual migration to soil layers and groundwater.

It won't surprise you to learn that people have different metabolisms and body types. Some people can eat a lot and stay thin, others have to struggle to keep pounds off.

While there is no "obesity" gene, it is the time of year when epidemiologists talk about it anyway. One such gene that has been causalated to obesity is FTO and a new paper suggest a physically active lifestyle can change that genetic determinism. 

Yes, if you exercise and burn more calories, you will lose weight.

Trainers of dogs, horses, and other animal performers take note: a bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica has been induced to perform only a single trick, but it's a doozy. Berkeley Lab researchers are using M. thermoacetica to perform photosynthesis - despite being non-photosynthetic - and also to synthesize semiconductor nanoparticles in a hybrid artificial photosynthesis system for converting sunlight into valuable chemical products.

A new review provides intriguing insights on parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, in snakes.

Interestingly, facultative parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction in an otherwise sexually reproducing species, appears to be quite common among snakes and may represent a potentially important feature of vertebrate evolution. On the other hand, obligate parthogenesis--when organisms exclusively reproduce through asexual means--is extremely rare in snakes.

While researchers' understanding of these reproductive phenomena is in its infancy, the review provides the necessary first steps for investigating the origin and evolution of parthenogenesis in snakes.

The biomedical sciences rarely provide full protocol, data, and necessary level of transparency to verify or replicate studies, according to an analysis of papers published between 2000 and 2014 to determine the extent researchers report key information necessary for properly evaluating and replicating published research, including availability of protocols, data, and the frequency of published novel or replication studies.

The results: 1 out of 441 articles drawn from across the biomedical literature provided a full protocol and no paper made all the data available. The majority of studies didn't state funding or conflicts of interest and replication studies were very rare.

Researchers have taken what they hope will be the first step toward preventing and reversing age-related stem cell dysfunction and metabolic disease, including diabetes, which affects 12.2 million Americans age 60 and older, according to the National Council on Aging.