Steve

a stunningly clear day

This article does a good job explaining how far the NFL has come and also the limitations for us understanding if helmets are safe 'enough'

"twisting trauma" is also very weird and scary

Inside the quest to make a safer football helmet New energy-absorbing designs and materials have revolutionized the iconic safety device

180 g !!!! www.science.org/content/arti...

My ancestors (Germans from Russia) brought Russian thistle to the US in the late 19th century in contaminated flaxseed shipments. It was first found in Bon Homme County, SD, where I worked as a crop scout one summer. Seed shattering+brittle stem is one of the coolest dispersal mechanisms out there

My favorite annual weed species

USDA Price Indexes 1-20-26 Update

Fertilizer prices have been going wild but it looks a bit different if you zoom out a bit

substack.com/app-link/pos...

Ansel Adams in the age of ICE - High Country News Ansel Adams took one of his most famous nature photos while documenting the American citizens of Japanese ancestry who were imprisoned at Manzanar during World War II. Our country is both the darkness...

Ansel Adams took one of his most famous nature photos while documenting the American citizens of Japanese ancestry who were imprisoned at Manzanar during World War II. Our country is both the darkness and the light. We are called to bear witness, and to respond.

Seed mix performance and species network roles as a framework to select candidate key resources for pollinator habitat Current native bee declines have been attributed in part to loss of habitat and floral resources. Mitigation approaches include trying to establish or enhance bee habitat by planting wildflowers, whi...

"It is possible that diverse plantings with few attractive species benefit bee communities less than simpler mixes with crucial plant species included... tailored selection of host plant species may be essential for seed mix design"
doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

How Artisan Grains Helped Skagit County Rebuild Its Economy When the last local pea processing plant closed in this part of Washington state, the county’s port commission invested millions to help farmers pivot to high-value grains.

“We thought if we could get specialty wheat to grow here, you could get more per bushel. It turns out to be true.” civileats.com/2026/01/26/h...

Decided at the last minute that it would be good to re-tie some trees to their trellis, and the snow started to arrive just as I was walking out of the orchard

I listen to the Current, a music station from Minnesota Public Radio, just about every morning, and I suggest tuning in today if you want to listen to some power music (my term) or music that meets the moment (their term) www.thecurrent.org/listen

"Unlike in the bulk soil, distinct differences between the pea and canola rhizosphere bacterial communities were observed regardless of cropping system. These results demonstrate that plants have a great level of control over the members of their rhizosphere..." doi.org/10.1002/ecs2...

YouTube video by Apple Music Bad Bunny Takes the World’s Biggest Stage | Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show (Official Trailer)

this looks so so good www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFKL...

Food will be more affordable — if we double funds for agriculture research now A global drop in public and private investment in agricultural science in the past four decades is partly to blame for high food prices, an analysis reveals.

"Countries need to be increasing their rates of annual investment in agrifood R&D just to sustain the current rates of growth in farm productivity. It will take decades for the harmful consequences of current R&D spending slowdowns to be realized" www.nature.com/articles/d41... // archive.is/mMTrb

How much energy can be produced on global land currently used for liquid biofuels? Bar comparison showing energy per year from land currently used for liquid biofuels: Biofuels for transport — 1,400 TWh per year; Solar panels on the same land — 32,000 TWh per year. Side annotations: 31,000 TWh shown for context as the amount of electricity the world generated in 2024; 7,000 TWh per year shown as the amount of electricity the world would need to power all of its cars and trucks if they were electric. Note: This assumes the world uses 32 million hectares of land to grow crops for liquid biofuels, based on net land use which subtracts land allocated to co-products such as animal feed, and assumes solar PV uses 1 hectare of land per GWh. Data source: Energy Institute; Cerulogy; Ember; and author calculations. Chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

The world dedicates a Poland-sized area of land to producing liquid biofuels such as bioethanol & biodiesel. Is there a more efficient way to generate energy?

Putting solar panels on the land used for biofuels, e.g., would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks worldwide to go electric.

here is the paper doi.org/10.1016/j.at... and a video about this type of robot www.youtube.com/watch?v=qevI...

Inflatable robot arm picks apples "The uncomplicated nature of the design makes it low-cost, easy to maintain, and highly reliable for a soft robot."

this is very cool and weird www.futurity.org/robot-arm-pi... I'm sure if it is ever brought to market (apple picking robots have been on deck for a long time) it will be sold as a service with a per-acre fee

headed to the Virginia Association of Biological Farming conference this weekend in Roanoke

Denmark’s Groundbreaking Agriculture Climate Policy Sets Strong Example for the World Denmark’s Green Tripartite Agreement imposes taxes on livestock, restores forests and peatlands, and pays farmers to reduce pollution.

Hey here’s a policy from Denmark we (and others) SHOULD be emulating:

Are the Apple Farmers Alright? - Offrange People aren’t eating apples like they used to, but flashy new cultivars may not be the solution.

“All those apples are being largely overlooked in a quest for some new sameness... The ‘same thing but new’ seems to be trumping ‘it’s different but old.’” ambrook.com/offrange/cro...

Graduate Student: Here's the latest draft of my proposal, I've been working really hard-
Associate Professor: I'm gonna need you to floss all of these mice

Dirt discovery could lead to better climate change projections New research shows soil carbon decomposition varies widely. The finding has implications for climate change models.

"These geochemical and microbial metrics drive a lot of variability, and we haven’t included them adequately in previous modeling work" www.futurity.org/soil-carbon-...

Falcons reduce pre‐harvest food safety risks and crop damage from wild birds In the absence of American kestrels, there are more birds in orchards. This leads to increased crop damage and more bird faecal contamination.

Falcons reduce pre‐harvest food safety risks and crop damage from wild birds | Journal of Applied Ecology doi.org/10.1111/1365...

Global carbon emissions will soon flatten or decline With China’s surge in renewable energy, greenhouse gases are reaching a turning point

"Efforts to boost oil and natural gas production and suppress renewable energy in the U.S., although accounting for just a sliver of global CO2 output, were enough to postpone [peak carbon emissions]...” www.science.org/content/arti...

A large, old pecan tree on a warm winter day

Enjoyed some (unseasonable) warmth this afternoon, following an exceptionally cold start to December

The Farmers Trying to Ditch Plastic - Offrange Solving agriculture’s plastic problem isn’t easy — particularly for organic farmers — but some growers are finding ways to be less wasteful.

"Reliance on plastic is an unfortunate reality of modern farming. One September 2025 study estimated that US farmers account for 2.7% of the country’s plastic use, going through nearly 1.6 million tons every year" ambrook.com/offrange/sus...

Invasive grasses do not always exhibit superior and faster plant life-history traits in the introduced range than in the native range Many invasive plants are larger, and produce more seeds in populations from the introduced range compared to those from their native range. Annual invasive plants might also benefit in their introduce...

🌱From NeoBiota: Common garden tests show invasive grasses do not consistently grow faster or reproduce more in new ranges, challenging simple trait based explanations of invasion success. (Jennifer L. Funk)
▶️ neobiota.pensoft.net/article/1628...
#PlantScience

I was looking at lora to put some sensors in my orchard a few months ago but lost steam on that project. Very interested if you're able to share what kind of gateway and server you're using (i.e., what are you using to access sensor data?)

The entire glyphosate (Roundup herbicide) saga is an appalling example of politicized science and motivated reasoning. Now key anti-Roundup papers AND key pro-Roundup papers have been retracted. Worse, I'd be willing to take odds that partisans of both sides will be completely unbothered by this.