The Big Idea
The Big Idea: Global partnerships
The College of Agriculture develops collaborations with partners around the world through International Programs in Agriculture, ongoing research with academic mentors, shared interests and expertise discovered at conferences or via colleagues, global fellowships and so on.
Read MoreThe Big Idea: Living with forever chemicals
PFAS are used in many consumer products, but may have impacts on human health. See how they enter the environment and what you can do about it.
Read MoreThe Big Idea: Preventing foodborne illness
Keeping a crop like cantaloupe safe for consumers is complicated. Find out how producers manage it.
Read MoreThe Big Idea: Fighting a plant pandemic
Plant disease requires three things to establish in a crop: a host susceptible to a pathogen, the presence of a harmful pathogen and the environmental conditions favorable for infection.
Read MoreThe Big Idea: What makes a species invasive?
The Big Idea: What makes a species invasive? How do we know when a non-native species has established itself?
Read MoreThe Big Idea: Nanoparticles
The Big Idea: The Microbiome
The Big Idea: Hydroponics & Aquaponics
Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is a broad term covering several methods of growing plants in enclosed spaces year-round, where inputs like light, temperature, water and nutrients can be controlled.
Read MoreThe Big Idea: How Climate Projections are Made
The Big Idea: How Climate Projections are Made How do scientists roughly predict the climate in 50 or 100 years? Teams around the world have developed over 30 complex mathematical models to simulate the interconnected workings of Earth’s atmosphere, land, oceans and ice sheets. They use the models’ projections based on different trajectories for the…
Read MoreThe Big Idea: Epigenetics
“It’s in their DNA,” we say about qualities people appear to have inherited or that seem essential to who they are. But how we become who we are is not that simple, because genes are expressed or repressed. Epigenetics is like the performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner before a big game. The song is the same, but sounds different based on the expression of the performer, as these variations of the national anthem illustrate.
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