The availability of nitrogen is one of the major limiting factors to crop growth. In the developed world, farmers use unsustainable levels of inorganic fertilisers to promote crop production. In contrast, in the developing world inorganic fertilisers are often not available and small-holder farmers suffer the resultant poor yields. Finding alternatives to inorganic fertilisers is critical for s...

How photosynthesis by Precambrian cyanobacteria oxygenated Earth’s biosphere remains incompletely understood. Here it is argued that the oxic transition, which took place between approximately 2.3 Gyr and 0.5 Gyr ago, required a great proliferation of cyanobacteria, and this in turn depended on their ability to fix nitrogen via the nitrogenase enzyme system. However, the ability to fix nitrogen...

Nitrogen heteroarenes form an important class of compounds which can be found in natural products, synthetic drugs, building blocks etc. Among the diverse strategies that were developed for the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles, oxidative dehydrogenation is extremely effective. This review discusses various oxidative dehydrogenation strategies of C-C and C-N bonds to generate nitrogen heteroar...

Introduction The rate at which Acacia koa (koa) stands develop has important implications for koa plantation forestry and the use of koa in ecosystem restoration. How quickly individual trees grow, how growth rate changes over time, and how stands self-thin is not well understood. Development of koa stands may differ from that of other trees because koa is a nitrogen-fixing species. Like most l...

Nitrogen fertilizer unabsorbed by crops eventually discharges into the environment through runoff, leaching and volatilization, resulting in three-dimensional (3D) pollution spanning from underground into space. Here we describe an approach for controlling nitrogen loss, developed using loss control fertilizer (LCF) prepared by adding modified natural nanoclay (attapulgite) to traditional ferti...

Atmospheric reactions and slow geological processes controlled Earth's earliest nitrogen cycle, and by ~2.7 billion years ago, a linked suite of microbial processes evolved to form the modern nitrogen cycle with robust natural feedbacks and controls. Over the past century, however, the development of new agricultural practices to satisfy a growing global demand for food has drastically disrupte...

Light and heavy ammonia were decomposed on a clean tungsten foil at 973—1123 K and at PNH3,ND3 ^ 0.2 Torr. The nitrogen uptake and the kinetics of the formation of nitride layers were examined during the course of the reaction. The amount of nitrogen chemisorbed (or the thickness of the nitride layers formed) at higher pressures was found to be appreciably larger from NH3 than from ND3. Additio...

Nitrogen embedded ZnO : N films prepared by pulsed laser deposition exhibit significant ferromagnetism. The presence of nitrogen ions contained in ZnO is confirmed by the secondary ion microscopic spectrum and by Raman experiments, and the embedded nitrogen ions can be regarded as defects. According to the experimental results, a mechanism is proposed based on one of the electrons in the comple...

Eukaryotic hosts must exhibit control mechanisms to select against ineffective bacterial symbionts. Hosts can minimize infection by less-effective symbionts (partner choice) and can divest of uncooperative bacteria after infection (sanctions). Yet, such host-control traits are predicted to be context dependent, especially if they are costly for hosts to express or maintain. Legumes form symbios...