Autonomous robots to help modernize grape, wine industry | Cornell Chronicle

The robots will roll through vineyards and gather data to allow breeders and growers to evaluate their crop leaf by leaf, in real time, down to the chemical level.

Grape genetics research reveals what makes the perfect flower | Cornell Chronicle

Cornell scientists have worked with the University of California, Davis, to identify the DNA markers that determine grape flower sex. In the process, they also pinpointed the genetic origins of the perfect flower.

Worm-like, soil-swimming robots to measure crop underworld | Cornell Chronicle

A Cornell project funded by two separate three-year grants will develop worm-like, soil-swimming robots to sense and record soil properties, water, the soil microbiome and how roots grow.

Community conservation reserves protect fish diversity in tropical rivers | Cornell Chronicle

A collaboration between researchers from Cornell and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that small, community-based reserves in Thailand’s Salween River Basin are serving as critical refuges for fish diversity in a region whose subsistence fisheries have suffered from decades of overharvesting.

Crunchy, complex: Cornell releases three new apples | Cornell Chronicle

This fall, apple lovers can look forward to three new varieties from the oldest apple breeding program in the U.S. — located at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York, part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

USDA grants to fund studies of plant viruses, insecticides | Cornell Chronicle

Two Cornell research teams, studying crop viruses and insecticides’ physiological effects on insects, have received grants totaling nearly $900,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Migrations research highlights human impacts on environment | Cornell Chronicle

Ecologists Aaron Rice and Amanda Rodewald are working with Migrations: A Global Grand Challenge, part of Global Cornell, to understand how human impacts and activities affect animals and the ecosystems we all share.

New soil models may ease atmospheric CO2, climate change | Cornell Chronicle

In Nature Geoscience, Cornell’s Johannes Lehmann says that scientists should develop new models that accurately reflect soil carbon-storage processes to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide.