What the research actually says about soil, fungi and food
New findings on growing systems, soil science, fungi, food systems and climate, written plainly. Every claim is checked against the paper it cites before it publishes, and the check is printed next to it. No takes, no hype, no citations that turn out not to exist.
11 articles · 244 claims support-checked · 565 references verified against Crossref
- Neuroscience6 min read
ManyBabies 3 Found No Sign of Infant Rule Learning. That Is the Result.
A 30-lab pre-registered replication found no evidence that infants learn abstract rules from syllable sequences, with Bayesian support for the null.
ManyBabies 3 tested 839 infants aged 5 to 12 months across 30 laboratories in a pre-registered conceptual replication of a 1999 study that reported abstract rule learning in 7-month-olds. Looking times did not differ significantly between test trials consistent and inconsistent with the rule, and a Bayesian analysis indicated strong evidence for a null effect. None of the pre-specified moderators, including age, multilingualism, or paradigm, changed this. The result constrains what the original finding can mean, but it does not show that infants are incapable of learning rules.
- Mycology5 min read
A Strawberry Blight Trial We Cannot Actually Read
The strawberry trial behind this headline is not in the evidence base, so its specific claims cannot be checked.
The topic describes a protected-cultivation trial in which a foliar microbial consortium suppressed Phomopsis leaf blight in strawberry and changed plant biochemistry. None of the thirteen sources provided is that trial, or any trial on strawberry or Phomopsis. What the sources do support is the general plausibility of the mechanism, and a well-documented gap between biocontrol results in controlled conditions and results in the field.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
One Trial, One Grass, One Place: What Piggery Sludge Did for Signal Grass in Papua New Guinea
One six-month trial in Papua New Guinea found piggery sludge raised signal grass yield and soil nutrients, but copper, lead, cadmium and chromium exceeded standard limits.
A single field trial in the humid lowlands of Papua New Guinea applied solid piggery sludge at 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 tonnes per hectare to signal grass and harvested after six months. Yields and soil nutrient measures rose sharply at the two highest rates, and the authors recommend 5 tonnes per hectare. The same trial found copper, lead, cadmium and chromium above standard permissible limits, and reported metal accumulation in soil and biomass. With one site, one season and no mineral fertiliser comparison, the yield result is a lead worth following, not a settled practice.
- AI & Computing5 min read
Robotic Dental Implant Surgery Is More Accurate Than Free-Hand. Whether That Helps Patients Is Unproven.
A meta-analysis of seven randomized trials finds robotic implant surgery more accurate than free-hand, but no proven patient benefit.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials, covering 529 implants, found robotic computer-assisted implant surgery places implants closer to the pre-surgical plan than free-hand surgery, at moderate certainty. Against dynamic navigation it showed a high-certainty angular advantage, but no significant difference in platform or apical deviation. Comparisons with static guided surgery were non-significant and rested on a single small trial. The review found no evidence that better positional trueness translates into better clinical or patient-reported outcomes, and operating-time evidence was too weak to draw any conclusion.
- Biology5 min read
Molecular UTI Tests Find More Bacteria. Whether That Helps Patients Is Still Open
A systematic review of 12 studies finds PCR-based UTI tests beat culture on sensitivity but lack specificity, with only two small trials and heavy industry funding.
A 2025 systematic review identified 12 studies of molecular urine testing in adults, only two of them randomised controlled trials. PCR-based tests were more sensitive than standard urine culture but not specific, and in both trials the results guided antibiotics that reduced symptoms at 28 days. Both trials and half the prospective studies were funded by the companies that developed the tests. The review concludes that clinical outcome data remain too limited to establish a role for these tests.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
More nitrogen lifted jute fibre yield, up to 140 percent of the recommended dose, in one field, in one season
In a single-season Bangladesh field trial, 140 percent of the recommended nitrogen dose gave the highest jute fibre yield, while higher doses cut harvest index.
One field experiment at Kishoreganj, Bangladesh, tested six nitrogen rates on jute variety BJRI Tossa Pat-8 over one growing season. Fibre yield peaked at 140 percent of the recommended dose (112 kg per hectare) and fell at 160 and 180 percent. Plants kept growing taller and leafier at the highest dose, but harvest index dropped, meaning a smaller share of the plant ended up as fibre. The result rests on one site, one season and one variety.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A Pot Trial in Telangana: Rice Microbes and Nitrogen Under Drought
A single pot trial in Telangana found a three-strain rhizobacterial consortium with reduced nitrogen fertiliser held rice nitrogen use efficiency and yield under water deficit.
One 2024 pot experiment in Warangal, India crossed six microbial inoculation treatments with two soil moisture levels in rice. A tripartite bacterial consortium given with 75 percent of the recommended nitrogen dose preserved rhizosphere diversity, sustained nitrogen-cycling enzyme activity and improved nitrogen use efficiency and grain yield relative to an uninoculated control under water deficit. The authors say the result needs open-field confirmation. No effect sizes, replication counts or comparisons against a full-rate nitrogen control appear in the abstract.
- Food Systems6 min read
Little millet grew best between young Casuarina trees. The soil claim is thinner than that.
A three-cycle trial found little millet the best of six millets grown between young Casuarina trees, but the soil and land-equivalent claims rest on thin data.
A field experiment intercropped six millet species in a young Casuarina junghuhniana plantation over three crop cycles. Little millet gave the highest dry matter, grain yield, land equivalent ratio and net income; kodo millet performed worst. The soil fertility result compares intercropped plots only with trees grown alone, not with sole millet, and the abstract reports no values or statistics for it. It is a single-site trial with three blocks, so the results are a lead, not a settled recommendation.
- Agriculture & Soil6 min read
One field, one season: what the manure-depth trial actually shows
A one-season trial on saline soil found manure cut salinity and pH, with deeper, mixed application working best.
A single-season field experiment in Jilin Province, China, tested three manure rates, three application depths and two placement methods on saline silty loam planted to corn. It found that 40 tonnes per hectare lowered electrical conductivity and pH relative to control plots, and that deeper, mixed application lowered conductivity further. The study measured only electrical conductivity, pH and bulk density, after one harvest, at one site. It reports no yield, no second year and no mechanism.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
A Quarter Less NPK, Same Maize Yield, in One Field for One Season
In one season on an acidic Indonesian Ultisol, fermented oil palm fruit bunch liquid replaced a quarter of the NPK dose without losing maize yield.
A single field trial in Bengkulu, Indonesia tested whether fermented oil palm empty fruit bunch liquid could substitute for mineral NPK on hybrid maize. Replacing 25 percent of the NPK dose held grain yield and nitrogen uptake; replacing 50 percent held yield but cut nitrogen uptake by 13 percent; replacing 75 percent cut yield. The trial ran one season at one site with four replications and reported no cost analysis, so the economics that motivated the study remain untested.
- Agriculture & Soil5 min read
Manure Cut Fertilizer Needs in a Shallot Trial. One Season, One Field, One Soil.
One season of field data from Indonesia suggests manure can replace part of inorganic NPK in shallot without losing yield, and may improve storage.
A single-season trial on an acid Ultisol in Bengkulu, Indonesia, tested composted cattle manure at 10 tonnes per hectare combined with 100, 75, 50, 25 or 0 percent of the recommended NPK rate, against a full-NPK reference with no manure. Manure plus 75 percent NPK gave the highest fresh bulb yield, 18.3 percent above the reference, and manure plus 50 percent NPK matched the reference while cutting storage weight loss from 22.2 to 15.1 percent after eight weeks. The trial was not replicated across sites or seasons, and the abstract reports no mechanism for the storage effect.
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