In 2015, when Benjamin Tay came back to Singapore after his studies in Australia, he got smacked by the worse transboundary haze event in Southeast Asia. “The haze was all around Indonesia, Malaysia, and way up to Philippines. It was quite bad.” He shared with me on a phone call. …

Who decides what you eat? There’s a whole team behind it. — There is an easy way to make people healthy: give them advice about what to eat. These can range from the general “eat five fruits and veggies a day” to more precise and complex recommendations such as “consume 300 micrograms of folic acid a day”. The first piece of advice…

How a World of Warcraft bug could provide insights into the world’s latest epidemic. — On the 13th of September, 2005, there broke out one of the worst plagues ever seen in the virtual world. The plague happened in World of Warcraft, a popular mass multiplayer online role play game or MMORPG. This affected the gameplay of about 4 million players worldwide. The disease started…

First we learned the world was round. Now we’re learning how to flatten it. — For millennia, humans believed that the Earth was flat. The Egyptians thought the Earth was a disc floating in an endless ocean, covered by a solid dome of sky. Ancient Chinese believed that the Earth was a large square under a circular heaven. …

Today’s plants won’t survive forever. Here’s how we’re growing plants for the future. — Eight billion people make for a lot of mouths to feed — a lot of rice, corn, and wheat. Which are the most cultivated and consumed crops around the globe. For these crops to produce enough food for our growing appetite, it is necessary to always improve their yield, make…

Deciding which species to keep and which to discard? Maybe there’s a simple answer — About ten thousand years ago, a hunter-gatherer nomad tamed some wild plants. It’s unlikely he knew it, but this was the first step of a long technological progression. It allowed our ancestors to settle down and build the foundations for today’s civilization. And we have never looked back. Today, croplands…

Ordovician life, the importance of dirt, and tips for being a lazy gardener — Dirt. Brown, crumbly, possibly wet, and bound to leave streaks on white surfaces. For most city people, dirt is more or less anathema. We definitely don’t want it around us. Dirt is dirty. But the thin layer on the ground that many call dirt is, in fact, very valuable for…

Will the leguminous Prince find her? And what root will he take? — Once upon a time, there was a Sleeping Beauty. She had waited for years, floating in a thin layer of water and surrounded by giant rocky aggregates. This Sleeping Beauty is not a princess imprisoned in a castle and surrounded by a moat full of water. She is a soil…

Magnificent forests, cute animals, edible plants, all were at the centre of a debate between more than one hundred country delegates including countries hosting a large amount of humanity natural heritage and countries hosting industries threatening wildlife. …

Peatlands are areas where partially decayed vegetation and organic matter accumulate. There are located in humid places and acid soils where microorganisms cannot decompose the dead vegetation. The accumulation of dead organic matter is a slow process, but because it is ongoing for centuries, peatlands can be as deep as…

We know it contributes to deforestation and kill orangutans, but we need it… Here are 10 facts about oil palm. — 1) Oil palm causes deforestation in the tropics Oil palm strives in the tropics so human beings grow it there. Unfortunately, the tropics are also a biodiversity hotspot with tropical forests and precious wildlife. Farmers and large private companies cut the forest down, destroying habitats rich in biodiversity, to plant oil palm and make profit. There is no…

Milk, your ever first drink ! Do you remember the time you were breastfed by your lovely Mom ? Probably not. Now the only milk you drink is most likely coming from an adorable cow. A cow having a happy life or a cow having a shitty life. If the…

Land degradation is a worldwide issue affecting more than 3.2 billion. When the land is degraded through soil erosion, salinization or pollution, it loses its wildlife and its ecosystem services. In the future, it will be important to rehabilitate degraded landscapes and seascape to restore their productivity. Moreover, land restoration…

Walking on the beach Recently, I learn that my playground was full of edible and healthy food. When I say playground, I am not talking about a forest or a meadow, my playground is the rocky coastline of Brittany in the northwest of France. On these granite rocks, green, red and brown algae are…

Want to use land wisely? Then analyse the ‘skin’ of the Earth — It was the seventh of December, 1972. That was when Planet Earth’s wireless, remote-controlled selfie camera, the Apollo 17, turned around and took the first ever photo of the entire planet at once. …

Deciding which species to keep and which to discard? Maybe there’s a simple answer — About ten thousand years ago, a hunter-gatherer nomad tamed some wild plants. It’s unlikely he knew it, but this was the first step of a long technological progression. It allowed our ancestors to settle down and build the foundations for today’s civilization. And we have never looked back. Today, croplands…

Rice, wheat, potato, maize, there is not much more on the menu today. These four crops make up for 60% of all plant-based aliments human beings eat today. And less than one hundred plant species compose 90% of the energy we consume. …

What is the most sustainable lifestyle to conserve the limited Earth resources? People who don’t eat meat may argue that it’s vegetarianism because it reduces greenhouse gas emission from livestock production. Moreover, this diet saves large areas of land and litres of water not used to cultivate livestock feed. Other…