Agricultural development
The flora is an essential asset for man, since it is a renewable resource and a source of basic products for the agricultural world and for several industrial and commercial sectors. As for many other resources, though, to be able to exploit them as efficiently as he could, man had to apply work and technology to plants and lands. The result was the development of farming. The basic role of farming is to produce more and more food and raw materials (wood and fibres).
Until the 1950s, farming was mainly based on the conservation of the organic matter contained in the soil, which made the plants grow and reproduce. This goal was achieved by following some simple rules that were passed on from one generation to the next: for instance, the rotation of cultivations and the periodical rest of the land or the fertilisation of the soil with manure.
Since the Fifties, the need to obtain more and better crops urged the industrialised countries to develop modern farming methods which are more and more dependent on external help (machinery, fertilisers, irrigation systems, plant chemicals, etc.) and which are based on very specialised cultures (growing of single species).
Special reports
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
18 May 2011
Artificial photosynthesis
The history of science and technology is packed with discoveries and inventions inspired by nature...
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1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
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8 March 2021
8 March. We remember Rosalind Franklin, the great female DNA scientist.
DNA was first isolated by Friedrich Miescher, a Swiss biochemist in 1869. It was a brilliant, but not complicated operation:…
27 February 2021
In search of the riders of icebergs
International Polar Bear Day, set up by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organisation, was held on 27 February. The aim…
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2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
18 May 2011
Artificial photosynthesis
The history of science and technology is packed with discoveries and inventions inspired by nature...
-
1 September 2019
What language does science speak?
Do you remember the game called “Chinese whispers”? All the participants had to stand in line and the game started…
-
2 July 2014
A hoax? No thank you, I prefer to find out myself!
In Italian, bufala: a hoax, also means a female buffalo...
-
30 July 2020
Holidays, yes! but they must be sustainable!
We have been speaking of sustainable behaviours to apply to our daily life, but what happens when we unplug and…
-
18 May 2011
Artificial photosynthesis
The history of science and technology is packed with discoveries and inventions inspired by nature...
From the Multimedia section
Facts
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CO2 “eating” trees
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Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
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The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
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The tree and the truffle
Truffles are hypogean (underground) fungi which grow in the presence of particular trees such as oaks, holm oaks and willows,…
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23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
If a tree “eats” CO2 and produces oxygen it is easy to understand the importance it has in reducing the…
16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…
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13 May 2011
The Christmas tree tradition
People tell that in Germany, at Christmas Eve, Saint Boniface cut an oak and in that place...
16 May 2011
The myth of olive trees
The ancients used to say: the Mediterranean begins and ends with...
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23 February 2012
CO2 “eating” trees
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16 May 2011
Energy from palm trees
Oils that are obtained from palm trees can be used as alternatives to fossil fuels and their use is about…