Autonomous farm robots guided by GPS can plant and harvest multiple crops in close proximity, enabling beneficial interactions between different plants and potentially boosting biodiversity. Strip cropping, which involves partitioning fields into narrow bands containing different plants, is a common farming practice. Now, robotic technology is making it possible to space crops closer together than ever before. Kit Franklin at Harper Adams University, UK, who is working on trials of this method, says one can think of it as taking the diverse planting approach that an allotment gardener might and scaling it up massively with autonomous machinery. This could enable commercial farms to stop planting vast, non-biodiverse fields and reap the benefits of mingling plants with different needs and mutually beneficial habits, he says.

Autonomous farm robots guided by GPS can plant and harvest multiple crops in close proximity, enabling beneficial interactions between different plants and potentially boosting biodiversity. Strip cropping, which involves partitioning fields into narrow bands containing different plants, is a common farming practice. Now, robotic technology is making it possible to space crops closer together than ever before. Kit Franklin at Harper Adams University, UK, who is working on trials of this method, says one can think of it as taking the diverse planting approach that an allotment gardener might and scaling it up massively with autonomous machinery. This could enable commercial farms to stop planting vast, non-biodiverse fields and reap the benefits of mingling plants with different needs and mutually beneficial habits, he says.

If a tree falls in Peru's rainforest, Greg Asner can tell you what kind it was. Asner, an ecologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University, uses artificial intelligence and a powerful spectral imaging method to map the rainforest in unprecedented detail. By identifying each tree species by its chemical composition, he has shown the rainforest is more diverse than anyone thought. Asner's map takes the guesswork out of protecting one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and pinpointing new areas for conservation. "It's really advancing our ability to save forests and curb climate change," he said.