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Despite international breeding efforts, advanced agronomy and effective management of pests and diseases, sugarcane yields have been static for decades owing to constraints on culm development. The culm’s sugar storage capacity is physically limited, restricting the volume of sucrose and biomass that can be obtained from the crop for sugar and ethanol production, according to experts in the area. 

An infrared look by NASA's Terra satellite found powerful storms in the center of Tropical Storm Shanshan, the newest tropical storm in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. Shanshan has triggered warnings in the Marianas Islands. 

Valerie Stull was 12 when she ate her first insect.

“I was on a trip with my parents in Central America and we were served fried ants,” she says. “I remember being so grossed out initially, but when I put the ant in my mouth, I was really surprised because it tasted like food — and it was good!”

Hurricane Hector has a small, tight center surrounded by strong storms. Infrared satellite imagery provides temperature data, and when NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Hector the coldest cloud tops circling the center were compact.

When people think of the Arctic, snow, ice and polar bears come to mind. Trees? Not so much. At least not yet.

A new NASA-led study using data from the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) shows that carbon in Alaska's North Slope tundra ecosystems spends about 13 percent less time locked in frozen soil than it did 40 years ago. In other words, the carbon cycle there is speeding up -- and is now at a pace more characteristic of a North American boreal forest than of the icy Arctic.