Since Monday, the 13th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) is taking place - for the first time completely digitally. This year, the international conference on key issues for the future of global agricultural and food policy focuses on pandemics and climate change. Among the more than 2,000 participants are around 90 ministers of agriculture.

The consequences of malaria continue to kill around 650,000 people every year - mainly children under the age of five. Although there are effective drugs against the infectious disease, many cannot afford them. However, that could soon change. A team led by biochemist Peter H. Seeberger of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam has developed a chemical process that makes the production of artemisinin, the most important antimalarial agent, not only sustainable but also inexpensive.

Many plants need animals to eat their fruits in order to spread their seeds. To prevent the seeds from being destroyed during digestion, many of them form a slimy protective shell. This sheath also forms independently of digestion as soon as the seeds come into contact with water. A team of researchers from Kiel University has now discovered that the stability of the mucus membrane depends heavily on tiny fibres that bind the mucus to the seed.

Microorganisms are used in and for many biotechnological processes, including the production of chemicals and drugs. They offer a sustainable and often more efficient alternative to processes that were previously mostly fossil-based. In order to draw attention to the diversity of microbes and their enormous potential for many different applications, the members of the Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM) elect the "Microbe of the Year" every year. For 2019, they have chosen the species of Magnetospirillum.

In light of the growing world population and dwindling resources, we can no longer afford to simply throw away food. And yet, according to a study by the environmental foundation WWF Germany, ten million tons of food end up in Germany's garbage every year - often for fear of spoiled goods. However, many foods are edible for much longer than the best-before date suggests. To limit this wasteful behaviour, Fraunhofer researchers have developed a pocket-sized food scanner that detects whether food is spoiled.

Nearly nine years ago, in 2010, breast implants made of cheap industrial silicone caused a scandal in medical technology. The case occupied the courts for many years and also focused on the issue of biocompatibility for biomedical materials. These materials are used for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes in or on a patient's body. Therefore, high demands are placed on their safety - but standardized, comprehensive and rapid evaluation methods are still lacking.

Time and again, oil spills happen on the world's oceans and even rivers. Oil spills are an extreme environmental pollution that can destroy entire ecosystems and the living organisms within them, from microorganisms to sea birds. Previous approaches to contain or absorb oil spills have not been very efficient. Until now, the most promising ones are chemical agents that bind the oil and then sink it to the ground. However, in that case, the pollution has only disappeared from our view, not from the ecosystem.

There is a huge and seemingly ever-growing market for cosmetics. Men and women of all ages are using countless products to improve or protect their skin and to style their hair. However, the ingredients of many of these products are still fossil-based petrochemicals.

117 kilograms of lettuce, 67 kilograms of cucumbers, 46 kilograms of tomatoes, 19 kilograms of kohlrabi, 15 kilograms of herbs and 8 kilograms of radishes - these are the preliminary results after one year of vegetable farming in perpetual ice.