7 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 6 hours ago by C C.)
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124104
INTRO: Rice has historically been a heat-loving plant. In fact, the wild ancestor of cultivated rice once grew primarily on the sweltering, rain-swept Malay and Indochina peninsulas as well as the islands of Southeast Asia. It wasn’t until Earth’s climate warmed after the last ice age that wild rice substantially spread into central China and South Asia, where it was independently domesticated by humans in two events that arguably rank among the most important in the history of our species.
Rice fueled many of the earliest civilizations and remains a virtually indispensable source of food in the modern world. Today, half of all humans get 20% of their calories from rice, and more than a billion people are reliant on the production and distribution of rice for their livelihoods.
That might be about to change. Scientists warn that over the next 50 years, global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases will accelerate to a pace that is 5,000 times faster than rice, and many other crop species, have ever had to contend with at any time during their evolutionary history.
Left to its own devices, even rice — with its proclivity for heat — would almost certainly be unable to keep up. With the help of humans, who carefully breed and genetically engineer new varieties, it’s possible rice will be able to cope. But, said Nicolas Gauthier, curator of artificial intelligence at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the best-case scenario is not something anyone’s looking forward to... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03108-0
INTRO: Rice has historically been a heat-loving plant. In fact, the wild ancestor of cultivated rice once grew primarily on the sweltering, rain-swept Malay and Indochina peninsulas as well as the islands of Southeast Asia. It wasn’t until Earth’s climate warmed after the last ice age that wild rice substantially spread into central China and South Asia, where it was independently domesticated by humans in two events that arguably rank among the most important in the history of our species.
Rice fueled many of the earliest civilizations and remains a virtually indispensable source of food in the modern world. Today, half of all humans get 20% of their calories from rice, and more than a billion people are reliant on the production and distribution of rice for their livelihoods.
That might be about to change. Scientists warn that over the next 50 years, global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases will accelerate to a pace that is 5,000 times faster than rice, and many other crop species, have ever had to contend with at any time during their evolutionary history.
Left to its own devices, even rice — with its proclivity for heat — would almost certainly be unable to keep up. With the help of humans, who carefully breed and genetically engineer new varieties, it’s possible rice will be able to cope. But, said Nicolas Gauthier, curator of artificial intelligence at the Florida Museum of Natural History, the best-case scenario is not something anyone’s looking forward to... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03108-0