Scientists in Kansas believe Kernza could cut emissions, restore degraded soils and reshape the future of agriculture

On the concrete floor of a greenhouse in rural Kansas stands a neat grid of 100 plastic plant pots, each holding a straggly crown of strappy, grass-like leaves. These plants are perennials – they keep growing, year after year. That single characteristic separates them from soya beans, wheat, maize, rice and every other major grain crop, all of which are annuals: plants that live and die within a single growing season.

“These plants are the winners, the ones that get to pass their genes on [to future generations],” says Lee DeHaan of the Land Institute, an agricultural non-profit based in Salina, Kansas. If DeHaan’s breeding programme maintains its current progress, the descendant of these young perennial crop plants could one day usher in a wholesale revolution in agriculture.

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© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute

© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute

© Photograph: Jason Alexander/The Land Institute

Ancient plants called cycads say “come hither” in infrared.

Teaching methods | Holly stripped bare | Cricket in state schools | Flat Earth Society physics prize | Impact School of Motoring

As a retired teacher with family and friends who are still in the profession, I must take exception to John Harris’s assertion that our current method of education consists of “standing in front of 30 kids and shouting at them for an hour” (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December). At no point in my career would this have been regarded as an acceptable method of teaching any children, regardless of their individual needs or learning styles.
Jane Caley
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

• Susie White was lucky to find holly with berries (Country diary, 8 December). The one in my front garden had had the inner berries eaten by wood pigeons some time ago, and now the rest have gone – after a flock of redwings took the ones at the ends of the branches that the fat pigeons couldn’t get to. Not a single flash of scarlet remains.
Copland Smith
Whalley Range, Manchester

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© Photograph: Ableimages/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ableimages/Getty Images

© Photograph: Ableimages/Getty Images

As the days grow shorter and darkness descends, tropical varieties can struggle. But there’s a clever fix that nature can’t provide

The problem
In the dark days of winter, the whole house is darker, days are shorter, skies are greyer and our tropical houseplants receive far less light than they would in their natural habitat. Leaves fade and growth slows as plants struggle to photosynthesise.

The hack
Grow lights offer a clever fix, topping up what nature can’t provide. But with prices ranging from £15 to £100, are they really worth it?

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© Photograph: Dima Berlin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dima Berlin/Getty Images

© Photograph: Dima Berlin/Getty Images

Only four donors have transmitted rabies to organ transplant recipients since 1978, according to federal officials.

© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.

© Francesca Jones for The New York Times

Every four years at the Cybathlon, teams of researchers and technology “pilots” compete to see whose brain-computer interface holds the most promise.

© Francesca Jones for The New York Times

At an international conference, researchers at the forefront of animal-human transplantation compared notes and allowed themselves the first real optimism in decades.

© Kevin Serna for The New York Times

The device could help a million people with a severe form of macular degeneration to be able to see enough to read.

© Science Corporation