Two of our best ways of measuring the cosmic expansion rate, the Hubble constant, give answers that are stubbornly at odds. This presents a major problem in modern cosmology known as the Hubble tension.

However, we wondered if an idea originally proposed to solve another cosmic mystery — the origin of cosmic magnetic fields — could help us unlock the mystery of the Hubble tension.

Our recently published research explores whether extremely weak magnetic fields left over from the earliest moments after the Big Bang might help us unpack the Hubble tension, while offering a glimpse into physics at energies far beyond anything achievable on Earth.

The Hubble constant and tension

Astronomers use the Hubble constant as a measure of how fast the universe is expanding. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble who first discovered that the universe is expanding.

There are two conceptually different approaches to measuring the Hubble constant. One is indirect, based on predictions of our cosmological model tuned to match the patterns in the cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang.

Telescopes such as the Planck Space Telescope have measured tiny fluctuations in this ancient light, predicting a Hubble constant of about 67 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/s/Mpc). A parsec is a unit of distance used in astronomy equal to about 3.26 light years, or 30.9 trillion kilometers. A megaparsec is one million parsecs.

The second method is more direct, similar to the one used by Hubble in the 1920s when he first demonstrated that the universe is expanding.

It measures how fast distant galaxies are moving away from our home galaxy, the Milky Way, by observing the brightness of supernovae explosions in these far away galaxies.

Type Ia supernovae are known to be “standard candles” because we know that their luminosity is the same wherever they are. That means we can judge the distance to them from how dim they appear to us.

To determine their intrinsic brightness, astronomers use other standard candles, such as Cepheid stars, in the galaxies nearby. These observations, which use the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, give a higher value of around 73 km/s/Mpc.

This difference between the two measurements is called the Hubble tension. The difference between 67 and 73 may seem small, but it is statistically highly significant. If both methods are correct, then our standard model of cosmology must be missing something important.

Where did cosmic magnetic fields come from?

Magnetic fields are everywhere in the universe. Planets and stars generate their own fields, but gaps in our understanding emerge when we attempt to explain the much larger scale magnetic fields threading galaxies and clusters, and possibly even cosmic voids.

One long-studied possibility is that magnetism first arose in the very early universe, long before the first stars or galaxies formed. These so-called primordial magnetic fields have been studied for decades, and searching for their imprints in the cosmic microwave background and other data offers a way to probe the early universe and the extreme energies that would have generated these fields.

In 2011, two of us (Karsten and Tom) pointed out that primordial magnetic fields would influence recombination — when electrons and protons first combined to form neutral hydrogen — and the universe turned from opaque to transparent. The first light able to travel freely from that moment on is what we now observe as the cosmic microwave background.

If present, primordial magnetic fields would speed up recombination by pushing and pulling on charged particles, making matter slightly clumpy. Where particles are more crowded, they are more likely to meet and form hydrogen.

Shifting the moment when the universe becomes transparent changes the size of the observed patterns in the cosmic microwave background. This effectively alters the cosmic ruler used to measure distances and, in turn, the value of the Hubble constant inferred from the model, helping to ease the Hubble tension. Two of us (Karsten and Levon) demonstrated this effect in 2020 using a simplified model of recombination.

A breakthrough: What we found

In our new paper, we used the first full three-dimensional simulations of the primordial plasma with magnetic fields embedded in it, tracking how hydrogen forms.

We used the hydrogen formation history found through these simulations to compute predictions for how cosmic microwave background should appear if there were primordial magnetic fields, and tested these predictions against observations of the background.

The cosmic microwave background is extraordinarily sensitive to changes in recombination. If primordial magnetic fields altered it in a way that disagreed with observations, the idea could be ruled out. Instead, the data showed that our proposal remains viable.

Across multiple combinations of datasets, we find a consistent, mild preference for primordial magnetic fields, ranging from about 1.5 to three standard deviations. This is not yet a discovery, but a meaningful hint that they exist.

Equally important, the field strengths favored by the data, about five to 10 pico-Gauss today, are close to what would be needed for galaxy and cluster magnetic fields to originate from primordial seeds alone. A pico-Gauss is a unit used to measure the strength of magnetic fields.

Aside from helping ease the Hubble tension, if primordial magnetic fields are confirmed, they would open a new window into how the universe was when it was only split seconds old, perhaps offering a glimpse into important events such as the Big Bang itself.

Our results show that the proposal survives the most detailed test available today and provides clear targets for future observations. Over the next several years, we will learn whether tiny magnetic fields from the dawn of time helped shape the universe we see today and whether they hold the key to resolving the Hubble tension.

Non-nutritive sweeteners are low-calorie or calorie-free sugar substitutes commonly used in foods and beverages. The 104-week study found that NNS beverages, including diet soft drinks, performed similarly to water when it came to long-term weight management.

Professor Jo Harrold, Dean of Psychology at the University of Liverpool, led the peer-reviewed research with Professor Jason Halford, Professor, Biological Psychology & Health Behaviours at the University of Leeds (formerly of the University of Liverpool). The study was funded by the American Beverage Association. According to the researchers, the study team operated independently from the funder and retained full control over the analysis and reporting of the results.

Diet Drinks Compared With Water Over Two Years

The findings, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, provide long-term clinical evidence on beverages containing aspartame, acesulfame potassium (acesulfame-K), and sucralose. Researchers found that these drinks were comparable to water in supporting both weight loss and long-term weight maintenance.

The SWITCH trial included 493 adults with overweight or obesity who took part in a structured behavioral weight management program. Participants were randomly assigned to drink either water or commercially available diet beverages each day. The amounts of sweeteners consumed remained well within established European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) safety thresholds.

Overall, the results did not support concerns that NNS beverages interfere with appetite regulation or cause long-term metabolic harm.

Weight Loss and Metabolic Health

Key findings included:

• Weight loss was similar between the NNS beverage and water groups after 104 weeks (−4.8 kg vs −3.7 kg; nonsignificant difference).
• Both groups maintained weight reductions across the full two-year study, including during the final year when participants no longer received assistance.
• Participants in both groups had reductions in waist and hip circumference, along with improvements in body composition and several metabolic biomarkers.
• Researchers found no clinically meaningful differences in measures such as blood pressure and cholesterol linked to long-term consumption of either aspartame, acesulfame-K, or sucralose compared with water.
• Sugar intake fell in both groups, with a slightly larger reduction among participants drinking NNS beverages.

Findings Add to the Sweetener Debate

The results are relevant to recent World Health Organization (WHO) guidance advising against the use of non-sugar sweeteners for weight control because of uncertainty in observational research. The SWITCH trial adds long-term randomized controlled evidence that may help inform future global recommendations.

Professor Joanne Harrold, said: “The University of Liverpool is one of the UK’s leading research-intensive higher education institutions, with a key focus on public health. These latest findings show that concerns about sweeteners disrupting appetite or causing weight gain are not supported when tested in a rigorous, long-term randomized trial. We hope this evidence informs future WHO guidance and public health policy.

The effectS of non-nutritive sWeetened beverages on appetITe during aCtive weigHt loss (SWITCH) trial was developed to address two related questions: how reducing dietary sugar might affect weight management, and whether replacing sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners changes appetite regulation. The newly published results build on earlier findings reported in the International Journal of Obesity in 2023.

Professor Jason Halford, University of Leeds and University of Liverpool, concluded: “This study provides the long-term clinical evidence that has been missing from international discussions. For people trying to manage their weight, non-nutritive sweetened beverages offer an effective alternative to sugar-sweetened drinks — and perform equivalently to water over two years.”

The paper, ‘Effect of non-nutritive sweetened beverages versus water on body weight: long-term results of a randomised controlled trial’, was published in British Journal of Nutrition.

An estimated 100 million people in the U.S. have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to the American Liver Foundation. Roughly 20% to 25% of those affected go on to develop metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a more serious form of the condition in which excess liver fat is accompanied by inflammation, cell injury and scarring.

Why MASH Is Difficult to Treat

Current care mainly centers on lifestyle changes and efforts to limit additional liver damage. Although medications are available, treatment options are still limited, and there is currently no cure for MASH.

Earlier research has suggested that damaged mitochondria, the structures that produce energy for cells, may contribute to the development and progression of MASH. In the new multicenter study, Cedars-Sinai researchers found that levels of an enzyme called UBE2N decline in liver cells as the disease becomes more advanced.

“The UBE2N enzyme appears to protect the liver from the inflammation and damage associated with MASH by helping remove damaged mitochondria and supporting the breakdown of fat,” said Ekihiro Seki, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai and co-corresponding author of the study. “When levels of the enzyme fell, we saw more damaged cells and injury to the liver.”

Restoring UBE2N Reduced Liver Damage in Mice

The researchers then restored UBE2N to normal levels in the livers of laboratory mice. After doing so, they observed reductions in fat accumulation, inflammation and scarring.

Those results suggest that UBE2N could become a potential treatment target for preventing MASLD from advancing to MASH.

“The identification of this enzyme’s role in regulating mitochondria in the liver is an important advance in understanding steatotic liver disease,” said Shelly Lu, MD, the Women’s Guild Chair in Gastroenterology and director of the Karsh Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cedars-Sinai. “Future studies can test whether enhancing this protective pathway can complement existing treatments, identify patients most likely to benefit and lead to new therapeutic approaches for preventing advanced disease.”

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Michitaka Matsuda, So Yeon Kim, Takashi Tsuchiya and Yoon Seok Roh.

Additional authors include: Feng Wang, Jin Lee, Jeong-Su Park, Meizhou Huang, Hwan Ma, Guoyan Sui, Zixiong Zhou, Xufeng Wu, Haram Lee, Soohwan Oh, Hanseul Park, Key-Hwan Lim, Chun-Woong Park, Sang-Bae Han, Jin Tae Hong and Michael Karin.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (grant nos. RS-2025-02273102 and RS-2025-02603096), Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) programme of Chungbuk (grant no. 2025-RISE-11-014-03), the Pinnacle Research Award of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD, to J.L.), the San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center (SDDRC) Pilot/Feasibility Grant (NIDDK P30 DK120515, to J.L.), the National Institutes of Health (grant nos. R01DK085252, R01DK138591 and R01CA301632) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82404726).

The carefully planned gravity assist changed Juice’s direction by 20° relative to its previous trajectory and increased its speed by 3.5 km/s. During the four weeks leading up to the encounter, mission controllers needed to make only one small course correction (out of six opportunities set aside) to place the spacecraft on the precise approach needed to take full advantage of Earth’s gravity.

Controllers began monitoring Juice particularly closely on August 17 and will continue that intensive tracking through October 10.

Juice Makes a Close Pass Over Earth

Juice reached its closest point to Earth at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) on September 28. At that moment, the spacecraft passed just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean while taking a sequence of images with its onboard monitoring cameras.

“The flyby required ultra-precise navigation in real time. Thanks to our very careful planning, we used only a small amount of the propellant reserved for this flyby,” says Angela Dietz, Juice’s Spacecraft Operations Manager. “This gives us more to use at Jupiter to carry out observations of the planet’s icy moons.”

Preserving that fuel is especially valuable because Juice will eventually need it while carrying out its ambitious scientific campaign around Jupiter and its moons.

Earth Becomes a Test Site for Juice

Changing the spacecraft’s trajectory was the primary purpose of the flyby, but the encounter also gave the mission team a valuable chance to test Juice’s science instruments using a real planetary target.

This was the third such opportunity during the mission. The first came during Juice’s 2024 lunar-Earth gravity assist, followed by the spacecraft’s 2025 observations of Comet 3I/ATLAS.

Teams from ESA’s spacecraft operations, science operations and technical centers spent months coordinating with the outside groups responsible for Juice’s 10 scientific instruments. Their goal was to carefully schedule when each instrument could operate and extract as much science and calibration time as possible from the spacecraft’s limited resources.

“Juice’s journey to Jupiter provides only a few opportunities to calibrate and validate the instruments under well-understood environmental conditions,” explains Juice project scientist Claire Vallat, who led the effort.

“Given the limited time available and operational constraints, instrument activities sometimes have to be prioritized, for example when Juice was in Earth’s shadow this morning, and relying on battery power alone. During this flyby, calibration activities were prioritized based on their relevance to preparing the instruments for their work at Jupiter, while also considering whether an opportunity is unique or can be scheduled later in the journey.”

Preparing for Jupiter’s Icy Moons

Although the Earth encounter required extensive preparation, it is relatively simple compared with what awaits Juice at Jupiter. The spacecraft is scheduled to carry out 35 flybys of the giant planet’s large moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.

Planning for those encounters began years in advance. For the Europa flybys, discussions about how the instruments will operate began about 10 years ago and will continue until Juice finally passes the moon in the early 2030s.

Earth therefore serves as an important rehearsal. Scientists can use the flyby to calibrate the instruments, learn how they behave once they are operating in space (where they always work a little differently to on Earth!), and refine the tools that will later be used to analyze the data.

The encounters with Jupiter’s icy moons will be much more scientifically demanding. By then, Juice will need to be ready to capture as much high-quality information as possible during each precious flyby.

Juice Explores Earth’s Magnetic Tail

The spacecraft also spent several days traveling through Earth’s magnetotail, the long extension of Earth’s magnetic field that stretches away from the Sun.

That gave Juice an opportunity to measure magnetic fields and electrically charged particles far from Earth. At the same time, the European-Chinese Smile mission has been observing the northern lights while measuring magnetic fields and particles much closer to the planet.

Combining measurements from Juice and Smile could give scientists a rare way to link activity deep in Earth’s magnetotail with events occurring around the planet’s polar regions.

Scientists expect to release images and spectra from some of Juice’s instruments in the coming weeks, once the data have reached Earth and instrument teams have had time to evaluate them. Among the anticipated results are high-resolution images of Earth and the Moon taken by JANUS, Juice’s scientific camera.

Juice Will Return to Earth One More Time

Juice is not finished with Earth yet.

In January 2029, the spacecraft will return for a third and final flyby of our planet. That encounter will place Juice on the final trajectory needed to reach Jupiter in 2031.

About Juice

ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, ‘Juice’, is humankind’s next bold mission to the outer Solar System. It will make detailed observations of gas giant Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. This ambitious mission will characterise these moons with a powerful suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments to discover more about these compelling destinations as potential habitats for past or present life.

Juice will monitor Jupiter’s complex magnetic, radiation and plasma environment in depth and its interplay with the moons, studying the Jupiter system as an archetype for gas giant systems across the Universe.

Juice launched on an Ariane 5 from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou in April 2023. It has an eight-year cruise with flybys of Earth and Venus to slingshot it to Jupiter. It will make 35 flybys of the three large moons while orbiting Jupiter, before changing orbits to Ganymede.

Roman’s primary science instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, contains 18 detectors. Engineers designated a small section of each detector to rapidly monitor a different guide star — stars whose positions are already known with high precision.

Roman’s attitude control system first points the spacecraft toward the correct area of the sky. The fine-guidance system then continuously tracks those reference stars and supplies information that helps the observatory correct tiny movements during an exposure. Without those additional adjustments, Roman would not remain steady enough to produce its sharpest possible images.

“Every Roman observation relies on its ability to stay precisely pointed at the correct region of space long enough to collect an image, which can take from minutes to hours for a deep exposure,” said Begoña Vila, Roman’s guiding instrument systems lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The fine-guidance system reports the positions of the guide stars about four times each second to the attitude control system, which can move the observatory a tiny amount to counter any drift as needed. Our tests confirmed that we are able to keep the observatory very stable for science operations: better than 1/100,000 of a degree for half an hour at a time for Wide Field Instrument observations or for eight hours at a time for Coronagraph Instrument observations, which take much longer. This was a very exciting moment for the team.”

The level of stability Roman has already demonstrated is roughly comparable to keeping a laser focused on a U.S. dime from about 150 miles (about 240 kilometers) away. Engineers expect to improve that performance even further as they continue tuning the guidance system. If they reach their goal, the same comparison would stretch to about 230 miles (370 kilometers).

A New Way to Guide a Space Telescope

Roman will also test a form of guidance that has never been used this way before.

“Roman doesn’t have a separate guider instrument, like other space telescopes do,” Vila said. “Instead of tracking only a star’s point-like appearance, it will guide on detailed wavelength patterns called spectra. Because Roman is already equipped to measure spectra for science, it can use that same information to precisely position the telescope. We are looking forward to validating this spectral guiding mode in the coming weeks.”

Spectra contain information about how an object’s light is distributed across different wavelengths. Roman is already designed to collect this information for scientific observations, allowing engineers to use the same capability to help determine and maintain the telescope’s precise position.

Roman’s Coronagraph Sees Cosmic Light

On Sept. 22 and 27, the team went a step further by testing the fine-guidance system together with Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument. The coronagraph is designed to demonstrate advanced technologies that suppress the brilliant light from stars so scientists can study much fainter planets and dusty disks orbiting nearby stars.

“Roman’s coronagraph also has its own internal stability process, making it much more stable even than the Wide Field Instrument,” Vila said.

That additional stability is essential for coronagraph observations. Even extremely small vibrations or pointing errors could allow unwanted starlight to leak into an image and overwhelm the much dimmer planets scientists hope to detect.

The coronagraph woke up on Sept. 1 and stretched its digital, electronic, and mechanical “limbs” mid-month. After confirming that Roman’s fine-guidance system could keep the instrument stable, the team adjusted its focus and allowed the coronagraph to take its first preliminary look at space. Those early observations will help scientists continue refining the instrument before more demanding tests begin.

“This observation confirms that the instrument can produce a focused image,” said Vanessa Bailey, a Roman Coronagraph Instrument scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It’s a very limited test that kicks off a methodical process of increasingly complex tasks that help us prepare for the instrument’s future observations.”

First Stars Appear in the Large Magellanic Cloud

During the first test, Roman’s Coronagraph Instrument observed a faint star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy. The image contained extra “noise” because the instrument’s detectors were intentionally being kept warmer than their eventual operating temperature. Keeping them warmer at this stage helps prevent contamination from sticking to the detectors.

“We were kicking the tires, making sure light goes through the system,” Bailey said. “The second step, on Sunday, was an observation that confirmed our pointing. The team cooled the detectors down for better sensitivity, and we observed a new location in the Large Magellanic Cloud where we expected to see many stars in a single image. And we did! We’re breathing a sigh of relief!”

That second observation provided another important confirmation that Roman was pointing where scientists expected and that the coronagraph could detect multiple stars once its detectors were cooled for greater sensitivity. The successful tests mark another step in the instrument’s commissioning process as NASA prepares Roman for more sophisticated observations in the future.

A University of Sydney research team reexamined Australian members of the stick insect genus Anchiale and discovered two new species. One produces unusual eggs with a distinctive lidlike structure. The researchers also restored a third species that had gone unrecognized for decades.

Their work shows that insects previously classified as just two species actually represent five separate species. Together, they occur from northern NSW along coastal Queensland and into tropical northern Australia.

Hidden Diversity Among Familiar Insects

Scientists reached these conclusions despite a large amount of existing information about Australian stick insects. More than 1000 citizen science observations have been submitted through iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia, and the insects have also been studied scientifically for decades.

Even so, the researchers say much of Australia’s insect diversity remains undocumented.

Lead author Dr. Braxton Jones of the Aola Richards Sydney Insect Hub at the University of Sydney said the discoveries demonstrate how much scientists still have to learn about insect biodiversity.

“Taxonomy is often a bit like detective work. Even among some of Australia’s most photographed and frequently reported insects, we’re still finding species that have escaped scientific recognition,” said Dr. Jones, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Molecular Ecology, Evolution and Phylogenomics Laboratory.

Fun Facts About Stick Insects

• Many stick insects can reproduce without mating with a male. The process is known as parthenogenesis, in which a female produces eggs that develop into female-only offspring that are clones of herself.
• Some stick insects defend themselves by spraying chemicals at predators. The spray can irritate the eyes and mouth of an attacker.
• Australia’s longest stick insect measures around 62cm (the world record is 64cm). Australia has 130 known species, while 3609 species are known worldwide.
• Stick insects belong to a group called Phasmatodea, a name derived from an ancient Greek word meaning “phantom” or “ghost.” Their remarkable camouflage allows them to blend so effectively into vegetation that they can appear to vanish among leaves and branches.
• Some species can slowly change color to better match their surroundings. Their appearance can range from green to brown, and some can even resemble lichen as they blend into leaves, bark, and branches.
• Baby Extatosoma tiaratum stick insects use an especially unusual survival strategy. After hatching, the tiny nymphs have been observed emerging from ant nests while looking and behaving like ants. Their eggs can be carried into ant nests, where they remain dormant for months and receive protection from wasps. After hatching, the young insects use their ant-like color, shape, and behavior to move unnoticed toward the top of a eucalyptus tree.
• Some stick insects respond to threats by suddenly displaying brightly colored wings, which can startle predators. Certain species can also create a rustling noise with their wings, adding another defensive element to their wing morphology.
• If a predator catches a stick insect by the leg, some species can deliberately detach the limb and escape. This process is known as autotomy. Young stick insects can regenerate the missing leg during later molts, gradually restoring what was lost.

A Stick Insect Misidentified for Decades

One of the study’s biggest surprises involved a large stick insect that had long been familiar to both scientists and insect enthusiasts.

Researchers combined DNA analysis with museum specimens, field surveys, citizen science observations, and studies of insects raised in captivity. The evidence showed that the insect had been incorrectly identified for decades.

It is now recognized as a separate species called Anchiale robusta.

The findings are published in Austral Entomology.

The researchers also formally described Anchiale mabiensis, a new species found in Queensland’s critically endangered Mabi rainforest on the Atherton Tablelands.

Its eggs contain an unusual structural lid that has not previously been documented in any stick insect or its closest relatives.

Discovery Could Help Forestry and Agriculture

The revised classification may also have practical value.

One stick insect known for occasionally reaching plague-like population levels and stripping leaves from trees was found to represent more than one species. Distinguishing between those species could help researchers and land managers better understand and manage future impacts on forestry and agriculture.

The study also points to another possible new species from Cape York. Researchers believe it may be undescribed, but they need additional specimens before they can confirm its identity.

Dr. Jones said: “These findings demonstrate the importance of protecting threatened ecosystems and documenting Australia’s extraordinary biodiversity before we lose species without us having even discovered them.”

Funding for the research came from the Australian Biological Resources Study, through the National Taxonomy Research Grant of the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, as well as a CSIRO postgraduate scholarship.

The fabric, called Plant Armor, is designed to be placed directly over strawberry plants. Its three dimensional structure creates a barrier that keeps insects from reaching the plants, while the layered material still allows sunlight, rain, and air to pass through.

In tunnel field tests, strawberries protected by Plant Armor produced yields as much as 3.56 times higher than uncovered plants. The fabric did not reduce light availability or negatively affect relative humidity.

A Fabric That Protects Without Blocking Sunlight

“To produce fruit, plants need sunlight,” said Gabriel Olawuyi, a graduate research assistant at North Carolina State University and lead author of a paper on Plant Armor. “We expected that Plant Armor’s seemingly opaque fabric would lead to an increase in vegetative biomass at the expense of fruiting — because reduced sunlight would trigger a ‘shade-avoidance’ response, making the plant divert energy toward stem and leaf growth rather than fruit production. However, we found the fabric did not impede access to light at all, and fruit production increased significantly.”

Researchers also found that Plant Armor created a steady warming effect throughout the three growing seasons. According to Olawuyi, that extra warmth helped covered plants reach the fruiting stage earlier than plants grown without the textile.

“Plants require a certain amount of accumulated heat, calculated as ‘growing degree-days,’ to progress through developmental stages including fruiting. Our plant cover has proven to enhance these,” Olawuyi said. “The plants were in a condition whereby the warmth they need to go through each phenological stage to their production was given to them optimally, and they produced far more than the uncovered plants.”

Because Plant Armor physically prevents insects from feeding on the plants, Olawuyi said the technology could also reduce the amount of conventional pesticides needed in agricultural fields.

From Military Textiles to Strawberry Fields

The idea behind Plant Armor did not begin with farming. The technology emerged from research focused on making military uniforms more resistant to mosquito bites and improving comfort for soldiers wearing body armor.

That unexpected path from military clothing research to agriculture demonstrates the value of collaboration across scientific fields, said co-author R. Michael Roe, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor at NC State.

“The path to Plant Armor started with trying to make a cloth to go on a soldier’s chest to make body armor more comfortable,” said Roe. “Then, through trial and error, we arrive at a product which could triple the output of strawberry farms here in North Carolina.

“We couldn’t have predicted that when we started. Without all these people here doing research and following the science, we wouldn’t have arrived at this product.”

Study Details and Support

The paper, “Knitted 3-D, Porous Textile Cover to Enhance Strawberry Fruit Production and Prevent Insect Feeding,” is published in the journal Agriculture. Co-authors include James Clothier, Matthew Bertone, Grayson Cave, Reuben Garshong, Andre West, Loganathan Ponnusamy and Clyde Sorenson of NC State University.

This project was supported by a grant from the North Carolina Agricultural Foundation (grant number AG00463770). The work was also supported by the Research Capacity Fund (HATCH), project award no. 02853, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The Plant Armor Gen 2 fabric studied in this paper was patented by North Carolina State University (US Patent No. 11,582,968 B2; 21 February 2023) and is licensed for commercial development by the University. This work was a collaborative project between the NC State College of Natural Resources, Wilson College of Textiles and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.