Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Growing our favorite foods requires a lot of fertilizer. Plants need nitrogen to grow, and thanks to a strange quirk of biology, no complex organisms like plants, animals, or fungi have been able to evolve the enzyme required to pull this nutrient out of the air. The only organisms with this rare ability are super simple microbes, like bacteria and archaea.
Well, none except one. Scientists recently discovered an algae that had overcome this limitation. It’s a biological marvel in several ways, which is exciting for science, but also for the future of agriculture. This new organism — which is much more closely related to plants than the bacteria that typically fix nitrogen — has attracted the attention of those who have long dreamed of crops that could make their own fertilizer.
It’s a climate story, too. Making synthetic fertilizers takes a lot of energy – usually fossil fuels – and using them releases powerful greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.
If you want to learn more about this fascinating discovery, check out our latest video: youtu.be/g9B3gBhcwqM?si=paO50QvXpT6u1h-E
Growing our favorite foods requires a lot of fertilizer. Plants need nitrogen to grow, and thanks to a strange quirk of biology, no complex organisms like plants, animals, or fungi have been able to evolve the enzyme required to pull this nutrient out of the air. The only organisms with this rare ability are super simple microbes, like bacteria and archaea.
Well, none except one. Scientists recently discovered an algae that had overcome this limitation. It’s a biological marvel in several ways, which is exciting for science, but also for the future of agriculture. This new organism — which is much more closely related to plants than the bacteria that typically fix nitrogen — has attracted the attention of those who have long dreamed of crops that could make their own fertilizer.
It’s a climate story, too. Making synthetic fertilizers takes a lot of energy – usually fossil fuels – and using them releases powerful greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.
If you want to learn more about this fascinating discovery, check out our latest video: youtu.be/g9B3gBhcwqM?si=paO50QvXpT6u1h-E
