SPECIAL MENTION: An estimated 20% to 40% of global crop production is lost to pests and pathogens. But what if crops could tell farmers they’re under attack? Agri-tech firm InnerPlant has developed a soybean plant, dubbed the Living Sensor, that has been genetically modified to glow when the plant is under stress—allowing farmers to intervene before it’s too late. The seeds and fledgling shoots, which contain the same fluorescent proteins found in jellyfish, will be available for commercial use in about two years. —Eloise Barry
More Must-Read Stories From TIME
- How to Help Victims of the Texas School Shooting
- TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2022
- What the Buffalo Tragedy Has to Do With the Effort to Overturn Roe
- Column: The U.S. Failed Miserably on COVID-19. Canada Shows It Didn't Have to Be That Way
- N.Y. Will Soon Require Businesses to Post Salaries in Job Listings. Here's What Happened When Colorado Did It
- The 46 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2022
- ‘We Are in a Moment of Reckoning.’ Amanda Nguyen on Taking the Fight for Sexual Violence Survivors to the U.N.