Science & technology | Botanoacoustics

Gene-editing has created a generation of musical crops

Walking in the countryside will never be the same again

Two Barley Ears embracing
A word in your ear...Image: Getty Images
|San Melito

Editor’s note: This article was, in fact, the pick of the crop of April Fools jokes in circulation on April 1st. The Economist has occasionally run hoax stories on this date, when readers should be on their guard against humorous mistruths.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Singing and supping”

From the April 1st 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Science & technology

A person sleeping. The frame is split between night and day.

Does melatonin work for jet lag?

It can help. But it depends where you’re going

A network of pixelated hearts

Training AI models might not need enormous data centres

Eventually, models could be trained without any dedicated hardware at all


Workers harnessed unto the facade of the Museum of the Future, United Arab Emirates.

How the Gulf’s rulers want to harness the power of science

A stronger R&D base, they hope, will transform their countries’ economies. Will their plan work?


Cancer vaccines are showing promise at last

Trials are under way against skin, brain and lung tumours

New firefighting tech is being trialled in Sardinia’s ancient forests

It could sniff out blazes long before they spread out of control

Can Jeff Bezos match Elon Musk in space?

After 25 years, Blue Origin finally heads to orbit, and hopes to become a contender in the private space race