A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
The man-made leaf could help us breathe in space.
Lack of oxygen throughout the universe is one of the persistent challenges of manned space exploration. Trees and other plant life do us a real solid by taking in our bad breath and changing it back to clean, sweet O2 here on Earth. (Video)
Continue reading… “World’s first artificial leaf that converts water and light into oxygen”
LED growing lights, delivering sunlight whatever the weather.
This century, the challenges of growing enough food to feed the world have grown more severe. We need to feed more people with limited agricultural land and resources. We need to make better use of land, light and logistics for an increasingly urban population. And we need to incorporate zero-waste and low-energy technologies into the task of food production. (Video)
Continue reading… “New LED light technology sheds light on the future of food”
Tractor-mounted computers help farmers make decisions about planting crops.
The word innovation usually brings to mind small startups doing clever things with cutting-edge technology. But it is also vital in large, long-established industries—and they do not come much larger or older than agriculture. Farmers can be terrible managers, so it is no surprise that they are nervous about a new idea called prescriptive planting, which is set to disrupt their business.
Continue reading… “‘Prescriptive planting’ technology is set to disrupt the farming industry”
Toshiba plant factory
When you hear the name Toshiba, you probably think about electronics products like televisions and computers. Thanks to its CT and other diagnostic imaging machines and technology, Toshiba has made a name for itself in the healthcare industry, too. Now, the company wants to go further to promote their healthcare initiatives, by introducing 100 percent pesticide-free vegetable factories in Japan.
Continue reading… “Toshiba’s new vegetable factory to bring perfect produce to Japan”
A plant growth chamber designed to make gardens thrive in weightlessness.
NASA scientists believe they may have found a solution to how to grow vegetables in space. It could bring an end to astronauts on the space station subsisting largely on a diet of pre-packaged dehydrated food.
Automation will help agriculture via large-scale robotic and microrobots.
Below are 15 emerging technologies related to agricultural and natural manufacturing under four key areas of accelerating change: Sensors, Food, Automation and Engineering.
Continue reading… “Top 15 emerging agriculture technologies that will change the world”
Soradofarms
When you think of Tokyo you you think of smog and skyscrapers, and people, lots of people – you don’t really think of green spaces. But in an effort to ‘green the city’, officials have given up the space on the roof train stations to make community gardens.
Continue reading… “Tokyo’s urban train stations turned into farms in an effort to ‘green the city’”
Researchers embedded carbon nanotubes in the chloroplasts of the plants to create “artificial antennae.”
Plants make life possible. Chloroplasts are the tiny organelles with a plant’s leaves. The chloroplasts use incoming sunlight to split water molecules and then knit together the energy-rich carbon and hydrogen compounds found in everything from food to fossil fuels. The leftover “waste” is the oxygen that we and the rest of the animal kingdom depend on to survive and thrive.
Continue reading… “Bionic plants use nanotechnology to boost photosynthesis”
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, or “doomsday vault,” on a remote Norwegian island in the Arctic Circle took its first deposits in March 2008. The vault’s builders had spent some $7 million and 12 months blasting a tunnel and three chambers into the mountainside’s hard permafrost. To be stored within? Treasure.
Continue reading… “‘Doomsday vault’ keeps over 800,000 plant species on ice”
Greenhouse at Sunrise Hydroponics.
There is an Amish farm in Topeka, Indiana that supplies all-natural, sustainable produce, using 90% less water and 90% less land, and that utilizes the most advanced vertical aeroponic technology on earth. You cannot get produce that is more local, fresh, healthy, and sustainable — even in the middle of an Indiana blizzard — like you can get at Sunrise Hydroponics, an Amish farm.
Continue reading… “Indiana Amish farm leads the way to local food security”
ives of Grass by Mathilde Roussel
Soil, wheat seeds, recycled metal and fabric
Brooklyn, New York, 2010
Aleta Florentin of Amber Lotus Publishing curated a new 2014 calendar that brings some of the best examples of environmental art all together in one place. This inspiring genre of art beautifully incorporates its natural surroundings in a way that’s surprising and often times meaningful.(Photos)
Continue reading… “12 amazing examples of environmental art”
NASA is organizing the Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE) program that will send packs of seed material to the ISS.
When humans begin colonizing space there is one challenge we’ll be facing, how to get food to those colonies. The idea of farming in space is hardly a new one. Astronaut Don Pettit successfully grew a zucchini, broccoli, and sunflower on the ISS, but NASA is now researching how vegetables may be grown in space for consumption.
Continue reading… “NASA plans to grow vegetables in space”
