Lettuce-Bot can kill weeds with 98% accuracy Humans have a pesky way of increasing in number no matter what we do. All those people also consume resources, and the strain on global food supplies will only increase in the future. As everyone scrambles to find a solution to this problem, we come back to one of our favorite problem-solvers: robots. Angel investors have opted to put $3.1 million on the table to move development of the Lettuce-Bot forward. Lettuce-Bot does this by taking advantage of recent advancements in computer vision systems. The Lettuce-Bot is not a miracle machine, though. Blue River, via Future Timeline
Artichoke + MRI + GIF = Awesomeness About two years ago, Andy Ellison needed to test one of the MRI machines he works with at his job at Boston University Medical School. He reached for an orange. The result was stunning: Since then, he's been imaging fruits and vegetables of all stripes, and turning the results into GIFs which he showcases on his site Inside Insides. As he explained to me via email, "When you MRI anything, you acquire the image slice by slice. I take the scan and export all slices as images, and build them into an animated GIF file, which is the easiest way to show all the slices. Below are a few of these beautiful little films, a tour of nature's insides made possible by the marriage of MRI and GIF technologies. Artichoke: Apologies for the pagination, but the article wouldn't load properly with so many GIFs on it, so we had to break it up.
Super-efficient solar-energy technology: ‘Solar steam’ so effective it can make steam from icy cold water Rice University scientists have unveiled a revolutionary new technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam. The new "solar steam" method from Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics is so effective it can even produce steam from icy cold water. The technology's inventors said they expect it will first be used in sanitation and water-purification applications in the developing world. Rice University scientists have unveiled a revolutionary new technology that uses nanoparticles to convert solar energy directly into steam. The new "solar steam" method from Rice's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) is so effective it can even produce steam from icy cold water. Details of the solar steam method were published online November 19 in ACS Nano. "This is about a lot more than electricity," said LANP Director Naomi Halas, the lead scientist on the project. The efficiency of solar steam is due to the light-capturing nanoparticles that convert sunlight into heat.
Flowers in Ultra-Violet The compilation of species will continue to be updated at irregular intervals. All species listed here have been documented, and links are added whenever I can find spare time for updating. These images are made for illustrative purposes, not as artistic statements per se. However, there are lots of food for thought in the convoluted ways Nature expresses itself, so for once the artist can step backand let the subjects speak for themselves. If you are unfamiliar with the botany, just select any species indicated as having a "strong" response to learn how this looks. However, not all species have the typical bull's-eye UV pattern, which may be confined to symmetrical flowers. The UV range of the spectrum has no predefined colours, so we are free to assign any colour we like. UV fluorescence may be a common trait to most flowers, but might be of temporary occurrence for parts of the flower. In case you are curious as to why the species might have these patterns, read this to learn more.
21 Vegetables that can grow in partial shade Knowing where to grow your vegetables is almost as important as knowing what types to grow in the first place. Your temperature zone defines what you can easily grow, but your ultimate placement of those chosen vegetables will decide how well they’ll grow for you. Here is a list of full sun, shade, and partial sun plants that grow well in most of North America. (Click through on the link for each vegetable to learn more about it.) Full Sun Vegetables “Full sun” means a minimum of six hours (usually at least 8) of sunlight per day. Cucumbers One of the easiest to grow, cukes have very broad leaves, a common trait in many full-sun plants. Eggplant These grow better in some climates than in others, but are a popular early spring and late fall harvest. Peppers Most types of peppers prefer as much sun as they can get. Squash Like cucumbers, squash plants have very broad leaves and beg for sunlight. Partial Sun Vegetables Light Shade Vegetables Leaf lettuce Most lettuce plants prefer less sun.
Biologists learn how plants synthesize their growth hormone auxin Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have succeeded in unraveling, for the first time, the complete chain of biochemical reactions that controls the synthesis of auxin, the hormone that regulates nearly all aspects of plant growth and development. Their discovery, detailed in a paper in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will allow agricultural scientists to develop new ways to enhance or manipulate auxin production to improve the growth and yield of crops and other plants. More than a century ago, Charles Darwin noticed that plants produced a substance that made them bend toward light, a hormone called auxin that biologists have since found to be essential not only in regulating plant growth but also in patterning their development. In 2006, a team of San Diego researchers headed by Yunde Zhao, an associate professor of biology at UC San Diego, discovered a family of 11 genes involved in the synthesis of auxin.
The L-Space Web: Death and What Comes Next The L-Space Web Copyright © Terry Pratchett 2002 When Death met the philosopher, the philosopher said, rather excitedly: "At this point, you realise, I'm both dead and not dead." There was a sigh from Death. Oh dear, one of those, he thought. "You see," said the philosopher, while Death, motionless, watched the sands of his life drain through the hourglass, "everything is made of tiny particles, which have the strange property of being in many places at one time. YES, BUT NOT INDEFINITELY, said Death, EVERYTHING IS TRANSIENT. "Well, then, if we agreed that there are an infinite number of universes, then the problem is solved! "What? Death nodded at the bed. "No, because there are a million versions of me, too, And...here is the good bit ...in some of them I am not about to pass away! Death tapped the handle of his scythe as he considered this. "Well, I'm not exactly dying, correct? There was a sigh from Death. "No answer, eh?" THIS IS A CONUNDRUM CERTAINLY, said Death. "What?" "Yes.
Tapping the Motion of the Ocean: Could the Tides Power Our World? | Environment on GOOD The city of Eastport, Maine is made up of a small group of islands just to the east of the eastern-most point of our eastern-most state. It houses about 1,300 residents, known for their dry humor, for their humbling heartiness, and for watching the sun rise hours before the rest of us get out of bed. The city boasts its annual pirate festival, its vague tie to a Mickey Rooney movie about a dragon, and the rip-roaring ocean tides that sweep its shores. To the east of Eastport lies Passamaquoddy Bay—an inlet of the Bay of Fundy through which 70 billion cubic feet of tidal water flow every six hours. The power of the ocean tides has never been lost on Mainers. It was as electrical power swept across the U.S., and the power grid was expanded, that folks in Eastport began eyeing the powerful tidal currents as one method of generation. The four TideGen turbines are a pilot program. Coastal towns and cities around the globe are watching this experiment with great interest.
Plants and fungi play the 'underground market' Science 12 Aug 11 Micrograph of fungi colonising roots of plant host, Medicago truncatula. Image: Jan Jansa Plants and fungi co-operate and trade with each other on a biological ‘underground market’, changing their trading partners if they don’t get a fair deal. The finding was made by an international team, including Oxford University scientists, examining how plants trade energy-rich carbohydrate they make using photosynthesis for phosphorus fungi collect from the soil. A report of the research is published in this week’s Science. ‘This is one of the first recorded examples of a ‘biological market’ operating in which both partners reward fair trading rather than one partner having the advantage and exploiting the other,’ said Professor Stuart West of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, an author of the paper.
Gardening Australia - The Self-Sufficient Gardener Organic Gardener Magazine, January/February 2009 In this first edition of ‘the self-sufficient gardener’, JERRY COLEBY-WILLIAMS explains how to salvage those ubiquitous polystyrene boxes from the grocer and turn them into great storage and growing containers. Most Australians call expanded polystyrene foam ‘styrofoam’ – but this is actually a trademark name, owned by Dow Chemicals, who claim to have ‘discovered’ this product, which was first made in Sweden. Polystyrene foam is one of the most widely used plastics. In its granular form, polystyrene foam is used by some less eco-aware gardeners in orchid and Saintpaulia potting mixes. Seedlings and cuttings Among the best uses for these boxes are raising seedlings and striking cuttings. Preparing the box Here’s how to prepare the boxes for planting:1. Suitable crops Great insulators Polystyrene foam is an excellent insulator and, because the boxes are generally white, they also reflect the heat. Storing root crops and bulbs