MAX FACTS
growing tips, news and trivia
Bionic Plants
Plants have many valuable functions: they provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe and
add beauty to our surroundings. Now, a team of MIT researchers wants to make plants even more useful by
augmenting them with nanomaterials that could enhance their energy production and give them completely
new functions, such as monitoring environmental pollutants. Researchers report boosting plants’ ability to
capture light energy by 30% by embedding carbon nanotubes in the chloroplast, the plant organelle where
photosynthesis takes place. Using another type of carbon nanotube, they also modified plants to detect the
gas nitric oxide. Together, these represent the first steps in launching a scientific field the researchers have
dubbed plant nanobionics. “Plants are very attractive as a technology platform,” says Michael Strano, leader of
the MIT research team. “They repair themselves, they’re environmentally stable outside, they survive in harsh
environments and they provide their own power source and water distribution. The potential is really endless.”
(Source: sciencedaily.com)
Food Security
in Alaska
Horticulture research at the University
of Alaska Fairbanks just got a boost with
the completion of its 4,500-sq.-ft. Arctic
Health Research Greenhouse. The upper
portion of the greenhouse was completed
in November 2011 but the lower areas
remained unfinished until this spring.
The greenhouse is a critical component
of the School of Natural Resources and
Extension’s horticulture program. It allows
for teaching, research and outreach
associated with growing plants in the far
north. The facility features space-efficient
teaching and research areas equipped with
state-of-the-art environmental control and
innovative plant production systems. Food
security in Alaska is a serious concern
and researchers will use the greenhouse
to better understand how to increase and
extend food production. In addition to
undergraduate and graduate stu