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FACTS
Space Hydroponics: Growing Vegetables for a Trip to Mars
A manned trip to Mars is the goal for space agencies, so scientists are
looking at viable ways to grow food for such a long trip. Given it would take
a space craft (under ideal conditions) between six and nine months to get
there, plus the same return trip, astronauts will need to grow food en route.
In a study published in the journal Life, Silje Wolff conducted tests to perfect
growing lettuce in space. “We grew the plants and germinated them and
then we transferred them to different nutrient treatments and recorded
data on everything going into and coming out of the leaf,” says Wolff, who
grew the lettuce in a closed hydroponic system. The challenge is hydroponic
solutions in space won’t mix as they do on Earth, because density and weight
don’t separate cold and warm water in the same way, so a centrifuge would
be needed to create some gravity.
— insidescience.org
Shortcut for Photosynthetic Glitch Boosts Crop Growth 40 Per Cent
The process of photorespiration drastically reduces a crop’s yield potential.
So, researchers engineered a photorespiratory shortcut that improves yield by
40 per cent more. Plants convert sunlight into energy through photosynthesis,
but most crops are plagued by a photosynthetic glitch. To accommodate it, they
evolved the energy-expensive process of photorespiration, which decreases
yields. A report in the journal Science from researchers at the University of Illinois
and US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service details how
the engineered shortcut helps plants photosynthesize more efficiently to boost
production. “Photorespiration is anti-photosynthesis,” says lead author Paul
South, a molecular biologist with the Agricultural Research Service. Researchers
estimate 200 million additional people could be fed with the calories lost to
photorespiration in the midwestern US alone. Research was done on tobacco:
an ideal plant because it is easier to modify and test than food crops.
— sciencedaily.com
How Big is the World’s Largest Mango?
The record-holding world’s heaviest mango weighed 7.57 pounds and was
grown in the Philippines city of Cagayan de Oro. The Florida Keitt variety
mango measured a foot long, 19.5 inches in diameter and was seven inches
wide — a bit longer than an 11-inch-long NFL football. The previous largest
mango was grown in Hawaii and weighed 5.29 pounds. Mangoes are easily the
most popular fruit on Earth, and most are grown in India, which provides nearly
50 per cent of the global supply. Production in that country reaches more than
19.8 million tons annually. In India, more than 2.3 million acres are dedicated
to mango farming. The mango tree is quite large, reaching 100 feet in height
with a canopy of more than 35 feet and leaves measuring up to 16 inches long.
However, mango farm trees are kept smaller to facilitate an easier harvest.
— guinnessworldrecords.com
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Maximum Yield