Dutch PlantLab Revolutionizes Farming

Soilless coltivation, LEDs, highly controlled environmental conditions, advanced sensors...they call it agricolture 3.0!  In short, they create a high tech paradise for plants...
Will the quality decrease? who knows, but the possibility to grow plants undergroung or at the top of skyscrapers is fascinating! Urban agriculture isn’t new, and people have been talking about vertical farms for decades.What makes PlantLab different is the hardcore scientific and mathematical innovation they are bringing to the table! Could we grow vegetables in space using this amazing facility?!

http://www.plantlab.nl/4.0/

Bioinspired self-repairing slippery surfaces with pressure-stable omniphobicity

A slippery surface bio-inspired by pitcher plants.... actually I was starting the same study... too late!
really a nice work!

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7365/full/nature10447.html


Nature, vol: 477, pp: 443–447
Date published: 22 September 2011 DOI: doi:10.1038/nature10447

Plant nanotoxicology: how nanoparticles can affect plant's (and human) healt

Published this month on Trends in Plant Science, here is the abstract of the paper:

"The anthropogenic release of nanoparticles (NPs) to the environment poses a potential hazard to human health and life. The interplay between NPs and biological processes is receiving increasing attention. Plants expose huge interfaces to the air and soil environment. Thus, NPs are adsorbed to the plant surfaces, taken up through nano- or micrometer-scale openings of plants and are translocated within the plant body. Persistent NPs associated with plants enter the human food chain. In this Opinion, we document the occurrence and character of NPs in the environment and evaluate the need for future research on toxicological effects. Plant nanotoxicology is introduced as a discipline that explores the effects and toxicity mechanisms of NPs in plants, including transport, surface interactions and material-specific responses."

Plant nanotoxicology
Dietz, Karl-Josef; Herth, Simone
Trends in plant science doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2011.08.003 

Marijuana Genome Sequenced For Health

"The company hopes the data will help scientists breed pot plants without much THC, the mind-altering chemical in the plant. The goal is instead to maximize other compounds that may have therapeutic benefits."

"Cannabis sativa has 84 other compounds that could fight pain or possibly even shrink tumors. But anti-marijuana laws make it difficult for scientists to breed and study the plant in most countries."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/08/19/139762352/cracking-the-marijuana-genome-in-search-of-therapeutic-highs?ps=sh_sthdl

Benoit Mandelbrot: Fractals and the art of roughness

Nature by numbers

The fibonacci sequence in trees

Nice work of a very young boy!!

http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/youngnaturalistawards/2011/aidan.html

Sharks!!