Growing Plants and Vegetables in a Space Garden

Mizuna lettuce growing aboard the International Space Station before being harvested and frozen for return to Earth. Image credit: NASA

Lettuce, peas and radishes are just a few vegetables that are found in a summer garden. But did you know these same vegetables also can be grown in space? Crew members aboard the International Space Station have been growing such plants and vegetables for years in their "space garden."

A space station study is helping investigators develop procedures and methods that allow astronauts to grow and safely eat space-grown vegetables. The experiment also is investigating another benefit of growing plants in space: the non-nutritional value of providing comfort and relaxation to the crew.

"Growing food to supplement and minimize the food that must be carried to space will be increasingly important on long-duration missions," said Shane Topham, an engineer with Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University in Logan. "We also are learning about the psychological benefits of growing plants in space -- something that will become more important as crews travel farther from Earth."

The experiment, known as Lada Validating Vegetable Production Unit -- Plants, Protocols, Procedures and Requirements -- uses a very simple chamber similar to a greenhouse. Water and light levels are controlled automatically.

The experiment has four major objectives: to find out if the produce grown in space can be consumed safely; what types of microorganisms might grow on the plants and what can be done to reduce the threat of microorganisms in the hardware prior to launch; what can be done to clean or sanitize the produce after it has been harvested; and how to optimize production compared to the resources required to grow it.

Since 2002, the Lada greenhouse has been used to perform almost continuous plant growth experiments on the station. Fifteen modules containing root media, or root modules, have been launched to the station and 20 separate plant growth experiments have been performed.

The most recent "crop" -- a type of Japanese lettuce called Mizuna -- returned to Earth in April aboard space shuttle Discovery. It was the first time two chamber experiments were conducted simultaneously for a side-by-side comparison of plants grown using different fertilizers and treatments.

"The idea was to validate in space the results of ground tests, to show that minimizing water usage and salt accumulations would produce healthier plants in space," said Topham. "For years we've used the same method for packing root modules, so this was a comparison study between old and potential improvements and so far we have found a couple of surprising results."

First, a sensor failure in the traditional root module on the station caused the plants to receive higher than specified water levels. Investigators believed the over watering would disrupt nutrients and oxygen in the traditional module, making the newer improved module look better in the comparison.

Surprises in micro-gravity research are not unusual, though, and it turned out that over watered traditional module sprouted and developed leaves about twice as fast. "This suggests the conservative water level we have been using for all our previous experiments may be below optimal for plant growth in microgravity," said Topham.

The second surprising result was discovered when the root modules were unpacked on the ground. The new fertilizer being tested had a slower and more even release rate, which had helped lower the plants' accumulation of salts during ground studies. Investigators expected to see higher salt accumulation in the space modules, but the opposite occurred.

"The current theory is that the extra water and larger plant uptake of fertilizer caused the root modules to remove nutrients faster and release fertilizer faster, thus preventing the salt accumulations that were observed in the slower-growing ground studies," said Topham.

"The space station's ability to provide on-the-spot adjustments to experiment conditions or opportunities to quickly repeat microgravity experiments with new conditions are a big plus for researchers," said Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist at Johnson Space Center. "This work also shows the surprising results that investigators find when they take a well-understood experiment on Earth and reproduce it on the space station."

Data from this investigation also will help advance Earth-based greenhouses and controlled-environment agricultural systems and help farmers produce better, healthier crops in small spaces using the optimum amount of water and nutrients.

The experiment takes advantage of a 20-year-old cooperative agreement between the Space Dynamics Laboratory and the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. Each organization benefits from resources provided by their respective national space programs -- the Space Dynamics Laboratory with NASA, and the Institute for Biomedical Problems with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Root modules with seeds are launched to the space station on Russian Progress supply vehicles. Russian crew members water the plant seeds and perform maintenance. They also harvest the vegetables and place them in a station freezer before transferring them to a space shuttle freezer for return to Earth for analysis by U.S. investigators at the Space Dynamics Laboratory.

"I don’t see future space crews leaving the Earth for long duration without having the ability to grow their own food," said Topham. "The knowledge that we are gaining is enabling us to extend our exploration and future colonization of space."

Acknowledgment: NASA

Aconitum napellus (Monkshood): A beauty with poison

Photo: Acontium napellus

All we want is beauty in everything. It's a human nature. But everyone will also conform that everything that is beautiful always doesn't come with bless. It may turn into the cause of our sufferings. 

Acontium napellus (Monkshood also known as wolf's bane) is such a plant that is very attractive when you look. Even you may be convince to keep in your room as a ornamental plant. But along with it's impressive look it is poisonous too. Let's have a short account on "A beauty with poison".

Aconitum napellus is a perennial herb often grown as an ornamental plant due to its attractive blue to dark purple flowers. All parts of the plant, especially the roots, contain toxins. Aconitine is the most dangerous of these toxins. It is most noted as a heart poison but is also a potent nerve poison. Raw aconite plants are very poisonous.They are used as herbs only after processing by boiling or steaming to reduce their toxicity.

A. napellus has been used since ancient times as a poison used on spears and arrows for hunting and battle. As wolfsbane, it was believed to repel werewolves (and real wolves!). Ancient Romans used it as a method of execution.

A. napellus is native to western and central Europe where it is considered one of the most poisonous plants. Aconitine poisoning is rare in North America. When it does occur, it is generally due to confusion with an edible plant or unintentional ingestion by children. However, with the increasing popularity and availability of herbal medicines containing A. napellus, aconitine poisoning could occur more frequently.

Aconitine poisoning is most common in Asia due to the widespread use of herbal medications. In Hong Kong, aconitine is responsible for the majority of serious poisonings from Chinese herbal preparations. While the source of aconitine, especially in China, is usually Aconitum carmichaeli (chuanwu) or Aconitum kuznezoffii (caowu), the toxicity is similar to A. napellus.

Alleged therapeutic uses of A. napellus include treatment of joint and muscle pain. As a tincture applied to the skin, it is claimed to slow the heart rate in cardiac patients. Other claimed uses include reduction of fevers and cold symptoms.

In poisonings, the onset of symptoms occurs within minutes to a few hours after swallowing. The severity of aconitine poisoning is related to the rapid onset of life-threatening heart rhythm changes. Other symptoms can include numbness and tingling, slow or fast heart rate, and gastrointestinal manifestations such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Respiratory paralysis and heart rhythm abnormalities can lead to death. The treatment is symptomatic and supportive; there is no specific antidote.

There is a very low margin of safety between therapeutic and toxic doses of aconitine. For example, a 66-year-old woman with no known heart disease obtained some from an herbalist. She was instructed to make a tea with it to treat her osteoarthritis. About 90 minutes after drinking the tea she developed numbness of her face, arms, and legs. This was rapidly followed by nausea, weakness, and chest pressure. In an ER, she was found to have an abnormal heart rhythm. After 4 hours of treatment with drugs and electrical shocks to her heart, a normal heart rhythm was restored.

There are cases of poisoning in which people intentionally swallow A. napellus they grow for themselves because of its claimed therapeutic effects. A 21-year-old man acquired Aconitum napellus plants after reading a book on herbal medicine. He ground up the roots of the plants and filled capsules with the dried material. He then took 1 capsule daily for several months to treat his anxiety. In order to increase the effects one evening, he swallowed 3 capsules and went to sleep. Five hours later he awoke with generalized numbness, nausea, diarrhea, dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath, and defective color vision (he was seeing purple). It was believed that early symptoms went unnoticed because he was asleep. In an ER, his heart rate was very slow at 43 beats per minute, and he had an abnormal heart rhythm. Plasma concentrations of aconitine supported poisoning by A. napellus. He spent 48 days in the hospital.

Acknowledgment: Poison Control

Do not make noise-:-Your plants feel disturb!

Photo: Ornamental plant

Ground: 

Imagine, you like peaceful and calm environment when you are reading or sleeping. some naughty boys make noise and disturbs your concentration in reading or sleeping. How will you feel then! No doubt, you will get bored. If you would know that like humans and other animals, plants also feel disturbs when u make noise, probably you will be agree to make no more noise!

Go Inside:

Researchers haven't given much thought to the effect of noise and noise pollution on plants. After all, plants don't have ears — at least, not the kind you hear with — so there doesn't seem to be much point. But thanks to ecologist Clinton Francis, that could be about to change.

Francis is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. But he has spent the past few years in northwestern New Mexico, studying noise pollution in Rattlesnake Canyon.

Gnarled juniper trees and pinon pines dominate the canyon's landscape of high mesas and rough sandstone cliffs. Tucked in among the trees are thousands of natural gas wells, about a third of them pressurized by ear-splitting compressors.

"They run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with the exception of periodic maintenance," Francis says, "so they are going all the time."

Since 2005, he has been studying how Rattlesnake Canyon's birds respond to the compressors' nonstop racket. And it looks like the noise is having an effect.

"Black-chinned hummingbirds, for example, tend to prefer and settle in really noisy landscapes, and Western scrub jays tend to avoid these noisy areas," he says.

If the noise is changing the way the birds behave, Francis wondered, it might have an effect on plants in the area, too. Take, for example, the relationship between pinon trees and scrub jays.

"We know that jays are really important seed dispersers for pinon pine," Francis says. The jays bury the seeds to snack on later, but inevitably, some get forgotten and grow into new pine trees.

Francis already knew there were fewer pine seedlings at noisy sites. Was that because the noise was keeping the jays away from their pine nuts?

To find out, Francis set up motion-trigger cameras at both noisy and quiet sites, put out some seeds and waited.

As he predicted, the jays were only stashing nuts at quiet sites, not at noisy ones. But in a twist, the seeds at noisy sites were being gobbled up anyway – by mice. And the mice weren't leaving any seeds behind to sprout.

It looked like the compressor noise was hitting the pine trees with a double whammy. "We're just not getting as many seeds going into the seed bank in noisy areas, and the ones that do might be consumed by the mice," Francis says.

But he also says the effect of noise on the canyon's plants isn't all bad. A flower pollinated by hummingbirds did better near the compressors. Remember, hummingbirds seem to like the noise — probably, Francis says, because it drives away the scrub jays that would otherwise eat the hummingbirds' eggs and young.

Francis just published his research in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. And other researchers are already taking note.

Ecologist Gail Patricelli, of the University of California, also studies how gas-drilling noise affects birds — in her case, the greater sage grouse. She says as far as she knows, Francis' work is the first to show how noise affects plants.

"You kind of hit yourself on the forehead and think, why didn't I think of that?" Patricelli says. And even at her remote field site in Wyoming, she says, it's not quiet.

"We hear airplanes, we hear roads going, you know, way off in the distance that are too far away to see, and yet you can still hear them, because sound travels much, much further than a lot of the other types of disturbance," Patricelli says. "And so it's just an enormous land area that's impacted by noise, and we know remarkably little about what that noise does to the ecosystem."

But it seems likely that for long-lived species like the pinon pines in Rattlesnake Canyon, the effects of noise may continue to reverberate long after the compressors have gone silent.

Acknowledgment: NPR

Tree bombing: A groundbreaking approach to make earth greener

Photo: Tree bombs

What if, Bombers (combat aircraft) are being used to bomb tree seedlings from sky instead of atomic bombs that kills humankind! Do you wonder! Well, you may wonder but it's true that such a peaceful approach is on the think tank of the environmentalist to change our almost dying nature. Climate is being changed very rapidly and to combat this rapid change we need an approach that can plants billions of tree seedlings effectively within a very short time. This is the point where tree bombing technology will bring an revolution. Let's be introduced with the groundbreaking approach.

Background of the idea "Tree bombing"

The idea of tree bombing is originally from, Jack Walter, a former RAF pilot. According to Tree Hugger, there are approximately 2,500 old military planes that are sitting in airport hangars around the world – in over 70 countries! These planes were designed to drop aerial bombs for military operations and could be used to drop as many as 900,000 young trees in a day! Credit to a former RAF pilot, Jack Walters, to come up with this brilliant idea. Lockheed has stated that a retro-fit technology could allow the planting of as many as 1 BILLION trees per year, enough to reforest 3k square miles (about 3x the size of Rhode Island). 

How does it work:

First, you have to pick the proper environment: Typically, an area that has experienced deforestation, and was previously home to forests. With minor adjustments, however, Lockheed says that traditionally unforested areas can be successfully planted with shrub versions of the tree bombs. Shrub-bombs.

Second, you outfit a landmine carpet bomber to drop tree-bombs instead. Finally, you have the tree-bomb itself. Here's how they work:

The tree cones are pointed and designed to bury themselves in the ground at the same depth as if they had been planted by hand. They contain fertilizer and a material that soaks up surrounding moisture, watering the roots of the tree. The containers are metal but rot immediately so the tree can put its roots into the soil.

And thus you have a suitably testosterone-fueled, 21st century-appropriate method of planting trees.

Acknowledgment: Treehugger, Retree 

Suicide Plant: A plant that may lead you to commit suicide!

Photo: Suicide Plant

Hey there! did you ever hear about the deadly plant called "Suicide Plant" found at rain-forest in the north east of Australia? Probably not! Let's have a introduction with the deadly toxic suicide plant.

Dendrocnide moroides is the scientific Latin name for the plant that has also been called the stinging brush, moonlighter and even the gympie gympie. Merely brushing against the plant’s leaf will stab your body with countless microscopic needle-like hairs. The pain allegedly feels like being electrocuted and baptised with acid—at the same time. There’s no cure; trying to remove the tiny hairs is nigh-on impossible, and even attempting this feat could break the needles, causing even greater pain. There have been reports that excruciating pain from the moonlighter plant can last for months and, in some case, years.

The pain from the sting, however, can last for as long as two years and they say it's so unbearable, it once drove a man to suicide.

"For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn’t work or sleep, then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower. ... There's nothing to rival it; it's ten times worse than anything else."

- Ernie Rider, who was slapped in the face and torso with the foliage in 1963.

The plant is covered with stinging hairs that deliver a highly potent neuro-toxin. It's a poisonous sting that causes excruciating pain to the human body even though it has no adverse reaction in certain birds and insects.

The treatment for a dendrocnide moroides sting involves removal of the plant's stinging hairs with a wax strip and treating the affected skin with diluted hydrochloric acid.

Acknowledgment: SW and Signs of the time

Did you ever wonder about "Touch me not plant" (লজ্জাবতী): A plant that can learn, remember and evaluate

Photo: Touch me not plant (Lazzabati)

Lock Words

As you are habituated by seeing that touching the plant Mimosa pudica (Touch me not plant/Lazabbati) curls up immediately, It will be difficult for you to believe that it no longer folds it leaves when you touch! Yes, you will see such kind of touch not me plant if you visit Kew Gardens, Southeast London. Lets rediscover our views about lazzabti!

Words to Unlock

The specimens of Mimosa residing in Kew Gardens no longer curl up to the nudging fingers of countless human visitors. So many visitors of the Gardens have been touching these plants to see them perform their trick, that the plants cease to respond. Could it be that the Mimosa plants have learned that being touched repeatedly is a disturbance, yes, but one with no life-threatening consequences and therefore requiring no reaction?

The question underscores a phenomenon known as ‘habituation’, which is considered the simplest form of learning, one that scientists have observed pretty much wherever they have looked. And there is no reason to exclude plants from the effects of habituation merely on the basis of entrenched prejudices. Experimental evidence, combined with a sound theoretical framework that accounts for their behaviour, is required for us to make that call.

Like yawning, shivering, eye-blinking and knee-jerking in humans, the leaf-closing behaviour of Mimosa is an excellent example of an automatic response or reflex. Like all reflexes, Mimosa’s leaf folding trick is an evolutionary survival mechanism developed by members of the species through innumerable generations in the process of natural selection. It is part of the acquired habitus of the species, which has become deeply ingrained over its evolutionary history because it helped the specimens survive. How so?

Mimosa’s leaf folding allows the plant to respond quickly to perceived trouble, in order to protect her from harm. However, it does not come for free. When the plant folds her leaves shut, her capacity to forage for light suddenly plunges by half, meaning that the plant could face the risk of starvation. This risk may be a justifiable price to pay if the danger is real. But it is clearly a waste of precious opportunities to forage for light and thrive, when a perceived dangerous situation turns out to be not dangerous at all.

Mimosa is faced with a persistent emergency situation, urging her to keep evaluating the trade-off between the energetic gain of foraging and the risk of being eaten, constantly choosing between life and death. Wouldn’t it then be surprising to find that Mimosa has little or no control over her own fate? That the plant is incapable of assessing what the circumstances demand and what they offer? That she would be unable to learn from experience, unable to learn to ignore the harmless nuisance of, for example, being touched by yet another human finger visiting Kew Gardens, so as to spare herself the unnecessary trouble (and energy loss) of closing her leaves?

It would be surprising, indeed! Actually, this is not what these plants do: they learn. What we observe inside the controlled settings of a scientific laboratory as well as outdoors in places like Kew Gardens confirms that plants can learn, remember, evaluate the choices they are faced with, and make decisions. So, the true surprise is our insistence on thinking that plants can respond only in pre-programmed and automatic ways already encoded to their DNA or that, devoid of agency, they are somehow being acted upon rather than acting in their own right.

Acknowledgment: Botany One

What wonder next! Well, wait till the next article get published.

Wondering Facts About Plants: Do Plants Think?

Image: Flower that looks like animal

Basic:

Plants don’t have a central nervous system, so thought (as we normally define it) isn’t possible. But plants can sense their environment, respond to insect attacks and are even capable of limited movement. These reactions are driven by chemical signals – rather than nerve impulses – so it’s more like your immune system or unconscious hormonal responses, than conscious or deliberate thought. (Answered By Luis Villazon)

Wondering Facts:

When you think of the smartest organisms in the world, what comes to mind? Human beings probably are at the top of your list. You might also think about animals like dolphins, chimpanzees, and elephants.You probably don't think of plants. After all, you probably haven't had very many interesting conversations with a head of lettuce or a stalk of celery. When you think about it, though, plants do some amazing things.

Plants know when to grow up out of the ground when the time is right. Some plants even hunt and trap insects. Do plants have brains? Can plants think? Or is something else going on here?

Plants do not have brains like human beings do. They cannot think like human beings either. They can, however, contain extremely complex mechanisms that allow them to do amazing things. Although plants don't have brains, they can tell time! Plants have time-sensitive genes that let them know when to suppress growth. After a certain number of cold days pass, for example, these genes stop suppressing growth and allow for new growth to begin. Similar mechanisms let plants know when to drop their leaves and seeds, as well as when to open and close their petals on a daily basis.

Carnivorous plants, such as the Venus flytrap, can lie in wait and spring closed to trap insects and sometimes even frogs. They don't use brains to accomplish this complex task, though. Instead, finely-tuned hairs are triggered by their prey. When triggered, internal mechanisms cause the Venus flytrap's unique leaves to snap shut quickly to trap its prey.This mechanism is so advanced that it requires two different hairs to be contacted within 20 seconds of each other in order to trigger the process. This prevents accidental triggering when no real prey is present.

If these examples weren't impressive enough, Polish plant biologists recently released the results of research that they claim shows that plants can remember information and react to it. They believe plants may use an internal communications system that acts in a way similar to an animal's central nervous system. Researchers claim their studies show that a plant can remember information about light exposure, for example. When the time is right, plants can transmit that information to other parts of the plant.

Although much research remains to be done regarding plant intelligence, it appears that plants may possess very complex systems that, while not equivalent to thought that comes from a brain, allows for some interesting plant behavior that may have never been suspected before. (Retrieved from)

What next to wonder about? Wait till the next wonder! Do not forget to follow, like, share and comment!