Posted on 04/04/2017 10:02:00 AM PDT by unlearner
Harvard University chemists have invented a new kind of bionic leaf that uses bacteria, sunlight, water, and air to make fertilizer right in the soil where crops are grown. It could make possible a future low-cost commercial fertilizer for poorer countries in the emerging world...
Fertilizer created from sunlight + water + carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the air
For the new bionic leaf, Noceras team has designed a system in which bacteria use hydrogen from the water split by the artificial leaf plus carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make a bioplastic that the bacteria store inside themselves as fuel. I can then put the bug [bacteria] in the soil because it has already used the sunlight to make the bioplastic, Nocera says. Then the bug pulls nitrogen from the air and uses the bioplastic, which is basically stored hydrogen, to drive the fixation cycle to make ammonia for fertilizing crops.
(Excerpt) Read more at kurzweilai.net ...
This can’t be right, carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
[[leaf that uses bacteria, sunlight, water, and air to make fertilizer right in the soil where crops are grown.]]
Oh goody- Peas that poop
Kudzu does the same thing (fixes nitrogen from the air).
What could go wrong?
Are we talking about GMO’s?
In fact, I'll bet they even try to stop research along these lines.
If you plowed the damned Kudzu under wouldn’t it have the same effect, breaking down to the nutrients and fiber??
How far will 6 million dollars get?
I heard that kudzu is not all that hardy of a plant. When you cut it back, it doesn’t come back like most indigenous plants. It does nicely if not disturbed, however.
IF you could get the Kudzu out of the lakes, rivers and streams, we could all take our boats out again without fear of the krud getting stuck in our motors. Our dogs could go swimming without getting tangled in the stuff and drowning. Kids too.
If, if,if. If my aunt had wheels, she’d be a taxi.
They’ve already got a nitrogen-fixing (read “fertilizer-producing”) plant. It’s called “soybeans.” Corn depletes nitrogen; beans replace it. That’s why you rotate crops.
Does this process cause the plant to become inedible?
The fertilizer aspect causes me to wonder.
Indeed.
Just don't tell that to plants.
Just give 'em this.....It's what plants crave....
It’s got electrolytes!
Swamp Thing!!
It sure is.
However, the lib's would disagree...because it's GMO.
They are against this type of advancement that would benefit the poorest of the world the most.
Good grief. They don't need this when they still haven't grasped the notion of digging a water well and not pooping in it or their little ones having AIDS because they can't keep it in their pants.
Zero cost soil improvement is crop rotation, blood and bone meal and dung. Of course, they'd have to have a work ethic first so it's all mute.
OK. First, it’s not a leaf. “The device is made from silicon, electronics and catalysts...” Second, it requires some system to store the hydrogen. Then it requires a specific kind of bacteria that uses the stored hydrogen to make a “bioplastic” and a growth medium that has some sort of metered hydrogen release system. Then, this bacteria has to be isolated and applied to the soil, where it fixes nitrogen using the stored “bioplastic”.
You could save all those steps by just genetically engineering known nitrogen-fixing bacteria so they work with more food crops.
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