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The next agricultural revolution: a ‘bionic leaf’ that could help feed the world
kurzweilai.net ^ | 4/3/2017 | Kurtzweil AI Network

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,” Nocera’s 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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: food; science
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Fascinating developments in agricultural science.
1 posted on 04/04/2017 10:02:00 AM PDT by unlearner
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To: unlearner

This can’t be right, carbon dioxide is a pollutant.


2 posted on 04/04/2017 10:05:50 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: unlearner

[[leaf that uses bacteria, sunlight, water, and air to make fertilizer right in the soil where crops are grown.]]

Oh goody- Peas that poop


3 posted on 04/04/2017 10:06:02 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: unlearner

Kudzu does the same thing (fixes nitrogen from the air).

What could go wrong?


4 posted on 04/04/2017 10:06:12 AM PDT by wrench
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To: unlearner

Are we talking about GMO’s?


5 posted on 04/04/2017 10:06:41 AM PDT by yawningotter
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To: unlearner
If it ever reaches the stage of commercialization, this will be attacked by pretty much every "green" organization and self-appointed guardian of "nature." They will do everything in their power to stop it and see that it never gets out of the laboratory.

In fact, I'll bet they even try to stop research along these lines.

6 posted on 04/04/2017 10:08:27 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Liberals think in propaganda)
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To: unlearner

If you plowed the damned Kudzu under wouldn’t it have the same effect, breaking down to the nutrients and fiber??


7 posted on 04/04/2017 10:12:11 AM PDT by JimRed ( TERM LIMITS, NOW! Building the Wall! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: yawningotter

How far will 6 million dollars get?


8 posted on 04/04/2017 10:13:06 AM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: JimRed

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.


9 posted on 04/04/2017 10:16:17 AM PDT by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: JimRed

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.


10 posted on 04/04/2017 10:32:33 AM PDT by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: unlearner

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.


11 posted on 04/04/2017 10:34:20 AM PDT by IronJack
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To: unlearner

12 posted on 04/04/2017 10:35:25 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: unlearner

Does this process cause the plant to become inedible?

The fertilizer aspect causes me to wonder.


13 posted on 04/04/2017 10:36:03 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (NeverTrump, a movement that was revealed to be a movement. Thank heaven we flushed!)
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To: Pietro
"This can’t be right, carbon dioxide is a pollutant."

Indeed.

Just don't tell that to plants.

14 posted on 04/04/2017 10:54:16 AM PDT by rxsid (HOW CAN A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN'S STATUS BE "GOVERNED" BY GREAT BRITAIN? - Leo Donofrio (2009))
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To: rxsid
Just don't tell that to plants.

Just give 'em this.....It's what plants crave....


15 posted on 04/04/2017 10:56:57 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator

It’s got electrolytes!


16 posted on 04/04/2017 10:57:46 AM PDT by BlueLancer (Ex Scientia Tridens)
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To: unlearner

Swamp Thing!!


17 posted on 04/04/2017 10:58:04 AM PDT by wyowolf (Be ware when the preachers take over the Republican party...)
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To: unlearner
"Fascinating developments in agricultural science."

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.

18 posted on 04/04/2017 10:59:15 AM PDT by rxsid (HOW CAN A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN'S STATUS BE "GOVERNED" BY GREAT BRITAIN? - Leo Donofrio (2009))
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To: unlearner
poorer countries in the emerging world

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.

19 posted on 04/04/2017 11:09:07 AM PDT by bgill (From the CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: unlearner

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.


20 posted on 04/04/2017 11:31:47 AM PDT by VanShuyten ("...that all the donkeys were dead. I know nothing as to the fate of the less valuable animals.")
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