The International Potato Center is seeking to confirm if potatoes can grow on Mars, scientists develop the first synthetic cell receptor, anesthesia on a cellular level is under review, and more.
This week in science is a review of the most interesting scientific news of the week.
Potatoes on Mars
The International Potato Center (CIP, in Spanish) is a root and tuber research-for-development institution that aims at sustainable solutions to world problems such as hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources. That is why they have developed the Potatoes on Mars project, which is a series of experiments to determine if potatoes can grow under Mars atmospheric conditions.
In order to create those conditions, engineers from the University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) in Lima have developed the CubeSat contained environment in partnership with NASA’s Ames Research Center (NASA ARC) in California. The preliminary results from the latest experiment, which started on February 14, are positive. According to Julio Valdivia-Silva, a researcher at UTEC in Lima and who has previously worked at NASA ARC:
The CubeSat environment is hermetically sealed to avoid interference from the exterior environment and is constantly monitored by sensors to maintain the Martian conditions. Also, live streaming cameras are used to record the soil, which can be accessed here , and the results from the initial plant growth, from February 16 to March 5, can be watched below.
Finally, the experiment also wants to determine if tubers can grow in extreme conditions on Earth, such as those developed due to the climate change. Therefore, the project’s success would mean not only the possibility of growing food outside of our planet, but it would also mean increased capability to grow it here.
Source: Phys.
