1 . Now a group of Italians have created the world’s first underwater garden for terrestrial plants. Called Nemo’s Garden, the project was launched by the Ocean Reef Group as a means to experiment with food supply diversity, should climatic changes make parts of Italy too dry to farm. The large self-sustaining, totally-contained biospheres would in theory be scalable, and perhaps in the future might look like the underwater city from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The challenge existing in growing plants underwater, given that they are normally at home in soil, was but one obstacle Nemo has had to overcome. The six air-filled greenhouses suffered major storm damage in October 2019, and before they could be fully repaired, COVID-19(新冠病毒) had all the researchers sheltering in place.
Yet the team never gave up hope, as Euronews reports, and the months of abandonment did not harm the facility in any way. June 6th saw the garden fully-operational again, including their live stream where one can watch the plants grow. The biospheres(生物圏), which sit eight meters under the surface off the coast of Noli in Liguria, use solar energy for their minimal electrical needs, and evaporated seawater condenses(凝结) on the glass of the ceiling which waters the plants. A diver swims under and up into the air pocket of the pod to harvest what’s ready to eat.
The project website says that increased pressure like that found under the ocean is actually beneficial to the speed at which plants can come up, though they admit very little research has been published on the topic—after all, not so many people are currently trying to grow strawberries it underwater.
The conditions create a really intense flavor in the vegetables, and also allow the plants’ environment to be completely controlled, with nothing impacting their life dial the growers don’t want. For now Nemo’s Garden is essentially a research lab, but if tie idea were expanded, it’s expected to be able to keep food security for the peninsula, and the world.
1. Why was Star Wars: The Phantom, Menace mentioned?A.To stress it is known to the world. |
B.To prove it has becomes u popular destination. |
C.To illustrate it is the first existing underwater city. |
D.To explain Nemo’s Garden has similarities with the underwater city. |
A.COVID-19. | B.Broken greenhouses. |
C.Frequent storms . | D.Shortage of soil. |
A.Strong-willed. | B.Self-confident. |
C.Open-minded. | D.Well-paid. |
A.It helps them sell well. | B.It contributes to good taste. |
C.It promotes their growth. | D.It increases growing period. |
When people think of plants, they usually think of gardens, parks, or even jungles. One place that does not usually come to mind is the desert. However, some deserts contain many plants that are able to grow and survive under difficult conditions.
Deserts can reach temperatures of 50 degrees or more in the daytime and can also drop below 0 degrees at night. This is a huge temperature difference under which desert plants have to live. Besides the high and low temperatures, all deserts receive very little water in the form of rain; sometimes it doesn’t rain for months. So, how do desert plants get water when there is no rain?
There are three main ways plants survive in the desert. First, some desert plants grow without leaves. Others have developed special ways of storing whatever water they can find, such as growing a waxy leaf covering that helps keep water inside the leaf. These plants can survive for weeks or months on the water collected from just one rainfall.
A second way desert plants survive even in the most difficult conditions is by growing very long roots. These roots spread out and search for any water they can find. Once they find water, the roots suck up as much as they can and then hold it, only allowing the plant above the ground to have small amounts at a time.
The third way plants survive in the desert is by “sleeping”. Some plants can turn off almost all their processes and just remain inactive, almost as if dead, while they wait for rain. When the rain does come, they quickly drink up every drop they possibly can and burst back into activity.
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Yuan Longping, Father of Hybrid Rice,
Yuan was a co-winner of the 2004 World Food Prize, the top international honor recognizing the deeds of
Yuan’s pioneering research has
Barbara Stinson, president of the WFP Foundation, said Yuan was credited not only for hybrid rice, but also for the ability
Yuan started hybrid rice research in 1964 and
“He’s made such
As the world
Though Xinjiang has little rainfall, it has a large number of snow-capped mountains, from which meltwater gives cotton abundant water resource. Meanwhile,
Xinjiang is lightly populated and has a vast planting area. It has
The combination of advantaged