Colored light floods the room. One shelf is a stark white, the next a deep blue, a third crimson red. Yet another is far-red鈥攁 color so extreme it鈥檚 barely visible to the naked eye. These lights can get intense. When you step outside, everything looks green.
But this light show is not for wowing concertgoers or setting a mood. It鈥檚 for plants, specifically the crops of the future.
The lights are one of several new climate-control technologies at Uplands Farm in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Where conventional greenhouses limit growers鈥� capabilities to simple temperature changes, 黑料吃瓜资源鈥檚 (CSHL鈥檚) new state-of-the-art growth chambers give plant biologists the power to do much more. They can control everything from light frequency to humidity and carbon dioxide levels.
鈥淭he new chambers installed this spring can mimic the real severe weather conditions we are now experiencing and expect to continue,鈥� says CSHL Senior Farm Manager Timothy Mulligan. 鈥淭emperature spikes or crashes along with elevated carbon dioxide levels in full blazing sun or deep shadows鈥攕uper dry or very wet鈥攃an be programmed and observed in real time. In other words, we can create weather.鈥�
Press play to go with plant biologist Ullas Pedmale on a virtual tour of CSHL鈥檚 new growth chambers.
Read the related story: New CSHL technology controls the weather and time itself