Thursday, May 13, 2010

PLN 31

I just read the article by the Associated Press, “Newton's apple tree bound for gravity-free orbit,” A piece of the Newton’s apple tree is being taken up into space on the Atlantis shuttle. An astronaut took this piece of the tree into space as an ironic joke but it is now turning into a major experiment. The astronaut just thought it would be funny to have a piece of the tree that helped discover gravity, in a zero gravity environment. But it has led scientist to begin testing what happens to plants in outer space. The thinking is that if plants can still grow without gravity, then it might make it possible to have colonies in space. Obviously the plant would have to be provided with necessary water and light, but otherwise hope is good for the survival of the zero gravity photosynthesizes. This matters to the world because we could be transported to large space stations, or even bases on another planet to live there. This effects education because of all the opportunities it will present. This will create jobs as well as new information and new engineering that needs to be figured out. With space farms, longer periods of time could be spent in orbit with out having restock flights. I think this is just amazing. In my US history class we are talking about all the decades up to the 2000’s and how technology has changed so rapidly in the last 10 to 20 years. Now colonization in outer space is a possibility? Wow!

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