Jeremy M. Lange
Glass | The roof has two layers, separated by an inch of argon gas to help keep the hot rooms hot and the cool rooms cool. And because perfectly clear glass creates hot spots and shadows that can interfere with experiments, a hazy coating on the interior layer diffuses the incoming rays. Jeremy M. Lange
Glass | The roof has two layers, separated by an inch of argon gas to help keep the hot rooms hot and the cool rooms cool. And because perfectly clear glass creates hot spots and shadows that can interfere with experiments, a hazy coating on the interior layer diffuses the incoming rays.
Food and Water | A system of computer-controlled tubes sends precise amounts of water and nutrients to each pot. Syngenta has 13 types of fertilizers it can mix up and deliver with the fertigation system (yes, that’s what the company calls fertilizer plus irrigation) to simulate varying soil conditions. Jeremy M. Lange
Food and Water | A system of computer-controlled tubes sends precise amounts of water and nutrients to each pot. Syngenta has 13 types of fertilizers it can mix up and deliver with the fertigation system (yes, that’s what the company calls fertilizer plus irrigation) to simulate varying soil conditions.
Climate Control | Researchers can tweak humidity, oxygen, and CO2, even mimicking hour-by-hour weather patterns based on historical (or projected) data. They can also control temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius—ducts circulate the air for an ultra-uniform distribution. Jeremy M. Lange
Climate Control | Researchers can tweak humidity, oxygen, and CO2, even mimicking hour-by-hour weather patterns based on historical (or projected) data. They can also control temperatures within 2 degrees Celsius—ducts circulate the air for an ultra-uniform distribution.
Lighting | Corn requires 12 to 16 hours of daylight to grow properly, but it can’t always be summer. Thousands of wide-spectrum lights keep sunshine constant across the seasons. Jeremy M. Lange
Lighting | Corn requires 12 to 16 hours of daylight to grow properly, but it can’t always be summer. Thousands of wide-spectrum lights keep sunshine constant across the seasons.
Rooms | Scientists can carve an acre of floor space into as many as 76 programmable chambers. The smallest possible room is 300 square feet—perfect for testing the same crop, like a sturdy soybean, in separate rooms at higher and higher temperatures. Jeremy M. Lange
Rooms | Scientists can carve an acre of floor space into as many as 76 programmable chambers. The smallest possible room is 300 square feet—perfect for testing the same crop, like a sturdy soybean, in separate rooms at higher and higher temperatures.
It may have a glass roof and be filled with plants, but the Advanced Crop Lab at the Durham, North Carolina, headquarters of agricultural biotech firm Syngenta does a lot more than a typical greenhouse. Scientists can program its dozens of rooms with individual climates in order to test new crops that might flourish in our sweltering, drought-filled future. Which means that Nebraska corn can grow at 87 degrees right next door to Brazilian sugarcane at 95—no sweat.
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