Grow a plant with a simple click of the mouse?
Not really, but a research project at the University of Illinois is modeling mathematically the entire process used by plants to transform the sun's rays into usable energy. The project aims to identify means for increase the rate of photosynthesis and thereby make it more efficient biofuel production. Scientists are working at all levels, from the sown field to the molecular level. “There are many discussions on how we can decarbonise our fuels, but currently the decarbonisation of electricity is not intense enough,” he laments Steve Long, University of Illinois Urbana professor of agricultural sciences and phytobiology and project director. Researchers are literally growing crops in their computers in seconds to test and quantify how humanity can squeeze more bio-energy from certain plants. In this process, researchers input data from genetic engineering to see what results can be achieved in the field using the DNA modifications proposals.
The scientists say this will optimize leaf placement, improve carbon metabolism and make plants produce chemicals more efficiently. However, Long warns that growth in biofuel production is not an alternative to electric cars, but vice versa it must be synergistic with the launch of electric vehicles and hybrids. The scientist declared “there is no magic bullet”. “I'm saying we have to do both. Electric vehicles are more efficient even if electricity is produced from decarbonised sources. There is no single solution to the problem,” he said. Photosynthesis is probably one of the best studied and understood plant processes. Scientists have already identified the genes that regulate 100 stages of photosynthesis, but instead of working on those genes in the lab and then growing the modified plant to see if the changes work, Long and his team simply ask the computer to make it grow; in this way the search activity is speeded up. This project offers a way to computerize experiments that would otherwise take years in the real world, making biofuels one energy source alternative more realistic.
From Eniday.
