The Seattle area is seeing widespread, well-organized opposition to an export industry: coal. Thousands of people have turned out to express their disgust with a plan to build export terminals on Puget Sound to ship American coal to Asia. Opponents cite noise, traffic delays, coal dust and global warming.
Photographer Freya Najade journeys into the weird sci-fi world of Europe's agricultural production. In one cow-milking facility she visited, "two people are needed to milk twice a day 300 cows," she writes.
Credit Freya Najade
Apple Tree, 2011: Modern apple growers use apple varieties that are grafted onto Dwarfing Rootstocks. Developed at a research station in the U.K., these ... trees need less water and less space than traditional apple trees, which makes high density planting possible. The fruits are more accessible and easier to pick, because the trees are smaller.
Credit Freya Najade
Tomatoes I, 2012: In order to have total control over the nutrients and the irrigation, tomatoes are planted in sterile material such as rock wool and not in soil. By doing so, the tomatoes are, according to the growers, less likely infected by diseases, a smaller amount of pesticide is needed and the yield can be increased.
Credit Freya Najade
Lettuce, 2011: Lettuce is grown in a stacking system to provide a maximum use of space. Plants grow inside of plastic trays without soil. A conveyor belt is moving the plants to ensure they get all round sunlight. The whole growing process is computer controlled.
Credit Freya Najade
Cress, 2011: Cress, tomatoes, cucumbers, or lettuce are grown in closed systems just with LED lights. There is no sunlight and no direct exchange of air with the outside. Day and night, summer and winter stop existing. Humans are able to determine the shape, taste and color of plants and fruits. They can be grown anywhere from the desert to inside of restaurants and supermarkets.
Credit Freya Najade
Tomato Vines, 2012
Credit Freya Najade
Eggplants, 2012: A computer manages precisely the irrigation, the nutrients given to the plants and also the climate inside the greenhouse. Automatically windows open, sunscreens move, and waste, water and nutrients are collected, purified, and recycled.
Credit Freya Najade
Tomatoes II, 2011: In order to consume locally grown tomatoes in ... the U.K. or Germany, the tomatoes need to be produced in heated greenhouses. ... To produce in more sustainable ways and to keep the cost of energy low, the greenhouse above is heated by the waste heat from a nearby nuclear power station.
Credit Freya Najade
Strawberries II, 2012: Strawberry crops are grown on tabletop-raised beds. The tabletop system makes it easier to pick the fruits and eases the weed and pest control. A leaf and sap analysis determines the nutrient's compound, which is fed with the irrigation water. To accelerate the growth of the plants, growers above add CO2 from a close-by Shell refinery.
Credit Freya Najade
Milking Parlor, 2012: Two people are needed to milk twice a day, 300 cows.
Credit Freya Najade
Milking Robot I, 2012: One milking robot milks three times per day, 60 cows. The cows are in a stable, in which they can move around freely. They can use the robot whenever they need to. No human needs to be present.
Credit Freya Najade
Mushrooms, 2012: To allow an all-year-round production of mushrooms and to increase the yield, mushrooms are grown in a microclimate inside growing rooms. A stacking system maximizes the production per square meter.
Credit Freya Najade
Chicken, 2011: Since the mid-1990s the consumption of chicken has increased by 75 percent worldwide. Chicken are often reared in barns. One chicken barn has the capacity to rear 50,000 chickens.
We all have an inkling of how our food is grown these days, but increasingly we don't really know what it looks like. You'd probably recognize a tomato plant or a cornfield — but these photos offer a perspective that a lot of us haven't seen.
Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 1:03 pm
What's the secret to making a fluffy omelet or the perfect pie dough? Jack Bishop, chef and editorial director at America's Test Kitchen, stops by to debunk cooking myths and highlight some of the surprising finds from the show's new cookbook, The Science of Good Cooking.
Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 1:03 pm
In A Man of Misconceptions: The Life of an Eccentric in an Age of Change, John Glassie writes of 17th-century Jesuit priest and scientist Athanasius Kircher, a renaissance man who studied magnetism, Mount Vesuvius, even the blood of plague victims. The only problem? His theories were often wrong.
Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 1:03 pm
In time for New Year's Eve, Science Friday examines the chemical reactions that transpire in fluted glassware. Ira Flatow and Richard Zare, a chemist at Stanford University, pore over the science of bubbles — from how to keep that open champagne fizzy (forget the cork) to why beer tastes better from a glass rather than a bottle.
Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 1:03 pm
Move over, CSI and NCIS, there's a new game in town. Authors Eric and Natalie Yoder share some of their 'One Minute Mysteries' that can be solved with logic and knowledge of science — and without the aid of a magically fast DNA lab or improbable photo enhancement software.
Originally published on Fri December 28, 2012 12:41 pm
Got milk? Ancient European farmers who made cheese thousands of years ago certainly had it. But at that time, they lacked a genetic mutation that would have allowed them to digest raw milk's dominant sugar, lactose, after childhood.
Today, however, 35 percent of the global population — mostly people with European ancestry — can digest lactose in adulthood without a hitch.
