Imperial College and Syngenta University have been working on the development of a new tool that will estimate the reaction that crops will have to different pesticides. Previous agricultural technology/research would have taken months/years to come to the conclusions that the tool calculates in a matter of minutes. The tool shows how the plant will react to different substances and environmental conditioins. Scientists are hoping that the tools will potentially help to create a drought resistant grain, and improve the shelf time/taste/quality of crops. The tool uses "machine learning", which basically means that the machine can learn and retain information from that of which it analyzes. Scientists will be using a tomato as the first test of the tool. They will be analyzing what genes affect the tomatoes flesh consistancy and color. The main goal is to create a better tasting strain of tomato. Another project that scientists are taking on is testing which pesticides are harmful to what plants. The tool will be very useful for these purposes.
I think that this tool will greatly improve the knowledge that scientists have about chemicals effects on plants, which ultimately leads to knowing their effects on humans. The thought of the tool having the "machine learning" application is a bit frightening, though. That entire concept does not stand on solid ground with me. Humans are becoming too reliant on machines to retain information for them. The idea of knowledge has shifted over the years from the idea of figuring out what you need to know and retaining it to figuring out how to develop a machine to tell you what you need to know-and relying on that machine to retain the information for you to reference. Some view this change as a positive thing, but I do not believe that it is a positive. If something disastrous happened and every computer blacked out and all information was lost, a large percentage of human "knowledge" would be gone--the "old fashioned way" of learning and research is always the way to go in my opinion.
-Lauren Null
Source--http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090922095808.htm
These strides in Technology seem like a great way to improve agriculture. If we can determine how to genetically alter produce so that more can be harvasted per acre then perhaps the shortage of good farmable land will not be a problem in the future.
ReplyDeleteRyan Cowen