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LED + SSL, Research

LEDs May Help Astronauts Grow Food on Other Planets

Craig DiLouie August 29, 2014

Red leaf lettuce grown under different spectral conditions resulted in leaves with different colors and tastes

Red leaf lettuce grown under different spectral conditions resulted in leaves with different colors and tastes

Here’s an interesting application for LEDs: growing food on other planets.

Researchers at the University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CERF) are studying LEDs as a light source that can facilitate plant growth in environments where nutrients and electricity are scarce, such as space and even during colonization efforts of other planets. The result will be a low-power LED system that optimizes its spectral emission to promote plant growth.

CBC has the story here.

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Craig DiLouie
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Launched in 2001, LightNOW covers the rapidly changing lighting world for lighting people. Check-in daily to see new posts by Editor David Shiller, Craig DiLouie, and other experts in the lighting field including consultants and lighting designers. Posts include news items to keep you up to date, short opinion pieces to invite you to consider another point of view, new products every Monday, and links to new research and tools to help you design with light. Also be sure to subscribe to the LightNOW newsletter (free), which is published every two weeks as a digest of articles on the site. We always welcome your feedback, so feel free to comment on any of the stories that appear here at LightNOW. If you are a manufacturer, LightNOW offers a low-cost ad vehicle to reach thousands of specifiers, contractors, reps, distributors, consultants, owners, and other stakeholders in the sales channel. For advertising inquiries, contact Suelynn Shiller. Thank you for visiting, and we hope you find LightNOW useful for your career in lighting

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