Why haven’t we created machine that produce food from water and sunlight like plants?
In: Technology
Plants take water, metals (calcium, iron, potassium, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc), phosphorous, and nitrogen from the soil with their roots. Plant roots release an acid into the soil which helps dissolve the metals so they can absorb it.
Plants take carbon from the air, and use sunlight to help with this.
Air is mostly nitrogen (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen) but it’s very hard for a plant to take nitrogen from the air.
Except for water, these other compounds don’t exist in air, and are important for food.
Nitrogen is very important for all life, and it’s a major part of DNA.
Some plants, especially legumes (beans, peas) have bacteria on their seeds and roots that can take nitrogen from the air and give it to a plant. As a result beans and other legumes are commonly farmed as the bacteria on their roots fertilize the soil.
Nitrogen also happens to be extremely explosive, and it’s an important part of gun powder and explosives.
During WWI, the Nazis were unable to gen enough gun powder and nitrogen, so a German Scientist, Frits Haber, designed a machine that could take Nitrogen from the air using electricity. Today this machine is used to produce fertilizer, and it allowed farmers to produce more food than ever allowing the world’s population to expand.
Metabolism – the ability to turn all these basic into new things is an important part of life. It’s easier for scientists to use things like algae or plants to take sunlight, water, and carbon from the air and turn these into food and oil.
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