Plant Lights | Hot Sand | Crying Plants

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Friendly reminder: It’s still summer until September 22nd. Don’t let coffee flavors and Halloween supplies fool you!

—Steve 🌞 

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Plant Lights

Glow-in-the-dark succulents make the best night lights. Researchers figured out how to make our cozy plants glow.

• Treated leaves with strontium aluminate microparticles

• Silica coating protected plant tissue from the phosphorescent material

• Glowing lasts hours and recharges w/ light exposure

Succulent glow could replace traditional ambient light sources and offers sustainable evening lighting. Photosynthesis and overall plant health were not harmed, though longer studies will review any lasting impacts. Cool, now do it to pumpkins.

Self-lighting jack-o-lanterns would be…lit

Hot Sand

Finland runs on sand energy. Well, at least some homes are making use of a massive sand battery for their heating needs.

• Sand battery = ~42.5’ tall x 49’ wide, 100 MWH capacity

• Stores excess electricity as heat in ~2,000 tons of sand

• Heats up to 1,112 ºF

The battery can heat an entire town for a week in the winter, though it is intended to buffer shortages instead of being a primary source. Estimates predict it will cut carbon emissions by 70% and reduce wood chip usage in the region. But does it look like a sand castle?!

Maybe a beginner sand castle

Crying Plants - If a tree cries in the forest

Turns out sad plants actually cry. Researchers tuned in to plant emotions and heard audible signals when their lab garden was thirsty or stressed.

• Crying plants produce 35 sounds per hour

• While others only speak up once an hour

• Ultrasonic plant chatter is inaudible to most humans

Many animals, including bats and moths, may be able to hear and respond to these signals. More research is needed to determine if these are truly cries for help, or simply a reaction to specific stimuli. Brb, apologizing to all my succulents.

Original casualSucculent

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Unnatural Selection

I’m debating keeping this section active. If you’d like to continue seeing silly pie charts next week, please vote on this week’s poll below!

st3v on site

Pseudo-Biolumo

st3v’s succulent wanted to try on some phosphorescents after reading this week’s stories. Halloween is gonna be so spoOopy!

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