#space lettuce

“Lettuce.”

Learn about how your lover’s clothing could improve your sleep; how astronauts grew vegetables in space for the first time; and ancient animals that were connected by a crude version of the internet. Smelling your lover’s shirt could improve your sleep by Kelsey Donk 3 Reasons to Give Your Valentine a Smelly, Unwashed T-Shirt. (2020). Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202002/3-reasons-give-your-valentine-smelly-unwashed-t-shirt  Smelling your lover’s shirt could improve your sleep. (2020, February 13). UBC News. https://news.ubc.ca/2020/02/13/smelling-your-lovers-shirt-could-improve-your-sleep/  Reed, D. L., & Sacco, W. P. (2016). Measuring Sleep Efficiency: What Should the Denominator Be? Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine : JCSM : Official Publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 12(2), 263–266. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.5498  We grew lettuce in space! by Grant Currin Space lettuce. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/f-sl022720.php   Khodadad, C. L. M., Hummerick, M. E., Spencer, L. E., Dixit, A. R., Richards, J. T., Romeyn, M. W., Smith, T. M., Wheeler, R. M., & Massa, G. D. (2020). Microbiological and Nutritional Analysis of Lettuce Crops Grown on the International Space Station. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.00199   What do astronauts eat in space? (2019, April 28). Royal Museums Greenwich. https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/space-stargazing/space-exploration/what-do-astronauts-eat-in-space  Half-billion-year-old fern-like animals acted like an ancient internet by Cameron Duke Half billion-year-old “social network” observed in early animals. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/uoc-hb030320.php   Quaglia, S. (2020, March 5). Half-billion-year-old, fern-like animals may be the first social network. Inverse; Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/science/ancient-fern-animals-may-be-first-social-network   Liu, A. G., & Dunn, F. S. (2020). Filamentous Connections between Ediacaran Fronds. Current Biology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.052   Taylor, J. W., Hann-Soden, C., Branco, S., Sylvain, I., & Ellison, C. E. (2015). Clonal reproduction in fungi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(29), 8901–8908. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1503159112   Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing via https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/astronauts-grew-lettuce-in-space-why-smelling-a-dirty-shirt-can-help-you-sleep-early-animals-that-acted-like-an-ancient-internet

Ray Wheeler, NASA‘s lead scientist for advanced life support activities at Kennedy Space Center

Pictured here under the warm red glow of a water-cooled, LED-based lighting system, "space lettuce" is growing in an aeroponic greenhouse module designed for use on the moon or Mars. The plants are suspended from soil-free trays and their dangling roots sprayed with nutrients for 20 seconds every 2 minutes. LEDs are needed because the sunlight on Mars is too weak to fuel photosynthesis. "On the moon we would most likely use artificial light too," says DLR engineer Daniel Schubert. "It makes more sense that way because the lunar night is about 14 Earth days long." The plant's healthy root system is visible both in Schubert's hand and, below, in normal light. For colonists, growing plants will be a key home comfort, but it's a two-way deal: astronauts will have to nourish their salad crops with their own waste fluids. Each greenhouse module will scavenge chemicals from astronaut urine to produce fertiliser. The system will be tested in the hostile wastes of Antarctica in 2016.