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Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by hbogert on Monday June 08, 2020 @05:24AM (#23455006)
I think you have a point. There's no free lunch in evolution based systems, at least that's my perception.
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by TomMarius on Monday June 08, 2020 @07:07AM (#23455514)
No evolution needs to happen in a controlled environment.
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by welfare on Monday June 08, 2020 @08:54AM (#23456049)
Plants have evolved to adapt to a certain environment, and if we change those parameters to promote a certain behaviour (e.g. higher yield) then most likely it comes at a cost (e.g. is the produce less nutritious?)
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by Valgrim on Monday June 08, 2020 @09:52AM (#23456465)
I'm curious to know if there's a limit to selecting plants cultivars. What should we optimize for? Vitamins, minerals, proteins, glucids, lipids, fibers or other macromolecules? Should we allow some sacrifice in taste, appearance, yield, resistance, conservation?
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by Jyaif on Monday June 08, 2020 @09:48AM (#23456436)
Why does the change have to be negative for humans? The products could just as well become more nutritious.
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by TomMarius on Monday June 08, 2020 @09:42AM (#23456390)
Evolution does not optimize to global maxima, it prefers local maximas. The path it has taken so far is also pretty convoluted.
Re:Quantum Dots Shift Sunlight's Spectrum to Speed Plant Growth by spooneyluv on Monday June 08, 2020 @08:35PM (#23462373)
It's pretty clear that sunlight isn't the absolute best spectrum for growing plants, so we know plants haven't evolved optimally to make use of the sun's spectrum as-is. I think a local max is the right idea. this tech is shortcutting that evolution and providing a better spectrum without using electricity, like LEDs would.