Mycology
Fungi are fundamental for life on earth in their roles as symbionts, e.g. in the form of mycorrhizae, insect symbionts, and lichens. Many fungi are able to break down complex organic biomolecules such as lignin, the more durable component of wood, and pollutants such as xenobiotics, petroleum, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By decomposing these molecules, fungi play a critical role in the global carbon cycle.
http://www.loveclicks.org/food/paul-stamet-patent/
Aspen Challenge LA 2015 Results
Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet was in it to win it.
And they did just that!
The John T. Reager Challenge
"I challenge you to sustainably balance the water budget in Southern California. How can we raise awareness and resolve the difference between the water we need and the water we use."
The competition was open to all LAUSD schools and held at Mater Dei High School in Orange County on Saturday, March 14th.
Congratulations to the entire team.
Aspen Challenge LA 2015
Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet.
"We're in it to win it!"
http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/challenge/losangeles/current/challenges-los-angeles
Gardening Robot
Meet the Gardening Robot that Could Grow Fresh Food for Astronauts
The RootStock Foundation's advisory board member Heather Hava explains.
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/spaced-out-robot-gardener
Aspen Challenge LA 2014
"Seventeen of our LA Unified Schools will hear the challenge, be challenged, and go back to their schools and prepare to answer the challenge."
- from the Aspen Institute LA Opening Forum, April 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k9XKXONo6w
What is Bio-Char?
Basically, it’s organic matter that is burned slowly, with a restricted flow of oxygen, and then the fire is stopped when the material reaches the charcoal stage. Unlike tiny tidbits of ash, coarse lumps of charcoal are full of crevices and holes, which help them serve as life rafts to soil microorganisms. The carbon compounds in charcoal form loose chemical bonds with soluble plant nutrients so they are not as readily washed away by rain and irrigation. Biochar alone added to poor soil has little benefit to plants, but when used in combination with compost and organic fertilizers, it can dramatically improve plant growth while helping retain nutrients in the soil.
The idea of biochar comes from the Amazonian rain forests of Brazil, where a civilization thrived for 2,000 years, from about 500 B.C. until Spanish and Portuguese explorers introduced devastating European diseases in the mid-1500s. Using only their hands, sticks, and stone axes, Amazonian tribes grew cassava, corn, and numerous tree fruits in soil made rich with compost, mulch, and smoldered plant matter.
Amazingly, these “dark earths” persist today as a testament to an ancient soil-building method you can use in your garden. Scientists disagree on whether the soils were created on purpose, in order to grow more food, or if they were an accidental byproduct of the biochar and compost generated in day-to-day village life along the banks of the Earth’s biggest river. However they came to be, there is no doubt that Amazonian dark earths (often called terra preta) hold plant nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium and magnesium, much more efficiently than unimproved soil. Even after 500 years of tropical temperatures and rainfall that averages 80 inches a year, the dark earths remain remarkably fertile.
To make biochar right in your gardens, start by digging a trench in a bed. (Use a fork to loosen the soil in the bottom of the trench and you’ll get the added benefits of this “double-digging” technique.) Then pile brush into the trench and light it. You want to have a fire that starts out hot, but is quickly slowed down by reducing the oxygen supply. The best way to tell what’s going on in a biochar fire is to watch the smoke. The white smoke, produced early on, is mostly water vapor. As the smoke turns yellow, resins and sugars in the material are being burned. When the smoke thins and turns grayish blue, dampen down the fire by covering it with about an inch of soil to reduce the air supply, and leave it to smolder. Then, after the organic matter has smoldered into charcoal chunks, use water to put out the fire.
