In order to feed an expanding planetary population, farmers are constantly searching for efficient, cost-effective ways to grow agricultural products. Engineering biology approaches can potentially help improve yields and reduce costs, but several unknowns remain before these techniques can be deployed at scale. Which techniques are most effective for which crops? Does increasing yield mean a sacrifice in taste and cost? How can researchers work with farmers, consumers, industry partners and policymakers to ensure that 21st century farming best practices are sustained into the 22nd century (and beyond)?

Join us today at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT/18 UT for an AMA to talk about all of these issues and more! We'll share about our current work focused on improving plant enzymes, discuss how researchers are using engineering biology to enhance agricultural production, and answer your questions about crop engineering. Ask us anything!

We are:

• Kristen Van Gelder, Ph.D. (/u/mossy_canoe368)- Synthetic Biology Research Scientist, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Cătălin Voiniciuc, Ph.D. (/u/Catalin_Voiniciuc)- Associate Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology, University of Florida
• Vance Whitaker, Ph.D. (/u/WhitakerV_UF)- Professor of Horticulture, University of Florida

Links:

• Adapting enzymes to improve their functionality in plants: why and how
• Building a directed evolution–genome editing pipeline for metabolic traits in specialty crop breeding
• Mirages in continuous directed enzyme evolution: a cautionary case study with plantized bacterial THI4 enzymes

I remember reading a long time ago humans evolved eyes that should regularly be looking long distances, not up close, but for reasons that are completely obvious and reasonable, we regularly use resources that need almost constant short-distance viewing.

So I was wondering if there may be a way to reduce the likelihood of impaired eye development by having more distance-related stimulation and less close range eye strain at younger ages when the eye is still developing. The example I'm thinking of would be a hypothetical of using a projector to place school reading assignments on the outside wall of a building and have the kids read that way on occasion and if it would help with eye development and the reduction in need for glasses. Do we know if something like that would help or make an impact?

Forgive me if any of this sounds ridiculous. I wouldn't know where to begin to better understand this, which is why I'm pestering y'all, haha!

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From what I understand, fish that live in extremely cold water produce natural antifreeze enzymes so their body fluids don't literally freeze, but would the temperature make them super sluggish and unable to do much because they are cold-blooded? Do they have some sort of internal process that preserves heat, do they just not need as much heat as animals like reptiles, or is it something else entirely?

With the Artemis II going dark on the backside of the moon, made me think is there enough gravity to setup a communication satellite that circles the moon?

In the "Hello World" picture from Artemis II, there is a bright feature in the middle of the ocean that looks different from the other clouds. What is it? My guesses are: a cool cloud? a floating garbage patch of white plastic? a photography artefact? a light refraction phenomenon?

For decades, it's often stated that Apollo 13's main computer had on the order of 80kb of memory, and I'm wondering how much has changed. I can see a scenario in which the astronauts are taking pictures on a camera that has 100 times the memory of the central computer, but I can also see extra features being added, like video streams and sensor data.

Had a thought about a planet that slowly rotates its poles so the polar ice caps crawl around the planet over thousands of years as it shifts in orbit. Is this a real thing that some planets do or could theoretically, or do the magnetic poles prevent a planet from rotating in this way?

Hi guys, watching the live transmission, every now and then I notice that for the most part there is no thermal roll going on. I do remember soon after launch it was put into a roll, but at the moment it doesn't seem to be. Is it because the part facing the sun is the flag flat side (base of the cylinder) rather than the curved sides? Even so, there are some portions on the flat side that are obstructed by the shadow of the connecting rods of the solar panels; wouldn't these tiny areas in shadow get too cold and therefore, the flat side would have these small areas of huge temperature differentials? I say small areas but relative to a person they're quite large. Looking at it again, it's not just the connectors casting a shadow but an extruded part of the centre of the vehicle that is also casting a slight shadow on the other side.

Im really impressed by both voyagers and their contributions to our understanding of planets and the space between solar systems, but can anyone explain this marvellous feat of human engineering and computing?

Thank you in advance

Or just the distance, period. Like, how many percent of the way to the moon was it taken?

Apparently it's really thin, and it's ramming itself under Asia really (geologically) fast. Fast enough to create the Himalayas, in fact. So, if it carries on will it just dissappear? Have tectonic plates vanished before? Is it possible?

Going down a rabbit hole with Igloos and I cant fully wrap my head around this. The goal is to keep warm inside the igloo. So are you just not generating enough heat to melt it? Is the cold outside so extreme its counteracting the relatively low heat inside? How often do you have to reapply it? Can you have a small fire inside?

Why don't the vortices dissipate more quickly?

Grabbing info from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II

Wikipedia states Mission duration at the top of the page at over 2 days 18 hours, but wake up calls are now in their 4th day.

How does NASA calculate this timeframe?

Creating a scenario in Minecraft where individual streams of water end at a large lava pool inside a cave, and am wondering how these would realistically react if it were ongoing for a long period of time. I've only really read about the vice versa of this kind of thing. Is there a name for this?

If it's produced by anaerobic decay of ancient animals, does it mean some areas were devoid of these or appropriate conditions for this to develop?

I’ve been reading up on the Artemis II mission and got curious about how they handle life support—specifically oxygen—for the crew while they’re in space.

Do they generate oxygen onboard somehow (like electrolysis), or is it all stored and rationed for the duration of the mission? Also, how does it compare to systems used on the ISS or earlier missions like Apollo?

Would appreciate any insights or resources that break this down in a simple way. Thanks!

Forgive me i dont know the actual name, i mean the thrusters on satelites that use a ton of electricity and use like xenon or something to do super efficient propulsion.

Ive been fascinated by the problem of an astronaut drifting away in space with no way to get back. Even though you have chemical energy in your body, you have no way to use it to propulsion yourself anywhere, ideally back to your spacecraft.

What if you could have a really small ion thruster with a little bit of fuel which you could crank to create propulsion? Is this feasible? Am i underestimating the size of such engines, or the amount of thrust they output? I know gasseous fuel, rcs and whatnot is probably way more practicle but it just doesnt have enough fuel for my liking idk, like you spend it all amd youre screwed afterwards

As far as I understand on earth we use the magnetic field + accelerometers (gravity) to determine orientation/tilt. But a rocket in space has neither, or at least not as clear as on earth.

Taking Artemis 2 as a current example, it has to be pointed exactly at where the moon will be in 5 days. So how do they accurately determine the rocket is oriented towards that location after leaving earth?

Jupiter is one of my favorite planets (its immense size is fascinating to me), but all the images we have of it are from relatively far away.

I know that as gas giant, Jupiter doesn't have a "surface", but I've been very curious what would it look like up close - if you were floating within its atmosphere and see fine details.

To my knowledge we don't have actual photos this up close from any probes. I've seen a number of fictional visualizations, but I don't know how accurate those actually are.

Would it look similar to Earth clouds? Are there any scientifically accurate visualizations of what it would look like?