Manuel Lerdau is a professor in the dept. of environmental sciences at UVA. His childhood friend, Paul Mirel is employed by NASA, and together they have come up with a new way for people to track the health of plants on earth.
“All plants, in order to induce photosynthesis, which is how they get their food, have molecule inside called chlorophyl,” he explains. “Chlorophyl absorbs + blue and red light and reflects green light. That’s why leaves are green.”
The System for Terrestrial and Ecological Land Life Analysis or STELLA contains a microprocessor like what’s found in a smart phone along with sensors that detect changes in plants even before we can see them with our eyes.
Using this information, farmers growing crops in very dry areas can be more precise in their use of water…