Regardless of all of the data and information, it has not been possible to successfully make adjustments in agricultural methods to prepare for future conditions. A significant breakthrough in scientific research to adjust to climatic changes was made in the late 50s and early 60s with the development of the growth chamber.
Growth chambers are isolated and controlled laboratory chambers that are capable of creating any form of climatic conditions. They were first developed to deal with a food shortage in the middle of the 20th Century when the world was running out of wheat. From that time, they have developed into a predictive method for creating the worst and best conditions for food production.
Researchers have discovered that certain plants survive better in one part of the world but fail in other parts of the world. Prior to the development of growth chambers, the only way to create environmental conditions was to travel to that part of the world or attempt to create similar conditions in a hot house or nursery.
Though those two methods provided some type of control, they were still susceptible to factors outside the experimenter’s control. Slight changes in moisture, light, or temperature would lead to the failure of an experiment and wasted time.
Growth chambers provide researchers with the ability to create any conditions of anywhere in the world in a laboratory. Light, humidity, and temperature can be easily controlled and adjusted to match any environment.
In the past, when a region was struck by drought, there would be food shortages, famine, and loss of life. Scientists were unable to predict what needed to be done to adjust methods of farming and plants to meet the disastrous conditions.
Growth chambers are designed to create stressful and hazardous conditions that will have a strong influence on food production. They can design and engineer plants that will be capable of meeting the new circumstances and provide successful farming methods.
Geneticists are constantly looking for new strains of plants that have a shorter growing cycle and produce more food. Growth chambers provide them with conditions where they can safely create hybrid plants that are uninfluenced by real world conditions. In a single chamber, they can experiment with multiple varieties of plants to see how they interact or how they will survive under hostile conditions.
A key factor, for all scientists, is to be able to predict the future and prepare for it. Using the accumulated data from the last decades, scientists can use growth chambers to create what they believe will be future conditions and design plants to meet those conditions.
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