Not just metamaterials but rewriting the foundations of the ‘first’ of all materials: soil. Applied mathematics also reaches the world of agriculture and the new ambitious goal is to develop materials capable of replicating and improving the characteristics of the soils used in soilless agriculture, used for example in hydroponics. It is one of the projects developed by Adapta, an Italian startup, whose results were presented at the European Math 2 Product conference in Taormina, Sicily.
“We are in a historic phase in which it is mandatory to rethink agricultural production techniques,” explained Simona Perotto of the Milan Polytechnic and co-founder of Adapta. A need highlighted by various international organizations such as the FAO which estimates that by 2050 it will be necessary to increase agricultural production by around 70% to meet the growing demand for food. There are many solutions being worked on, from the use of insects to cultivated meat up to the so-called soilless cultivation, or rather the various techniques that allow to cultivate in small spaces, without using land and with very limited use of water and pesticides. But much can still be done to improve: “the idea is to replace standard soils with synthetic materials that are able to replicate the properties of standard soil on the one hand, and on the other to include properties useful for the cultivation of a specific type of plant,” added Perotto. In recent years it has been possible to verify that modifying the geometry of materials existing in nature it is possible to bring out otherwise impossible properties and behaviors, these are the so-called metamaterials. The same mathematical techniques have now been used to redesign the characteristics of soils used for hydroponic cultivation and new soil forms have been born from this. It is latex which is designed in cells whose specific design is able to give characteristics also of plant growth, specific geometries can for example stimulate the growth of some parts of the plant, modify the size of the fruit or the distribution. “All this – concluded the Italian researcher – thanks to an algorithm based on sophisticated mathematical tools which, automatically, allows to identify the shape of the cell in order to satisfy the properties of interest”.
Source: Ansa
I am a journalist with over 6 years of experience working in the news industry. I currently work as an author for Global Happenings, and my coverage focuses on Technology news. I have written for various publications, including Reuters, The New York Times and The Guardian.
