Thanks to Linode Cloud  Computing for supporting this  episode of SciShow.

You can  go to linode.com/scishow to  learn more and get a $100  60-day credit on a new Linode  Account. [♪ INTRO]  Now, some people might dream  of getting the chance to  live in a Martian colony. Others  might find that a nightmare.  But everyone’s probably  worried about the food they’d  have to eat.

In Sci-Fi movies,   space colonists usually have to eat some shelf-stable protein bars or food pellets.   But what if they want, like, a salad?  Unfortunately, that colony is  probably underground to keep  everyone safe from cosmic  radiation. Add in the super thin  atmosphere and the lack of  liquid water, and it’s pretty  clear that those salads are  going to have to be grown  indoors, without sunlight. And while we can currently grow plants in those  conditions, we’re not that great at it.

But it turns out, scientists are   working on ways to grow crops in total darkness!  One of the biggest problems  with growing food indoors is  that, despite being around for  more than 3.4 billion years,  photosynthesis still isn’t very efficient. Photosynthesis takes water,   carbon dioxide, and the energy-carrying particles   of light called photons, and turns them into sugar molecules that the   plant can use to live and grow.  But when that source of light  is the Sun, most crop plants  only turn about 1% of that energy into what we can harvest.  So to feed an entire population,  you need a lot of room to  grow a lot of plants that have  a lot of leaves to take in a  lot of sunlight. And if you’re  living on Mars, that can be  hard to come by.

Over the years,   scientists have tried to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis   by using selective breeding and genetic engineering to make   little tweaks to various parts of the process.  But one team decided to bypass  photosynthesis entirely.  Instead of plants using light  to make their own food, the  team found a way to make food using the exact same ingredients: water, carbon dioxide,   and energy. But the energy comes from electricity.  In a process called electrocatalysis,  that electricity breaks  apart the water and CO2  molecules to convert them into  oxygen gas and acetate, which  is the main ingredient in  vinegar. After the   researchers mix the acetate with some additional nutrients, a plant could absorb the new food   source with its roots.  The plant can then use the  carbon from the acetate in the  same way that it would use  the carbon in the sugars  produced by photosynthesis.

So this electrocatalysis   replaces the inefficient steps of photosynthesis, but it still   provides a plant…or any life form that relies on photosynthesis…the   chemical elements it needs to grow.  Using this acetate-enriched  food, the researchers were  able to grow things like algae  and yeast in total darkness.  And both grew more than  they would have using their  natural photosynthesis powers. The algae grew four times as much,   and the yeast yield was eighteen times larger!.  The researchers also gave the  acetate to plants. Like rice,  peas, tomatoes, peppers, and  lettuce.

But those weren’t  grown in the dark. The team was just testing   to make sure the crops could incorporate the carbon from   the acetate like they could with the carbon from their homemade sugar.  To track that, the team used  a heavier form of carbon to  make the acetate. That  allowed them to track how much  acetate these plants used,  along with the sugars they  made from photosynthesis.

As for why they didn’t just   grow the plants in the dark? Well, the paper doesn’t say.  But in the end, all these  crops did use the acetate to  varying degrees.  So if things are looking good  for growing crops in less  space, and in controlled  environments like buildings, why  aren’t we using this amazing method already? Well, it turns out the team did   have some struggles growing their crops.  When they tested different  concentrations of acetate on the  lettuce, the plants given the  highest concentrations turned  out pretty wimpy, instead  of growing way bigger.

That  includes both the leafy salad  parts as well as the roots.  The team suggested it might  be the potassium in the  acetate solution that’s stunting the growth. Even so, the results aren’t thorough   enough for farmers to start dumping a bunch   of acetate on their crops and expecting them to grow better.  But with genetic engineering,  researchers could develop  plants that are better at  incorporating acetate into their  overall structure. And if this new   photosynthesis-skipping process actually does work, space colonists won’t be the   only ones who can grow food indoors,   and in more concentrated spaces.

Cities don’t have the space to   grow enough food for their entire populations, so produce   often has to be shipped in from far away.  But by growing crops indoors,  cities might be able to  produce enough food locally,  which would mean fresher,  cheaper, and more sustainable meals. And as climate change threatens   agriculture around the world, indoor farms might help stem   the tide of food scarcity.  Now technically, the current  version of this process still  uses sunlight at some point  in the process, because the  electricity that created the  acetate was generated by solar  panels. But there’s no reason  that it has to use light.  For example, future Martian  colonists may get some of  their power from miniature  nuclear fission reactors.  So like with all experimentation,  it’ll take time to work out  the kinks, but one day scientists  might finally see the fruits  of their labor and grown  without a drop of sunlight.  Whether you’re growing food  far away or getting your  online cloud connection from  far away, things are just  simpler when they’re closer  to you.

Which is why Linode  Cloud Computing has eleven data centers across the world, so that you can get the best   connection through the data center closest to you.  Linode is a cloud computing  provider that brings online  firewall protection to you  internationally. They’re there to  ensure your projects are safe, whether you live in Singapore, Toronto, or anywhere in between.  And they keep your work  safe through cloud firewall  protection. This feature  regulates traffic to and from your  projects by only allowing your  specific trusted IP addresses  through.

You can use the same safety rules for different  applications, so you don’t  need to sit there and type out  every IP address you trust  every time you start a new  project. Linode makes it a  process that scales in seconds.  And you don’t need to learn  how to do it using a command  line. Linode Cloud Computing makes the process way more user friendly.

They even provide a   video to explain the whole thing.  So for you to access safe cloud  storage all over the world,  you just have to click the link  in the description or head to  linode.com/scishow for a  $100 60-day credit on a new  Linode account. Thank you to Linode   Cloud Computing for supporting this SciShow video, and thank you for   watching! [♪ OUTRO]