Fluorescence<\/em> provokes an uncanny reckoning with our knowledge of the plant realm and the extent to which human technology, innovation, and artificial interferences have exerted their visualization power in order to magnify these microscopic images. Through the iridescent footage of the plant cells, Soft Turns suggests a dormant potential in plants that could propel a quantum leap in the sciences, as well as knowledge of how plants were and have been used as a means to understand and subsequently colonize different parts of the world. In 2016, Soft Turns landed on Arabidopsis thaliana<\/em>, a small, agriculturally insignificant weed that has played a key role in humans\u2019 drive to colonize space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arabidopsis thaliana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A relative of cabbage and mustard, the small, nondescript flowering Arabidopsis thaliana<\/em> (A. thaliana) is commonly considered a weed. It is also the first plant to have had its genome fully sequenced and the first to complete a life cycle in space. The plant\u2019s small size and genome (135 mega-base pairs) and its short life cycle provide the necessary tenacity and flexibility for research that will lead to an understanding of the molecular biology of many other plants, making it the lab rat of experimental botany. A. thaliana\u2019s<\/em> life cycle lasts about six weeks. In this time, the plant goes through the full cycle from seeding to maturing, flowering, and decaying. It takes about three weeks for the stem that produces flowers to grow. A. thaliana\u2019s flowers can also self-pollinate to produce viable seeds for future plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in 1987, with the opening of the Third International Arabidopsis Conference at Michigan State University, research on A. thaliana<\/em> has emphasized the great potential of the plant\u2019s genome and behaviour for further research into the future survival of humankind^{1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>.} 1 <\/a> - David W. Meinke, J. Michael Cherry, Caroline Dean, Steven D. Rounsley, and Maarten Koornneef, \u201cArabidopsis thaliana: A Model Plant for Genome Analysis<\/em>,\u201d Science Magazine 282 (October 23, 1998): 662\u201382. 662-682.<\/span>. A. thaliana has become a model plant, to which equivalent genes and behaviours in other plants are compared. For example, understanding A. thaliana\u2019s defence mechanism against pathogens can provide valuable data for development of disease-resistant plants in other species.^{2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 2 <\/a> - www.nsf.gov\/bio\/pubs\/reports\/arabid\/chap1.htm<\/a>.<\/span>. In 1982, after failures with growing other plants, cosmonauts aboard the Soviet Union\u2019s Salyut 7 space station thought to try A. thaliana<\/em> because of its tenaciousness, but also in part because they liked its taste in salad. In 2006, nineteen years after the conference at Michigan State University, sixteen hundred A. thaliana<\/em> seeds travelled on the space shuttles Discovery and Atlantis to the International Space Station (ISS).^{3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 3 <\/a> - Stephen Pincock, \u201cArabidopsis in Space, The Scientist, November 1, 2006, www.the-scientist.com\/notebook-old\/arabidopsis-in-space-47066<\/a>.<\/span>. This time, the plant was researched for \u201cthe tropic influences of gravity and light on plant growth\u2026 helping to find a way to grow crops for long missions to the Moon and Mars.\u201d^{4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 4 <\/a> - Ibid. .<\/span>“
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Despite its relatively humble nature, A. thaliana<\/em> has significant potential that commands attention and interest from multiple disciplines. The plant stands in for a larger pool of genomes of all earthlings. A completion of its life cycle in a pure phototropic environment such as space broadens our understanding of how photosynthesis occurs on Earth, and, ultimately, of how to create viable conditions in space for agricultural activities.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The critical zone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Earth, \u201ccritical zone\u201d is a term that some researchers and environmentalists use to focus attention on the interconnectedness of the environment immediately above and below the surface of the planet, within which most life exists. The term promotes recent movements in scientific methodology to seek a deeper understanding of the complex and fluid interactions of the many actors within ecosystems \u2014 in contrast to past approaches, many of which isolated individuals or elements for study outside of their environment. Within this framework, the vitality of a plant reflects the vitality of the environment, its soil, air quality, humidity level, and other factors. Humans used to be a chain in this sophisticated link, until we created powerful machines a few hundred years ago to dominate the environment. Floating untethered in the dark void of space, leaving behind a severely ravaged Earth, we now yearn to re-create another version of our planet elsewhere. We feel the need to repeat the cycle of colonization, extraction, consumption, as if it is the only way humankind knows how to survive. With A. thaliana<\/em> and other subsequent plants completing their life cycles on the ISS, our critical zone seems to have extended over 690 kilometres above ground into the exosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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