Biotron (Wisconsin)

Last updated

The Biotron is a research facility located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that "provides controlled environments and climate-controlled greenhouses to support plant, animal, and materials research for university, non-profit, and commercial clients." [1]

Contents

History

An evolution of the phytotron, the development of the facility had its roots in the late 1950s as a campaign established by the Botanical Society of America in search of a national phytotron. [2] : 196  With additional funding and support by the National Science Foundation the Biotron was eventually envisioned as a combination facility that would allow both plant and animal tests to be conducted.

Plant physiologist Folke Skoog would be instrumental in bringing the Biotron to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A colleague of Frits Went at Caltech, Skoog oversaw the two proposals the university submitted to the Botanical Society in 1959. [2] : 203  The interdisciplinary nature and scope of the project quickly led it to becoming Madison's most expensive facility at around $4.2 million. [2] : 202  It was up to Harold Senn, appointed director of the Biotron to concentrate on assembling funding, which he was able to accomplish by January 1963, with the Ford Foundation and National Institute of Health contributing to the project. [2] : 210 

The Biotron was officially dedicated on September 18, 1970 with many experiments under precise controlled environmental conditions already under study, such as a lizard in the Palm Springs desert or black-eyed peas growing in hot and humid Nigeria. [3] When finally completed in 1971, the Biotron contained over fifty rooms with many able to variate temperature from as low as -25C to as high as 50C with humidity adjustable anywhere from 1%-100%. [4] Data from the various tests and sensors would then be fed and logged into a PDP-8/E-AA computer. Senn supposedly spent an additional $3,000 of the Biotron budget on increasing the computer's memory an extra 4 kilobytes. [5]

LED panel light experiment on potato plant growth by NASA. LED panel and plants.jpg
LED panel light experiment on potato plant growth by NASA.

In 1977, the International Crane Foundation brought endangered Siberian crane eggs from the U.S.S.R. to the Biotron for incubation and initial feeding. [6] [7] [8] A hyperbaric chamber was added and used for experiments on the effects of diving on pregnancy. [9] [10] A hypobaric chamber was used for high altitude tests of devices administering doses of vaccines and drugs. [11]

Although the Biotron went through a period of decline in the 1980s, unlike other facilities it never closed. In 1986, the first experiments using LEDs to grow plants were developed with NASA and tests were performed for the Galileo probe before its 1989 launch. [12] Much of its work in the 1990s partnered with NASA in the Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) and its goal in researching the viability of certain vegetables for space travel, in particular the potato. [13] [2] : 224  Study of animal hibernation were done by ESA for human space exploration. [12]

Rooms

The Biotron has 45 rooms that are capable of simulating a range of environmental variables with precision and control. These rooms feature separate air handling and control over the temperature, humidity, and lighting. Some rooms specialize in isolation from sound and vibration, electromagnetic radiation, or pressure. [3] [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurel Clark</span> American astronaut (1961–2003)

Laurel Blair Clark was a NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist. She died along with her six fellow crew members in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Clark was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Life-support system</span> Technology that allows survival in hostile environments

A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outside environment is hostile, such as outer space or underwater, or medical situations where the health of the person is compromised to the extent that the risk of death would be high without the function of the equipment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Moulton Babcock</span>

Stephen Moulton Babcock was an American agricultural chemist. He is best known for developing the Babcock test, used to determine butterfat content in milk and cheese processing, and for the single-grain experiment that led to the development of nutritional science as a recognized discipline.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phytotron</span> Enclosed research greenhouse

A phytotron is an enclosed research greenhouse used for studying interactions between plants and the environment. It was a product of the disciplines of plant physiology and botany.

Controlledecological life-support systems are a self-supporting life support system for space stations and colonies typically through controlled closed ecological systems, such as the BioHome, BIOS-3, Biosphere 2, Mars Desert Research Station, and Yuegong-1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frits Warmolt Went</span> Dutch botanist (1903–1990)

Frits Warmolt Went was a Dutch biologist whose 1928 experiment demonstrated the existence of auxin in plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biologist</span> Scientist studying living organisms

A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in a particular branch of biology and have a specific research focus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-grain experiment</span> Early 20th century agricultural experiment

The single-grain experiment was an experiment carried out at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from May 1907 to 1911. The experiment tested if cows could survive on a single type of grain. The experiment would lead to the development of modern nutritional science.

Ernst H. Krause was an American nuclear physicist and aerospace executive. He participated in early radar and rocketry research at the Naval Research Laboratory as the first chairman of the Upper Atmosphere Research Panel, working with Milton Rosen and succeeded by James Van Allen. His body of work includes experiments studying the upper atmosphere after World War II using captured V-2 rockets. From 1947 to 1951 he was involved in the first atomic testing at Enewetak Atoll in the Pacific, and later worked at the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. In 1955 he started the Systems Research Corporation, which later became Ford Aerospace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station</span> United States historic place

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) is the Connecticut state government's agricultural experiment station, a state government component that engages in scientific research and public outreach in agriculture and related fields. It is the oldest state experiment station in the United States, having been founded in 1875. Its official mission is to "develop, advance, and disseminate scientific knowledge, improve agricultural productivity and environmental quality, protect plants, and enhance human health and well-being through research for the benefit of Connecticut residents and the nation." The station operates a main research campus in New Haven, a research farm in Hamden, a satellite research facility and farm in Windsor, and a research farm in Griswold. The Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station is a separate agricultural research agency, founded in 1887 and part of the University of Connecticut, which also receives state and federal funding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Wisconsin Dairy Barn</span> United States historic place

The University of Wisconsin Dairy Barn is a building located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Built in 1897, the building played an important role in the field of dairy science during the 20th century. It has been used both as a teaching facility and as a site for agricultural research. It is significant for its association with the single-grain experiment, performed from 1907 to 1911 by Stephen Babcock. The UW Dairy Barn was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George F. Bond</span> US Navy physician and diving medicine and saturation diving researcher

Captain George Foote Bond was a United States Navy physician who was known as a leader in the field of undersea and hyperbaric medicine and the "Father of Saturation Diving".

The Pyrotron is a device designed to help firefighters better understand how to combat the rapid spread of bush fires in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vegetable Production System</span>

The Vegetable Production System (Veggie) is a plant growth system developed and used by NASA in outer space environments. The purpose of Veggie is to provide a self-sufficient and sustainable food source for astronauts as well as a means of recreation and relaxation through therapeutic gardening. Veggie was designed in conjunction with ORBITEC and is currently being used aboard the International Space Station, with another Veggie module planned to be delivered to the ISS in 2017.

The Eggatron was a digital counter that recorded when an egg was laid in an effort to determine the most productive hens. The device was tested using battery cages at CSIRO's Poultry Research Centre at Werribee.

The Assimitron was a Japanese device uses to measure fluctuating CO2 levels at crop canopies. Led by E. Inoue at the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences in Tsukuba, Japan, the device itself was an offshoot of an earlier Australian invention, the Evapotron that first found mention in a 1958 article in the journal Nature. The Evaporimeter, as it was first called, was used to measure the evaporations from natural surfaces. As for the Assimitron, it “instantaneously” performed “the necessary calculations for determining water vapour flux by correlation of humidity fluctuations with vertical wind fluctuations.”. Such calculations required the use of a complex centralized computer to process the enormous quantities of data. Part of this stemmed from the need to perform two different equations to deal with turbulent and low flows, depending on whether it was a windy or sunny day.

The Algatron was a proposed and prototyped waste filtration and recycling system to be implemented on NASA missions. Designed and built by a pair of sanitary engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, William J. Oswald and Clarence Golueke, the Algatron relied on algae to provide carbon Dioxide absorption and oxygen generation as well as "microbiological waste conversion" for "humans sealed within an isolated capsule.". A working model was built by Oswald and Golueke in 1965 or 1966 under a contract by from the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories. Composed of two stacked cylinders lined with Algae, the cylinders would spin in opposite directions. With ports to allow sunlight in, nutrients were introduced via some overflow mechanism. Despite the promise that the Algatron represented, and the ways in which Oswald and Golueke "understood that the closed environment of the space capsule was itself just the a microcosm of the closed system of the earth's biosphere," the technology would never get past the prototype stage. NASA instead decided to go with fecal bags to deal with waste. The Russians developed a similar system, the BIOS-3, which got as far enough as a successful test run with human occupants in 1965.

The ISS U.S. National Lab, commonly known as the ISS National Lab, is a U.S. government-funded national laboratory established on 30 December 2005 by the 2005 NASA Authorization Act. With principal research facilities located in the United States Orbital Segment (USOS) of the International Space Station (ISS), the Laboratory conducts research in life sciences, physical sciences, technology development and remote sensing for a broad range of academic, government and commercial users. Of the 270 payloads that the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) has sent to the ISS, 176 have been for commercial companies including Merck & Co., Novartis, Eli Lilly and Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Honeywell, and Procter & Gamble.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biotron (Western University)</span> Climate research laboratory in Canada

The Biotron Institute for Experimental Climate Change Research at Western University in London, Ontario is a facility constructed to simulate ecosystems and funded by the Canadian government to study how plants, microbes and insects sense and adjust to climate change. Its biome chambers allow control of temperature, humidity and sunlight so that scientists can simulate climatic zones from rainforests to Arctic tundra. This enables the study environmental science, biotech, materials and biomaterials in realistic environmental conditions while still in a controlled laboratory setting. The Biotron also trains students, including one of Western's winners of The Undergraduate Awards' Global Award.

Biotron may refer to:

References

  1. ↑ "Biotron". Biotron Laboratory. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Munns, David P. D. (2017-05-30). Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War. University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 196–224. ISBN   9780822982760.
  3. 1 2 Wilford, John Noble (1970-09-19). "Environment Center Dedicated". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-10-05.
  4. ↑ Senn, H. A.; Anderson, D. P.; Anderson, L. C. (1965). Biotron manual for investigators. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin.
  5. ↑ "Biotron". World of Trons. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
  6. ↑ "The Immigration of Vladimir and Kyta" (PDF). The Brolga Bugle. Summer 1977.
  7. ↑ "Progress Bulletin from Pomona, California on July 13, 1977 · Page 14". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  8. ↑ "BTN LiveBIG: Wisconsin's Biotron is a lab for all seasons". Big Ten Network. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
  9. ↑ Held, Heather E.; Pollock, Neal W. "The Risks of Pregnancy and Diving". Divers Alert Network (DAN).
  10. ↑ Stock, M. K.; Lanphier, E. H.; Anderson, D. F.; Anderson, L. C.; Phernetton, T. M.; Rankin, J. H. (1980-05-01). "Responses of fetal sheep to simulated no-decompression dives". Journal of Applied Physiology. 48 (5): 776–780. doi:10.1152/jappl.1980.48.5.776. ISSN   8750-7587. PMID   7451285.
  11. ↑ "Biotron puts any environment on Earth in researchers' reach" . Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  12. 1 2 Merfeld, Liz (March 2, 2016). "Field stations in a box". Isthmus.
  13. ↑ "Invention may lead to space salads". Iowa City Press-Citizen from Iowa City, Iowa. June 13, 1992. p. 6. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
  14. ↑ "Controlled Environments". Biotron Laboratory. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.