Student Research in Nano-enabled Agriculture Continues
Pull off fruit and leaves. Cut plant off at ground level and wash all soil from its roots. Take the plant top and roots to the lab. Weigh and measure the parts then wash, alternating three times between acid and water. Let dry. Divide the collection in half. Dry one half. Freeze the other half. That’s not a jam or cookie recipe. Those are directions for harvesting and processing the tomato vines in preparation for analysis with recently acquired spectroscopy instrumentation — all as part of an experiment being carried out by student researchers at Western New Mexico University. Elizabeth Sorells and Michael Shaw are among the group of students exploring applications of nanomaterials in agriculture, thanks to a $142,000 grant WNMU received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Technology in 2020 for the purpose of establishing a research program in nano-enabled agriculture at the rural institution not typically considered a research...