Hello, my name is Kostas Klaourakis from Greece and I am 17 years old.
I would like to propose a Biology experiment for the space lab competition.
This experiment has to do with the way plants grow and how gravity affects it.
Gravitropism is the way plants roots and stems grow in response to gravity.
Roots display positive gravitropism since they grow in the direction of gravitational pull,
while on the other hand stems display negative gravitropism since they grow in the opposite direction of gravitational pull.
The way plants grow is affected from a plant hormone called auxin that exists in every organ of a plant.
Therefore high concentration of auxin in the roots makes them grow downwards,
while high concentration of auxin in the stems makes them grow upwards.
This is the mechanism of plants growth within the Earth’s atmosphere.
This experiment has to do with the mechanism of plants growth within the microgravity of space and it will answer questions like:
Will the stems grow upwards? Will the roots grow downwards?
Since the gravitational pull is not exactly zero the results of this experiment are expected to answer positive in both the above questions.
However the growth rate is expected to be slower than the growth rate in the Earth’s atmosphere.
In order to conduct this experiment Biological Habitat #3 has to be used.
Seeds would be placed in a flask and the growth of the plants should be monitored.
The growth rate should be observed and compared against that in Earth’s atmosphere.
The conclusions of this experiment will give us a better understanding on the factors that affect the plants growth.
Thank you for this opportunity.
