Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Help! -- Gadgetry Ideas

This is topic Help! -- Gadgetry Ideas in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=002124

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

I am writing a small piece (part of a larger one) where a botanist speculates about what cool gadgets a botanist a century from now might use in order to make their work easier and more accurate.

The only idea I have so far is a portable DNA scanner that gives instant and accurate identification, and maybe a 3D laser scanner which can transmit morphological data to a model database.

If anyone else can help with 3 or 4 ideas that would be fantastic.

Do you think they would still use plant pressings?

By the way, it is a field botanist, so things should be portable.

Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :

A viewer that can extrapolate from a DNA sample to what the plant would look like

An age accelerator, so we can get seeds in a day rather than 3 months. An age reverser

A 50-cent shirt-pocket electron microscope

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

quote:
A viewer that can extrapolate from a DNA sample to what the plant would look like

Hey! I like that one.
With the plant ager, you could almost have seed 'blanks' (like a generic medium) into which DNA is placed and ready to go within days.

Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :

How about a pocket spectrometer to analyze the nutrient content inside the cells. Now you know how to fertilize the plant.

Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :

You would be well advised to read "The Secret Life of Plants" by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. Fascinating read about the science of plants, and the tests made on their intelligence (yes, you heard me right.)

quote:
Exploring the world of plants and its relation to mankind as revealed by the latest discoveries of scientists. The Secret Life of Plants includes remarkable information about plants as lie detectors and plants as ecological sentinels; it describes their ability to adapt to human wishes, their response to music, their curative powers, and their ability to communicate with man. Authors Peter Tompkins end Christopher Bird suggest that the most far-reaching revolution of the twentieth century-one that could awe or destroy the planet--may come from the bottom of your garden.

Posted by benskia (Member # 2422) on :

Some kind of pocket device that will allow the botanist to cryogenically freeze samples.

Laser secateurs that cuaterizes the cut after umm cutting. I dont know if these would be useful or not though. I hardly know anything about plants.

A DNA reader that informs you whether a plant is actually a flower or a weed. I've puzzled over a few plants in my garden and never quite dared to pull some of the things growing incase they are flowers and supposed to be there.

A pollenating device that is necessary because all of the insects died due to global warming and now plants need to be either self pollenating or humans have to step in to do it for them. If we dont, no new plants will grow & current plants will die, resulting in increased CO2 levels and further global warming.

Something incredibly evil to deter cats

Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :

<The only idea I have so far is a portable DNA scanner that gives instant and accurate identification, and maybe a 3D laser scanner which can transmit morphological data to a model database.>

That would be a hop, skip and a jump away from a device that could assemble amino acids into DNA. Or how about nanotech, a device that functions as a ribosome and folds nucleic strings into protiens, protiens that could do all sorts of nifty things?

Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

A device to advise the user of the probable plants and or animals that are necessary to this plant's wellbeing.

Posted by kkmmaacc (Member # 2643) on :

Oooh, my father's a botanist. I'll send him an email and ask if he has any ideas -- may take a day or two to get an answer.

Does this field botanist have a specific line of research? Why is he out in the field?

-K.

Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :

I would think you'd need something that could instantly analyze the soil.

Different soils, as you know hoptoad, make a big difference in the plants. From what I understand, super-sweet onions are such because of the soil they're grown in, rather than the plant's genes.

Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :

This is great!

KKMMAACC! I would be interested in what your dad says.
I work with botanists but these ones seem reluctant to speculate for some reason.

The Botanist is bioprospecting. Identifying rare and endangered plants that survive in and pop-up though in the regrowth of previously logged areas in the Amazon.

In the course of the story he discovers a number of species that together have enormous cultural and ceremonial significance to the displaced original inhabitants.

CHRISOWENS, I love the idea of a device that can transmit genetic data and reassemble it remotely.

[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited June 16, 2005).]

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Actually, we already have those. But they aren't really field equipment.

Posted by Blue_Rabbit (Member # 2634) on :

Umm, DNA readers are not a good idea, unless you make them take a sample and wait a few hours for a result. I mean, you can skip tech, you can't skip biological processes. It needs time to be properly sequenced.
My word of a molecular biologist for it.

What you need is a sample-taking robot, like a little spider or a dragon-fly, linked to a species recognizing database.
It could also collect samples and return to the mother unit (sequencer+spectrophotometer and stuff), to get them analyzed.
Our sample-taking robot should also examine air - shape of pollen grains is species-specific and as such can be identified very quickly.

Posted by Ahavah (Member # 2599) on :

I think you should have a scanner that analyzes the plant and tells you what the effects are--as in, whether it's edible, which parts are edible, poisonous, and any medicinal uses. Also, whether using in tandem with another plant would have effect-altering consequences.

Posted by mythopoetic (Member # 2624) on :

Well, what is the botanist's job in the field? Are they out there to replenish plants, or just to look around and write down what they see?

Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :

Well, you're talking about the modern method. Suppose there were a nano-scale sensor that read the DNA directly the way your ribosomes do. That would only take minutes if you had a large array of them working on a sample in parallel.