even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. but unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3,000 feet away straight up. a decade ago, adopting the infrared (红外线)scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist stephen paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. the goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide (杀虫剂) spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest(害虫)problems.
even better, paley’s remote scanning services company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. mounted on a plane flown at 3,000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat sent out by crops. the data were transformed into a colorcoded map showing where plants were running “fevers”. farmers could then spotspray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide that they otherwise would.
the bad news is that paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. farmers resisted the new technology and longterm backers were hard to find. but with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements(改进) in infrared scanning, paley hopes to get back into operation. agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “this technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the united states，” says george资源难易程度:★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
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