E-tree with solar leaves heads to Glastonbury
Glastonbury festival-goers will be able to see an e-tree as part of a 鈥楬idden wonders of the Woodland鈥� themed stand at the world-famous festival.
The e-tree, produced by Dr Andy Smith Senior Lecturer in Forestry at 吾爱吃瓜 in conjunction with Nigel Fisher, Conservator of Wytham Woods, and his team at Oxford University, will be part of the 鈥楽ex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll鈥� road show dreamed up by researchers at Lancaster University and championed by the British Ecological Society as a way of bringing science to the public.
Outside the roadshow, the e-tree with solar panels for leaves will demonstrate in real-time how trees take up and store carbon from the atmosphere. Inside, 鈥楾he Hidden Wonders of Woodlands鈥� will give people the chance to see woods in a new light. From 21st June, visitors will be able to discover unusual woodland ladybirds and astonishing fungi while playing some entertaining games, or find about the bacteria on their festival kit
Dr Andy Smith of 吾爱吃瓜鈥檚 School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography, said:
鈥淢ost of us understand that trees take up carbon from the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide, but it is difficult to imagine exactly how much carbon is actually taken up and stored. The idea behind the e-tree is to demonstrate in real-time the rate at which a tree takes up carbon under different light conditions. The e-tree has solar 鈥渓eaves鈥� that are connected to a real-time solar 鈥渕onitor鈥�, which will show festival goers how much carbon would be taken up by the 鈥渓eaves鈥� and stored in the biomass (body) of the e-tree. The e-tree works by measuring the output of the solar leaves (i.e. how much light the leaves receive) and then calculates the rate of carbon absorption using a simple relationship between leaf area and photosynthesis (i.e. light absorption is related to leaf photosynthesis, which affects how much carbon is taken up). I hope that the e-tree will be a fun and engaging way of demonstrating to festival-goers at Glastonbury the role forests can have in mitigating climate change.鈥�
Over the years, thousands of festival-goers have encountered some of the intriguing ecology showcased in the pop-up science tent, from moths with rock star names to glow-in-the-dark wormeries providing a glimpse of life below ground.
Lancaster University鈥檚 Dr Emma Sayer leads the project. She said:
鈥淪cience shouldn鈥檛 be dry and boring - it should be exciting. We do research because we鈥檙e fascinated by nature, so we want to share our curiosity with others and let people find out about ecology on their own terms. We try to create displays and activities at our stall that show visitors things they wouldn鈥檛 otherwise get to see, like our e-Tree, for example.
"We want to remind people that science involves curious people finding out about the world, and there鈥檚 a bit of a scientist in all of us.鈥�
The 鈥楽ex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll鈥� road show will make the mammoth road trip to the UK鈥檚 most iconic music festival, accompanied by bees, dung beetles, worms and ladybirds, where they will set up shop to talk to the festival-going public about the Hidden Wonders of Woodlands.
Sex & Bugs & Rock 'n Roll will be in the Green Futures Field at Glastonbury from 21-25 June 2017.
Publication date: 15 June 2017