full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lisa Dyson: A forgotten Space Age technology could change how we grow food

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Well, the scientists at NASA actually figured out a way to do this. What they came up with was actually quite interesting. It involved mirosrominacgs, which are single-celled oamnigsrs. And they also used hydrogen from water. The tyeps of microbes that they used were called hydrogenotrophs, and with these hydrogenotrophs, you can create a virtuous carbon ccyle that would sustain life onboard a srfcapcaet. Astronauts would bethare out carbon dioxide, that carbon dioxide would then be captured by the microbes and converted into a nutritious, carbon-rich crop. The astronauts would then eat that carbon-rich crop and exhale the carbon out in the form of carbon dioxide, which would then be captured by the microbes, to ctaere a nutritious crop, which then would be exhaled in the form of carbon dioxide by the astronauts. So in this way, a closed-loop carbon cycle is ceaterd.

Open Cloze

Well, the scientists at NASA actually figured out a way to do this. What they came up with was actually quite interesting. It involved ______________, which are single-celled _________. And they also used hydrogen from water. The _____ of microbes that they used were called hydrogenotrophs, and with these hydrogenotrophs, you can create a virtuous carbon _____ that would sustain life onboard a __________. Astronauts would _______ out carbon dioxide, that carbon dioxide would then be captured by the microbes and converted into a nutritious, carbon-rich crop. The astronauts would then eat that carbon-rich crop and exhale the carbon out in the form of carbon dioxide, which would then be captured by the microbes, to ______ a nutritious crop, which then would be exhaled in the form of carbon dioxide by the astronauts. So in this way, a closed-loop carbon cycle is _______.

Solution

  1. create
  2. cycle
  3. breathe
  4. types
  5. organisms
  6. microorganisms
  7. created
  8. spacecraft

Original Text

Well, the scientists at NASA actually figured out a way to do this. What they came up with was actually quite interesting. It involved microorganisms, which are single-celled organisms. And they also used hydrogen from water. The types of microbes that they used were called hydrogenotrophs, and with these hydrogenotrophs, you can create a virtuous carbon cycle that would sustain life onboard a spacecraft. Astronauts would breathe out carbon dioxide, that carbon dioxide would then be captured by the microbes and converted into a nutritious, carbon-rich crop. The astronauts would then eat that carbon-rich crop and exhale the carbon out in the form of carbon dioxide, which would then be captured by the microbes, to create a nutritious crop, which then would be exhaled in the form of carbon dioxide by the astronauts. So in this way, a closed-loop carbon cycle is created.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
palm oil 5
carbon dioxide 4
supercharged carbon 4
valuable products 3
carbon recyclers 3
carbon cycle 2
began cultivating 2
industrial goods 2
modern agriculture 2
sustainably scale 2
greenhouse gases 2
modern ag 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
supercharged carbon recyclers 3

Important Words

  1. astronauts
  2. breathe
  3. called
  4. captured
  5. carbon
  6. converted
  7. create
  8. created
  9. crop
  10. cycle
  11. dioxide
  12. eat
  13. exhale
  14. exhaled
  15. figured
  16. form
  17. hydrogen
  18. hydrogenotrophs
  19. interesting
  20. involved
  21. life
  22. microbes
  23. microorganisms
  24. nasa
  25. nutritious
  26. onboard
  27. organisms
  28. scientists
  29. spacecraft
  30. sustain
  31. types
  32. virtuous
  33. water