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Streetwise<br />
Powering Puerto Rico<br />
Space Plants<br />
Okay, so we don’t have the<br />
zero gravity of a spaceship.<br />
But that didn’t stop Fairchild<br />
Tropical Botanic Gardens from<br />
coming to the aid of NASA<br />
by drafting students from 120<br />
Miami-Dade schools to test<br />
possible food plants for deep<br />
space.<br />
The program, which has<br />
expanded to include another<br />
30 schools in Broward and<br />
Palm Beach counties, Ohio<br />
and Puerto Rico, has now tried<br />
106 veggies. Of those, four are<br />
currently being tested at the<br />
Kennedy Space Center, all varieties<br />
of Chinese cabbage and<br />
Japanese mustard greens.<br />
“It’s citizen science, but<br />
it’s citizen science at its best<br />
because the kids actually see<br />
their work come to fruition,”<br />
says Fairchild’s education<br />
director Amy Padolf. The<br />
criterion for the plants was<br />
straightforward. They must<br />
produce a “large amount of<br />
edible biomass,” grow with<br />
low resources (limited lighting<br />
and water), and have a high<br />
vitamin content, including<br />
vitamin K, which preserves<br />
bone density. The plants must<br />
also be stress resistant – perfect<br />
for students who don’t always<br />
water on time.<br />
The next step is for<br />
Gables-based Fairchild is to<br />
use a new $750,000 grant from<br />
NASA to create a public space<br />
at the gardens where the community<br />
can view the project<br />
and help with the study.<br />
Top right: Teachers learn how to set<br />
up mini botany labs<br />
Bottom right: Students dialogue with<br />
astronauts earlier this year<br />
10 thecoralgablesmagazine.com<br />
I<br />
f you want to find a<br />
company to rebuild an<br />
electrical grid demolished by<br />
a hurricane, then go to a city<br />
where they have experience<br />
with hurricanes. And that<br />
would be Coral Gables. Mas-<br />
Tec, Inc., the Gables-based<br />
infrastructure powerhouse<br />
(2017 revenue: $6 billion) was<br />
just awarded a $500 million<br />
contract to complete the repair<br />
and restoration of Puerto<br />
Rico’s mangled electrical grid,<br />
taken down by Hurricane<br />
Maria last year.<br />
CEO José Mas said in a<br />
press release that MasTec has<br />
been “proudly performing services<br />
in Puerto Rico for over<br />
50 years” so is familiar with<br />
the island. MasTec recently became<br />
the first company created<br />
by a Cuban American (Jorge<br />
Mas Canosa) to make it to the<br />
Fortune 500 list of top publicly<br />
traded companies in the U.S.,<br />
ranking at 428.<br />
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*Klout, December 31, 2017. Real estate agents affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate are independent contractor agents and are not employees of the Company. ©2018 Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate. All<br />
Rights Reserved. Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. Owned by a subsidiary of NRT LLC. Coldwell Banker and the Coldwell Banker Logo are<br />
registered service marks owned by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. 354174FL_5/18
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