Using machine learning to increase the terpenoid content in basil

Interesting paper, but for some reason I don't like that word "cyber-agriculture". Yeah, I know this term will likely even be applied to meat (grown in culture) in the future, and people will someday look back and wonder how we could kill real (whole) animals for food. Lol
 
This is really cool, I hope more research like this is forthcoming, particularly using our favorite flowers. However, there are only 36 plants included in this study, eight per condition, so it is hardly conclusive.

from the abstract

The process also led to two important insights: it demonstrated a “dilution effect”, i.e. a negative correlation between weight and desirable chemical species, and it discovered the surprising effect that a 24-hour photoperiod of photosynthetic-active radiation, the equivalent of all-day light, induces the most flavor molecule production in basil.
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and from the intro
The so-called “dilution effect,” noted since the 1940’s and systematically reviewed since the early 1980’s [1], describes an inverse relationship between yield and nutrient concentration in food: For many nutritionally-important chemical constituents of food plants, such as minerals, protein, and vitamins, an increase in biomass is accompanied by a decrease in nutrient concentration. This effect has been systematically demonstrated in historical nutrient content studies over the last 50–70 years [2,3], as well as in controlled side-by-side trials that have shown a relationship between nutrient dilution and genetics [4], artificial fertilization [5], and elevated carbon dioxide levels related to climate change [6,7].
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I haven't followed up on any of the cites.
 
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