Happy Independence Day, America! 🇺🇸 With red, white and blue LED lights to mark the occasion, the Advanced Plant Habitat is one subtle way our astronauts can celebrate the holiday aboard the orbiting laboratory. So far, this recent addition to the International Space Station (ISS) has been used to grow and study Arabidopsis, small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard, and Dwarf Wheat. Because gravity is a constant downward force on Earth, researchers take advantage of the microgravity environment of the space station to achieve a clearer perspective of plant growth habits. Gravity is one of the major cues plants use to guide their growth, but microgravity can act as a kind of mute button that suppresses the role of gravity, enabling researchers to see what other cues take charge. A monitoring system equipped with 180 sensors, including water usage, carbon dioxide levels, light levels, temperature, humidity and oxygen in the growth chamber, and temperature, humidity and o...