Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer has started a program for developing the biggest aircraft ever built: the Airbus A380 which will be able to carry 550 passengers on two decks in the three classes version (Figure 1). The six components of the airplane (two wings, rear, central and front fuselages, and horizontal tail plane) are to be produced in different European cities (Figure 2). Th...

In high light intensities, chlorophyll can be damaged by the enhanced activity of electrons beyond that which it can process. This results in photoinhibition by decreasing the photosynthetic capacity. In tracheophytes, this is particularly pronounced in dehydrated plants, but in bryophytes, it seems the pattern is quite different. Seel et al. (1992) compared the desiccation-tolerant moss Syntri...

The concept of controlling seismic waves is in progress and first full-scale experiments had confirmed the interest which we can have for this new axis of research. The possibility of imagining a seismic 2D or 3D metamaterial made of a grid of inclusions or empty boreholes in the soil, interacting with a part of the earthquake signal is becoming realistic. Here we show the dynamic response of a...

Low phosphate nutrition results in increased chlorophyll fluorescence, reduced photosynthetic rate, accumulation of starch and sucrose in leaves, and low crop yields. This study investigated physiological responses of soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) leaves to low inorganic phosphate (Pi) conditions. Responses of photosynthesis to light and CO(2) were examined for leaves of soybean grown at hig...

Young bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) plants grown in nutrient solution were gradually acclimated to 50, 100, or 150 moles per cubic meter NaCl, and photosynthetic rates of individual attached leaves were measured on several occasions during the salinization period at external CO(2) concentrations ranging from approximately 70 to 1900 micromoles per mole air. Net CO(2) assimilation (A) was plo...