Hey everyone, I stumbled across a cool little device that's allowing plants to ask for more water when they need it!  Well, OK.  The plants themselves aren't asking for water, but the device detects when they are low on water and sends out a text message to ask for more.  So, here's the little bugger.

Tiny little guy right?  Well, according to Discovery Channel, this little guy can detect when a plant is low on water, and when it is?  Well, it sends a text message to the farmer to let him know what's going on.  Is that cool or what?

So, what does this get us?  Well, conservation of course!  How nice for a farmer would it be to know exactly when your crops need water?  Instead of spraying the water on a schedule or having to go out and check every day, the crops tell you immediately when they need water.  Espescially in the Western USA, this could be a huge savings for farmers.  How?  Well, the water for crops out west generally comes from aquifiers and those have to be drilled and maintained.  Don't forget about the diesel or electricity required to run the pumps.  This could save thousands of gallons of water per year, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on energy.

That's all well and good(hell, very good).  But this technology was originally developed by NASA for future maned space missions to the Moon and Mars.  If you think water is expensive out West, how expensive do you think it is in space?  Next to oxygen, its the most valuable resource once you leave the planet.  This tech can reduce the waste of unneeded watering and time to monitor plants.  The scientists initially estimated a 10-40% reduction in water consumption!