BHOPAL, 22 December 2006 — A simple question by President of India A.P.J. Abdul Kalam six months ago led Sudhir Khetawat to grow possibly the largest leaf in the world using the technique of concentrating solar energy using a glass pyramid.
Khetawat is a proponent of something called pyramid therapy, which has something to do with extolling the virtues of the geometric shape, and something less to do with how pyramids somehow boost human immune systems or whatnot.
Earlier this year Khetawat showed the president what he claimed to be the world’s smallest rosebud, supposedly gown using the power of the pyramid shape. It was then that the president asked if it was possible to use the same process to make plants large.
This question spurred Khetawat to attempt the feat from his research center in Indore. He took a glass pyramid and placed it over one of two alocasia saplings. Six months later, the plant with the glass pyramid had produced a 12-foot-long leaf, larger than the world’s largest naturally occurring leaf, a type of Amazon lily that can support the weight of a small human.
Khetawat attributes the growth spurt to the way the light refracts through the glass pyramid, maximizing the plant’s leaf-surface exposure to light. Most plants grow according to the amount of light available. But Khetawat takes his pyramid theories further.
“The aim of this experiment is to create awareness and develop faith among masses about pyramid therapy,” he said.
Did he just say pyramid therapy?
“The electromagnetic rays affect the growth hormones (of the plant),” he said. “What I am using is a simple scientific fact. Sunrays get concentrated at the peak of the pyramid. So anything coming below it would definitely benefit the most,” he said, adding, “This helps in increasing immunity.”
OK, everything made sense until he mentioned the part about “increasing immunity”. Using glass shaped like a pyramid to refract and concentrate sunlight on a photosynthetic leaf full of chlorophyll is one thing. Using a pyramid to fight diseases in humans is a different, er, species altogether.
