The Economist and many other major news outlets covered Jan Kleissl's water conservation research. The story is called "Twinkle, twinkle, little laser" and describes how water evaporating off a field causes lasers shooting above the field to twinkle...and encoded in this twinkling is information about the water needs of the crops in the field. Read the full story here. Check out a collection of water conservation news stories tied to this research project here.
