My apologies if the last three weeks were more chaotic than usual. I'm back from being way out of communications reach, and eager to get busy again.

Hydroponics is plants growing in water, without soil. With it, you can grow pretty much any crop, anywhere, pesticide-free, with predictable yields and harvest times.

Gene Giacomelli, director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Program at the University of Arizona, believes that hydroponics and Controlled Environments can help feed the world, save the world and create new worlds.

Already hydroponics has moved beyond food and into nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and environmental remediation, to name a few uses. Should we start to colonize other planets or the seabed, expect it there, too. Or maybe (sooner) in urban centers, as vertical farms.

With Gene, let's discuss: 

• What is the scope of hydroponics today? The economics?
• How is hydroponics being used? Where's the leading edge?
• When might hydroponics jump to the next level? Why?