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Atomic Gardens: Breeding Plants with Gamma Radiation

56 points by thret 11y ago

beloch 11y ago
This article should probably also mention John Laughnan's development of Sweet Corn, which has virtually swept all other varieties out of North American markets.
gdubs 11y ago
As far as I understood, blasting seeds with radiation is still a common practice. [1] One of the reasons the debate over genetically engineered (GE) crops seems so silly -- we've been using such a haphazard approach to genetic mutation for so long, with somewhat unpredictable success that GE looks like a much saner and targeted process. 1:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding
- andreasvc 11y ago
  While I agree that the fear for genetic modification is often unfounded, I don't think it's silly to apply more scrutiny to specific and specialized modifications such as with GM than with general, haphazard approaches such as used before. It is a case of "be careful what you wish for"; things have unintended consequences and they might be greater in the case of making a targeted modification without considering its context.
mbleigh 11y ago
IIRC, Bruce Banner's seminal research in the field showed a strong correlation between gamma radiation and things becoming larger, stronger, and greener.
- mml 11y ago
  Yes, I recall those great hulking green things. Too bad they were ultimately smashed, leaving the author to sulk down a lonely road, alone.
schoen 11y ago
When I was in elementary school, I got my teacher to write away for some tomato seeds that had been in space on the LDEF. And we got them! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facilit... They sent some of them to schools to let kids try planting tomato seeds that had been in space alongside ones that had stayed on Earth, to see if we noticed any differences (or any lack of viability of the space-exposed seeds). Both of them grew well for me. My mom wouldn't let me eat the tomatoes from the ones that went to space, though. By the time of the LDEF experiment the message seemed to be, not that the radiation would likely improve the plants, but that it was useful to know whether it would damage them appreciably. It's interesting to contrast that with a time when it was common to think it would likely produce useful mutations.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
And of course they made their way into plays (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Effect_of_Gamma_Rays_on_Man-in-the-Moon_Marigolds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Effect_of_Gamma_Rays_on_Man...).

56 points by thret 11y ago

This article should probably also mention John Laughnan's development of Sweet Corn, which has virtually swept all other varieties out of North American markets.

gdubs 11y ago

As far as I understood, blasting seeds with radiation is still a common practice. [1] One of the reasons the debate over genetically engineered (GE) crops seems so silly -- we've been using such a haphazard approach to genetic mutation for so long, with somewhat unpredictable success that GE looks like a much saner and targeted process. 1:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding

andreasvc 11y ago
While I agree that the fear for genetic modification is often unfounded, I don't think it's silly to apply more scrutiny to specific and specialized modifications such as with GM than with general, haphazard approaches such as used before. It is a case of "be careful what you wish for"; things have unintended consequences and they might be greater in the case of making a targeted modification without considering its context.

mbleigh 11y ago

IIRC, Bruce Banner's seminal research in the field showed a strong correlation between gamma radiation and things becoming larger, stronger, and greener.

mml 11y ago
Yes, I recall those great hulking green things. Too bad they were ultimately smashed, leaving the author to sulk down a lonely road, alone.

schoen 11y ago

When I was in elementary school, I got my teacher to write away for some tomato seeds that had been in space on the LDEF. And we got them! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facility https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Duration_Exposure_Facilit... They sent some of them to schools to let kids try planting tomato seeds that had been in space alongside ones that had stayed on Earth, to see if we noticed any differences (or any lack of viability of the space-exposed seeds). Both of them grew well for me. My mom wouldn't let me eat the tomatoes from the ones that went to space, though. By the time of the LDEF experiment the message seemed to be, not that the radiation would likely improve the plants, but that it was useful to know whether it would damage them appreciably. It's interesting to contrast that with a time when it was common to think it would likely produce useful mutations.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

And of course they made their way into plays (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Effect_of_Gamma_Rays_on_Man-in-the-Moon_Marigolds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Effect_of_Gamma_Rays_on_Man...).