Atomic gardening: creating useful mutants through radiation

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sadpanda

Member

• Sep 25, 2016

• #1

i was watching a Tedx talk about the future of synthetic biology - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AebzoN9hfM0
and it introduced me to something i hadnt heard of before - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening
just need some cobalt-60 and uhhh... a way not to fatally expose yourself to it i guess, lol. Sounds fascinating though. 75% of all red grapefruit sold in the USA are a result of atomic gardening! navel orange is my favorite mutant lol, albeit natural not atomic

The gamma gardens were arranged in a circular pattern with a retractable radiation source in the middle. Plants were usually laid out like slices of a pie, radiating from the central radiation source; this pattern produced a range of radiation doses over the radius from the centre. The plants nearest the centre usually died, the ones further out often featured "tumors and other growth abnormalities"; beyond these were the plants of interest, with a higher than usual range of mutations, but not to the damaging extent of those closer to the radiation source.

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Last edited: Sep 25, 2016

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Genes

Member

• Oct 19, 2016

• #2

Sounds pretty nasty and the wrong direction for most of the genetic work people are doing trying to restore to the gene pool.

 

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raven44

Member

• Oct 31, 2016

• #3

It's actually really awesome imo

One can cross two strains in a lab w out the need of a male. Simply to female cells fused in a cetrifuge in the right type of solition...

It's simply natural selection of genetics by a human if u will. And it gives the human the capabilities to isolate certain genetic characteristics and then work w those characteristics to introduce those characteristics to another culture and stabilize the culture for that set of characteristics

 

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sadpanda

Member

• Oct 31, 2016

• #4

I agree with both of you, it's really nasty but really awesome lol

 

Gry

Well-known member

• Oct 31, 2016

• #5

With a little nuke waste and a lack of ethics anyone can join the monsanto revolution.

 

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raven44

Member

• Oct 31, 2016

• #6

Lol those who do not understand would tie this w Monsanto