I don't care for nuclear alarmism, and if you grow enough veggies some of them are going to come out strange, but that is a pretty disturbing set of pictures and suggests some systematic study of the fallout effects is warranted.
Is it possible to use such radiation for plant breeding purposes? Some of those modifications (like gigantism) could be useful.
Yes. "Chemical mutagens like EMS and DMS, radiation and transposons are used to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars - a process known as Mutation Breeding." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding
In the 1950's, seeds were exposed to Cobalt-60 and then sold for people to plant and grow into whatever they were mutated into. It was called "atomic gardening". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening
Great, MSN journalism :"It might be wise to steer clear of vegetables from Japan's Fukushima area for, oh, say a few hundred years. ".
Yeah, like you know what you are talking about. The radiation levels in Fukushima are lower than in some other parts of the world where natural radioactivity occurs.
These pictures don't prove anything. When you grow vegetables you always get abnormalities. I have seen tons of discolorations, deformations, and other freaky products of nature when I was a kid. You don't need a nuclear incident to get that.
I've also seen ears of corn growing seeds of grass instead of kernels of corn, but sadly I don't have pictures. Mutations are fairly common in agriculture; the misshapen produce is usually removed before it gets to you at a store.
11 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 45.6 ms ] threadYes. "Chemical mutagens like EMS and DMS, radiation and transposons are used to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars - a process known as Mutation Breeding." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_breeding
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding
Yeah, like you know what you are talking about. The radiation levels in Fukushima are lower than in some other parts of the world where natural radioactivity occurs.
These pictures don't prove anything. When you grow vegetables you always get abnormalities. I have seen tons of discolorations, deformations, and other freaky products of nature when I was a kid. You don't need a nuclear incident to get that.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/d17jf/i_grow_some_weir...
http://imgur.com/7T7g3
http://imgur.com/TULjm
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/da7t6/carrots_have_evo...
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/rjxkf/i_found_a_double...
And tomatoes:
http://imgur.com/a/AeNuC
http://imgur.com/a/5luwR/mutant_tomatoe
http://i.imgur.com/WGjZQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/NrUh0jH.jpg
A search for "peach" finds me primarily princess peach, primarily in cosplay form.
Siamese Twin Peaches; Double and Triple Peach Fruits: http://xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com/2012/04/siamese-twin-...