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Re: Cosmic Rice
It would be so much easier to just expose the seed to 50 Rad and get the same
result. When I was at the U of MO, I prepared packages of seed for high school
projects. I would irradiate pounds of seed to a logarithmic progression of
doses from 50 to 500K Rad and make small packages of each for schools. We
asked the recipients to send us a copy of their experimental results. Time and
time again, we noted that the seeds irradiated at 50 Rad were much more
vigorous than the controls. Higher doses did have the expected deleterious
effects. This was given as an anomalous result by almost every experimenter. I
called this proof of radiation hormesis. It is experimentally verifiable, and
repeatable.
Michael A. Kay, ScD, CHMM
makay@teleport.com
Your Name wrote:
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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> Here's an interesting article from the wire services:
>
> Cosmic rice helps fill China's paddies
>
> BEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ever on the lookout for innovative ways to =
> feed its 1.2 billion people, China has turned to conditioning rice and =
> wheat seeds in space to lift crop yields, state news media said late on =
> Saturday.=20
>
> Seven times in the past 11 years China has launched seed-laden =
> satellites and balloons into the upper reaches of the earth's atmosphere =
> to expose them to strong doses of solar radiation, Xinhua news agency =
> said.=20
>
> The result was a minimum 10 percent boost over normal crop yields when =
> the irradiated seeds were planted back on Earth.=20
>
> ``Seeds subjected to radiation at an altitude of between 20-400 km and =
> other forms of special treatment offer greatly improved and much higher =
> yields,'' it quoted Li Jinguo, a genetics expert at the Chinese Academy =
> of Sciences, as saying.=20
>
> The conditioned seeds have been planted across 70,000 hectares (175,000 =
> acres) in Heilongjiang province in the northeast, Jiangxi and Shandong =
> provinces in the east, and Hunan province in central China, Xinhua said. =
>
> 01:59 02-21-99=20
>
> JCehn@worldnet.att.net
>
> ------=_NextPart_000_0019_01BE5D91.5D1D6080
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> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
> <HTML>
> <HEAD>
>
> <META content=3Dtext/html;charset=3Diso-8859-1 =
> http-equiv=3DContent-Type>
> <META content=3D'"MSHTML 4.72.3110.7"' name=3DGENERATOR>
> </HEAD>
> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Here's an interesting article from =
> the wire=20
> services:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV> </DIV>
> <DIV> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Cosmic rice helps fill China's=20
> paddies</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2><BR>BEIJING, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ever =
> on the=20
> lookout for innovative ways to feed its 1.2 billion people, China has =
> turned to=20
> conditioning rice and wheat seeds in space to lift crop yields, state =
> news media=20
> said late on Saturday. </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>Seven times in the past 11 years =
> China has=20
> launched seed-laden satellites and balloons into the upper reaches of =
> the=20
> earth's atmosphere to expose them to strong doses of solar radiation, =
> Xinhua=20
> news agency said. </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>The result was a minimum 10 percent =
> boost over=20
> normal crop yields when the irradiated seeds were planted back on Earth. =
>
> </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>``Seeds subjected to radiation at an =
> altitude of=20
> between 20-400 km and other forms of special treatment offer greatly =
> improved=20
> and much higher yields,'' it quoted Li Jinguo, a genetics expert at the =
> Chinese=20
> Academy of Sciences, as saying. </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>The conditioned seeds have been =
> planted across=20
> 70,000 hectares (175,000 acres) in Heilongjiang province in the =
> northeast,=20
> Jiangxi and Shandong provinces in the east, and Hunan province in =
> central China,=20
> Xinhua said. </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2>01:59 02-21-99 </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2><A=20
> href=3D"mailto:JCehn@worldnet.att.net";>JCehn@worldnet.att.net</A></FONT><=
> /DIV>
> <DIV><FONT color=3D#000000 size=3D2></FONT> </DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
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