|
|
Oct 2, 2007
agronomy lessonThis is one of my favorite episodes of "The Simpsons." One of the guys in one of the small groups is an agronomy major, and he has a job lined up for after he graduates in December. He will be makeing corn hybrids. This came up during our meeting today, and the mention of hybrids caused me to remember this episode. I asked him if he had seen it, and he said that he hadn't. So, I described it to him. Anyhow, he mentioned that the "science" in the episode is not too implausible. If you haven't seen it, basically Homer for some reason becomes a farmer. In his typical fashion, he just throws a bunch of seeds out into a field at random. Then, to speed up the growth, he spays it with some radio active material. The next day he comes out, and finds that he has created a tobacco/tomato hybrid. So, the guy in my group tells me that a tobacco/tomato hybrid is theoritically possible. It is possible to splice the genes, but that the plant would not likely grow. Also, it turns out that radio active materials are used to "speed up" the process of the formation of new genes (they would likely emerge naturally over time). So, at least in theory, tomacco is a possibility. posted
by Unknown @ 4:21:00 PM |
