Saturday, May 17, 2008

Giant space vegetables 'could feed the world'

Struggling for space in giant hothouses at the Guandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences are 21lb (9.5kg) tomatoes and enormous watermelons.

Researchers fired off a batch of 2,000 seeds into space in 2006 on the Shijian 8 satellite.

After germination the best specimens were selected for further breeding.

Researcher Lo Zhigang said: "Conventional agricultural development has taken us as far as we can go and demand for food from a growing population is endless.

"Space seeds offer the opportunity to grow fruit and vegetables bigger and faster."


[. . .]

How sending seeds into space produces such enormous fruit is yet not fully understood, but it is thought cosmic radiation, micro-gravity and magnetic fields may play a part.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

See also- Purple irradiated space potatoes...

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/purple-chinese-space-potatoes-yum-236741.php

Anonymous said...

'Giant space vegetables could feed the world'... I doubt it the world doesn't eat. People do...;-)