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Author Curry, Helen Anne, author

Title Evolution made to order : plant breeding and technological innovation in twentieth-century America / Helen Anne Curry
Published Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2016
©2016

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Mutation theories -- An unsolved problem -- Speeding up evolution -- X-rays in the lab and field -- Industrial evolution -- Artificial tetraploidy -- Evolution to order -- Better evolution through chemistry -- Tinkering technologists -- The flower manufacturers -- Radiation revisited -- Mutation politics -- An atomic-age experiment station -- Atomic gardens -- The peaceful atom in global agriculture
Summary In the mid-20th century, American plant breeders, frustrated by their dependence on natural variation in creating new crops and flowers, eagerly sought technologies that could extend human control over nature. Their search led them to celebrate a series of strange tools: an x-ray beam directed at dormant seeds, a drop of chromosome-altering colchicine on a flower bud, and a piece of radioactive cobalt in a field of growing crops. According to scientific and popular reports of the time, these mutation-inducing methods would generate variation on demand, in turn allowing breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new crop or flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. 'In Evolution Made to Order', Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America's pursuit of tools that could speed up evolution
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
SUBJECT Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer Bitterfeld gnd
Subject Plant mutation breeding -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Plant mutation breeding -- Social aspects -- United States
Plant genetic engineering -- Genetic engineering -- United States -- History -- 20th century
Plant genetic engineering -- Social aspects -- United States
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Agriculture -- General.
Plant mutation breeding
Biotechnologie
Gentechnologie
Pflanzenzüchtung
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780226390116
022639011X