One of the world’s longest-running experiments has been going for 144 years!
In 1879, botanist William Beal wanted to study how long buried seeds would remain viable. He buried bottles w different seeds in a secret spot on Michigan State's campus.
Every 20 yrs, a small group scientists dig up the bottles & seeds continue to germinate 🌱 (My husband @DavidLowry is the one on the right).
The paper from their last dig is now out so this #science story is back in the news. https://www.yahoo.com/news/discovery-inside-unearthed-bottle-ve-103236780.html
This entry was edited (4 months ago)
Rokosun
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Bill Hooker
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •clew
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Has there been an administrative adventure when the University wanted to build on the site and the secret had to be shared?
Related anecdote; visited a field near Chico, CA that had been one of California’s main toxic waste dumps for… a while. Decades. It’s more decades into being cleaned up and returned to open space.
And some of the rare wildflowers came back on their own! Seedbank was the best guess, according to the speaker. Reminds us that cleaning up even when someplace seems ruined can still be worth it. @Sheril @DavidLowry
Sheril Kirshenbaum
in reply to clew • • •@clew I'm not sure about the first question.
Very few folks know the location of the seeds (I don't) and they dig them up in the middle of the night with headlamps so that onlookers won't be there. I expect someone must be consulted when it comes to new buildings, but perhaps David knows more.
Eugene Wallingford
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •KellyAnn Romanych
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Ives
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •long-term experiment which measures the flow of a piece of pitch
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)F.A. Suwijn
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Le Néandertal en a marre
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Holzbank der Ältere
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •mattmaison
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •Theresa
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum • • •