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Weird science and weird scientists throughout history

Electrified Sheep
& Elephants on Acid

My newest book, Electrified Sheep, which is packed full of mad scientists, is currently available in the UK. The US edition is coming out in 2012. My previous book, Elephants on Acid, is also still available everywhere. Click on either image for more info.





Categories

Botany
Topics from the archives of the Mad Science Museum related to botany. Arranged in descending chronological order.

48 Hours With Plants (September 2011)
Stewart
In 1771, Joseph Priestley conducted an experiment that demonstrated the symbiotic relationship between plants and animals. When he placed either a mouse or a plant alone in a sealed glass container, it soon died. But when he placed the mouse and plant together in the container, they survived. He noted that each somehow made the air breathable for the other. In September 2011, Iain Stewart, professor of geoscience at Plymouth University, conducted a scaled-up version of this famous experiment. Instead of a single plant he used 150 plants, and instead of a mouse he used a person — himself.
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The Swastika Chromosomes of D.F. Jones (April 1940)

D.F. Jones
Donald Forsha Jones (1890-1963) was an American genetics researcher at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven. He's most famous for improving corn production through his introduction of double-cross hybridization. The dominance of corn in world agriculture rests, in many ways, on his scientific contributions. But there was an unusual moment in his career when he publicly announced his discovery of swastika-shaped chromosomes in a cancerous corn plant.
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All text Copyright © 2011 by Alex Boese, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.