### id261667802 irradiating plants and molds is effective > **Atomic gardening is insane**. Not actually important, I just thought it was cool. Find a source of radiation. Put it in the center of a field. Plant a bunch of crops around the radiation source at varying distances. Hope you get useful mutations. You have basically no control over the results, it’s just random search in genetics space. It’s the kind of crazy idea that could only come from the 1950s, when atomic hype was high and fear about radiation was low. Some [grapefruit varieties sold today](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit#Ruby_Red) trace their lineage to atomic gardening, and shooting X-rays at Penicillium molds led to a mutation that 5x-ed penicillin production. I suppose history has judged it as a net positive, but I almost feel personally offended that such a brute force method worked. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fqpd8m83x5mm85wzv45hrkqg) - [[Review How To Invent Everything by Alex Irpan#id261667802 irradiating plants and molds is effective|View in Vault]] - [n] I remember reading about this in [[Tamed by Alice Roberts]], but with different details. Would be useful for #xref - [n] [[Backwards Mapping Fiction]] for [[Starship Troopers]] by [[Robert Heinlein]] I remember something about the planet they wound up on not having enough radiation to create really competitive plants.