And it can also be used to create a dominant army to take over the world.
Posted on 09/28/2009 9:49:58 AM PDT by underthestreetlite
A global team of researchers has mapped the genetic code of the world's most popular vegetable — the potato.
The draft of the potato genome released last week represents the work of more than 50 scientists from 16 institutions and will provide a starting point for other researchers to develop sturdier, more nutritious potatoes.
That's important because the potato is widely grown and plays a central role in feeding the world's 6.3 billion people, said Robin Buell, a Michigan State University plant biologist who worked on the project. The East Lansing school announced the results in the U.S.
The Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium began work in 2006. It has 16 institutional members in Argentina, Britain, Chile, China, India, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Russia and the United States. Michigan State and Virginia Tech are formal members of the consortium, and some work was done at the University of Wisconsin.
The potato genome has 12 chromosomes with 840 million base pairs, about a quarter the size of the human genome. The draft covers 95 percent of potato genes.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“Olson, tear out the front page!!!!”
-The Chief
Which type of potato? McDonald’s has been the driving factor in bringing new types of potatoes to our markets, finding a better potato they will buy for their fries is worth billions.
Anyone else?
You cannot mention McDonald’s fries without acknowledging J.R. Simplot, high-school dropout potatoe billionaire.
A great man and a shining example of what this country is all about.
Weight-wise, by far, the highest yielding crop on the planet.
He abruptly tenses and lets out a horrible yell.
RIMMER: CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! If there is one thing I can't stand it's crazy people.
LISTER: Well we've passed the test, Rimmer. You can let us out.
RIMMER: I can't let you out.
LISTER: Why not?
RIMMER: Because the King of the Potato People won't let me. I begged him. I got down on my knees and wept. He wants to keep you here. Keep you here for ten years.
CAT: Could we see him?
RIMMER: See who?
CAT: The King.
RIMMER: Do you have a magic carpet?
LISTER: Yeah, a little three-seater.
RIMMER: So, let me get this straight. You want to fly on a magic carpet to see the King of the Potato People and plead with him for your freedom, and you're telling me you are completely sane?! I think that warrants 2 hours of W.O.O.
LISTER: What's W.O.O?
CAT: You had to ask.
RIMMER: With ... out ... oxygen. No oxygen for 2 hours. That will teach you to be bread baskets.
He disappears.
LISTER: What do we do?
CAT: I think our only hope's the Potato King.
A shining example of the negative correlation between formal education and usefulness.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
I believe the 2005 world corn production was 695,000,000 tons, potato’s 320,000,000
http://www.potato2008.org/en/world/index.html
http://www.corn.org/wcornprod.htm
Probably true.
I should have qualified it better.
By “highest yielding”, I meant lbs/acre.
Agreed. JR Simplot's invention of the frozen french fry has done far more for humanity than anything Jonas Salk (inventor the Polio vaccine) ever did with all his fancy degrees. Oh wait...
Well, ha ha, yes, I lol'ed here.
However, maybe (one of) your degree(s) is stuck chapter on "correlation" in your freshman stats book.
By one year from now, they will have produced potatoes with vastly improved nutrition, immune to most bugs and disease without using dangerous chemicals, that optionally will be able to treat many disease without resorting to costly medicines produced in laboratories...
And they won't be able to plant, farm or harvest them because some Luddite Sierra Club Earth First special interest group will convince The Glorious Leader that they are "bad" or somehow "unfair."
WHEW!!!! Now I can sleep at night knowing that someone has cracked the potato genome!!
/sarc
If there were a negative correlation between usefulness and education, then the most useful people on earth would be illiterate subsistence farmers in Africa, Bedouin nomads, and beggars in the slums of Calcutta. Most people on earth have little or no formal education, and as far as they go, America ranks far behind Bolivia, Botswana and Bangladesh.
I agree that there are useless people with plenty of education, but the argument that education is a bad thing is patently absurd on its face.
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