Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Irish Girls Win Google Science Fair With Astonishing Crop Yield Breakthrough

Posted by samzenpus on from the growing-better dept.

An anonymous reader writes Irish teenagers Ciara Judge, Émer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow, all 16, have won the Google Science Fair 2014. Their project, Combating the Global Food Crisis, aims to provide a solution to low crop yields by pairing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that naturally occurs in the soil with cereal crops it does not normally associate with, such as barley and oats. The results were incredible: the girls found their test crops germinated in half the time and had a drymass yield up to 74 percent greater than usual.

7 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Wager by kheldan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Five bucks says that before the end of the month, Monsantos' legal department sends them a cease-and-desist order and claims prior art on their accomplishment.

    --
    Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
    1. Re:Wager by cdrudge · · Score: 5, Funny

      I thought Monsanto owned the rights to Nitrogen as well as the complete genome of oats and barley. This should be a slam dunk case for their lawyers.

    2. Re:Wager by alphatel · · Score: 5, Funny

      Five bucks says that before the end of the month, Monsantos' legal department sends them a cease-and-desist order and claims prior art on their accomplishment.

      Monsanto Letter to USPTO ...infringing on our mark [see attached]...
      Patent "Employee" (working from unknown location on Sept 30th at 11:59 PM): Opens prior art. Enclosed is ASCII drawing of a farmer.
      USPTO Response to Monsanto: Seems Legit.

      --
      When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
  2. The kind of science fair my school used to have? by NotDrWho · · Score: 4, Funny

    If it's anything like the science fairs we used to have at my high school, then it will turn out dad is a plant biologist (who swears the girls did it all on their own) and the girls will be curiously vague when asked about the methodology.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  3. Re:This is huge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Why reduce CO2? Higher CO2 concentration also improves crop yields.

  4. I just want to say one word to you by Lucas123 · · Score: 1, Funny
    Just one word. 3D food printing.

    OK. Three words.

  5. So basicaly by wisnoskij · · Score: 3, Funny

    It is just doing one tiny part of what soil fungus would be doing naturally if they did not spray fungicide?

    --
    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.