The word nuclear has a bad reputation, and for good reason. If you know your history, it may bring to mind the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan during World War II that killed hundreds of thousands of people, or maybe the nuclear arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Which is precisely why, in the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. government launched a program called Atoms For Peace to give nuclear energy some positive press. One of the public relations strategies included so-called gamma gardens, also known as atomic gardens. Basically people used nuclear radiation to try to grow mutant plants.
The hope was that the mutations would be beneficial — that plants would grow faster, be more resistant to cold or pests, produce bigger fruits or simply be more colorful, for example, making the practice more attractive to farmers and gardeners.
Atlas Obscura explains how the radiation worked to affect plant growth:
Some of the gardens covered five acres or more and formed a circle, with the radioactive rod in the center, according to the 99% Invisible radio program, and those rods would radiate the field for 20 hours a day.
Go nuclear in your own backyard
In 1959, across the Atlantic in the U.K., a woman named Muriel Howorth started the Atomic Gardening Society and published a book a year later about how anyone can grow an atomic garden in their own yard. Between the appeal of mutant plants and her handy DIY guide, gamma gardens took off in labs, farms and backyards.
The 99% Invisible radio show detailed more about Howorth’s borderline obsession with atomic gardening in one episode:
For some people, the appeal of atomic gardens was to grow a lot of food and ease food shortages after the war. But for others like Howorth, the appeal was simply to try something new and interesting. She lobbied hard for her cause, too. She wrote to Albert Einstein and he agreed to become a patron of her organization, according to a paper published in the British Journal for the History of Science.
Fads fade … mostly
Alas, despite Howorth’s best efforts, enthusiasm for gamma gardens waned as beneficial mutations were rare and amateur growers found it difficult to detect them. However, the concept of genetically modified crops started long before this trend and continues to this day. Gamma gardens even contributed to some varieties of plants today, including these black beans and this type of begonia. And Japan’s Institute of Radiation BreedingInstitute of Radiation Breeding has adopted atomic garden techniques to breed various crop species.
The conversation about GMOs is certainly more controversial today than it was back then, but this interesting chapter just shows how attitudes can change over time.
