Weed to Wonder
www.weedtowonder.org
www.weedtowonder.org
Corn is the most important agricultural crop in the New World. However, its amazing rise – from a common weed, to staple food and cultural icon of Native Americans, to modern hybrid cultivar, to versatile and ubiquitous component of processed food, to precursor of clothing and motor fuels, to pharmaceutical factory – is little known to students or the general public.
The sequencing of the maize genome is a landmark in the history of plant biology and the largest single commitment to plant research in the history of the National Science Foundation. To commemorate the publication of the maize sequence in we are developing a multimedia Internet site on corn as an exemplar of scientific and cultural advance.
The goal of the project will be to show the continuity of research on corn – from Native American agriculturalists to agricultural breeders, corn geneticists, plant physiologists, and molecular biologists – that has culminated in the Maize Genome Sequencing Project. In parallel with the story of human impact on the evolution of the corn plant, we will tell the story of corn’s impact on human development and culture.
