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The American Chestnut is almost extinct. It was destroyed by a fungus inadvertently imported from Japan. It used to be an extremely valuable tree for many reasons, both ecological and economical. Well, efforts are under way to bring it back. There is an article in the March 2014 Scientific American about the results of transgenic research into providing it with immunity to the fungus. "The American Chestnut's Genetic Rebirth" by William Powell. Heck, I thought William Powell was the Thin Man. Powell is hopeful that they will be able to get approval of their new trees in about 5 years. If they do then a hundred years from now there may be forests full of chestnut trees. They do have one slight problem. They aren't sure what kind of approval they will get. Most transgenic approvals are for commercial uses. This one is for non-commercial uses. They just want to restore the chestnut to its place in America.
Bill Gill
C is not the speed of light in a vacuum. C is the universal speed limit.
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Im going to guess that its not a good idea.
because , after the ability of farmers to grow food has been removed by genetics the only food that might remain would be the wild foods such as food from the remaining chestnut trees that are not contaminated by genetics.
also , there might be other risk that could occur if we allow the idiots to go beyond the commercial foods spectrum.
I see this as removing wild foods from the future starving masses dinner table , nothing more , nothing less.
3/4 inch of dust build up on the moon in 4.527 billion years,LOL and QM is fantasy science.
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Actually the chestnut tree is a good food source. And there are almost no chestnut trees remaining. There are a few that try to get started, but they are killed almost immediately by the fungus. The people working on this project are trying to restore the ecology to more closely match what it used to be.
Bill Gill
C is not the speed of light in a vacuum. C is the universal speed limit.
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I have planted a Chinese chestnut tree on my property. It is doing well. I hope to maybe have chestnuts in 10 years or so. I expect the plant breeders could breed the resistance gene into the American strain by using plant breeding techniques, but the length of time to achieve such crossing would be in terms of decades, if not centuries, because of the long life span of the trees and the years it takes to reach maturity. I am of mixed feelings about introducing the resistance gene into the American chestnut genome. Chestnut trees provide shade and shelter for many species. The lumber is a fine grade that is useful for many things. I guess we will know there is something wrong with the gene transfer when the squirrels that will eat the chestnuts come down with symptoms of some strange disorder. For now I think the advantage of having chestnut trees again in our forests outweighs any hazard to our health. After all, how many chestnuts can a person eat? It's not like a main staple like corn or soybeans.
If you don't care for reality, just wait a while; another will be along shortly. --A Rose
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Chestnuts?
AR II and all: Have you heard the story of the two chess-nuts? The story goes: They loved to sit in front of the large fireplace on the entrance-floor at the local hotel, which was always ablaze during the Christmas season.
For hours they sat, played, and talked about chess. Often they boasted about the famous players they had met--and sometimes played with--during their travels.
One Christmas season, the local paper interviewed the two and took a picture of them. The headline over the story was: CHESS-NUTS BOASTING IN AN OPEN FOYER
G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
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Oh, dear. That was a bad pun. That's an old chestnut.
If you don't care for reality, just wait a while; another will be along shortly. --A Rose
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Oh, dear. That was a bad pun. That's an old chestnut. Q. Is there such a thing as a good pun? As long as they are punny, I like all kinds of puns, eh. So be !
G~O~D--Now & ForeverIS:Nature, Nurture & PNEUMA-ture, Thanks to Warren Farr&ME AT www.unitheist.org
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