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irradiating seeds
Moderators: AmyCowen, kgudger, bfinio, MadelineB, Moderators
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pepper11
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:15 pm
- Occupation: student
- Project Question: irradiation of seeds
- Project Due Date: mid march
- Project Status: I am conducting my research
irradiating seeds
I am doing a science fair project on irradiated seeds, and I looked at your website and found an experiment "Rad Radishes: Effects of Irradiation on Seeds". In the experiment synopsis, I noticed that they used 50, 100 and 150 mrads. As I was doing more research in science journals, I saw that much greater levels of radiation were used, up to 8kGrays. Is it safe to used 5, 10, 15 Grays in my experiment, or would it kill the plants?
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MelissaB
- Moderator
- Posts: 1055
- Joined: Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:47 am
Re: irradiating seeds
Hi,
If you can obtain seeds that have been irradiated with higher doses of radiation, that should be fine (although I would recommend including at least one low dose just in case). The main problem will be obtaining the seeds, if they are not sold--it is not safe for you (forget the plants!) to be around doses of radiation that high. So, in this case I would stick with whatever is sold, but recognize that you might get different results if you used a higher dose.
Good luck!
If you can obtain seeds that have been irradiated with higher doses of radiation, that should be fine (although I would recommend including at least one low dose just in case). The main problem will be obtaining the seeds, if they are not sold--it is not safe for you (forget the plants!) to be around doses of radiation that high. So, in this case I would stick with whatever is sold, but recognize that you might get different results if you used a higher dose.
Good luck!