7. The development of new plants and the Green Revolution (mid-1900's)

Producing enough food to feed the earth's growing population is an ongoing problem. In 1944, the Rockefeller Foundation sent the American agricultural scientist Norman Ernest Borlaug to Mexico to develop new plants that would produce more grain in tropical regions. Throughout the next decade, Borlaug experimented with hybrid plants that eventually produced significant increases in Mexican grain production. These improvements ushered in the Green Revolution and greatly increased the world's food supply.


Biochemists and molecular biologists now use genetic engineering to produce plants with special characteristics. These techniques made plants more resistant to disease. They also made farmland more productive.

 

 

Marianna A. Busch is the Chair and a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Baylor University. Her Top 10 list centers on the most important scientific events of the 1900's. She discusses what these events meant to scientists and society in general. She calls attention to a number of the groundbreaking scientists who left their mark on the world of science in this century.

1.

The discovery of the molecular structure of DNA (1953)

2. The invention of the transistor (1947)
3. The first use of penicillin (1928)
4.

Development of the atomic bomb (1940's)

5. The launch of Sputnik I by the Soviet Union (Oct. 4, 1957)
6. Construction of the first laser (1960)
7. The development of new plants and the Green Revolution (mid-1900's)
8. The beginning of nuclear physics (early 1900's)
9. The development of quantum theory (early 1900's)
10. The publication of Silent Spring (1962)