 
United States Atomic Energy Commission ABOUT THE AUTHORThomas S. Osborne is in charge of plant-breeding research being conducted by the University of Tennessee’s Agricultural Research Laboratory for the Atomic Energy Commission. He has been in this work since 1953. But Dr. Osborne is a teacher at heart. Hence when students wrote inquiring about the effects of radiation on seeds, he took great interest in replying. From these replies grew mimeographed literature suggesting experiments for students; then this and other booklets. Dr. Osborne received his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University and his doctorate from Washington State University. Atoms in Agricultureby Thomas S. Osborne,
If man’s existence on the earth is compared to a calendar year, then he began farming in the very early morning of December 30 and began applying systematic knowledge to agriculture at 10:15 p.m. on December 31. The first traces of man on the earth are dated at about one and three-quarter million years ago. Plant life then was very much like plant life today, but the animal population was quite different. Man became a producer of plants and animals instead of merely a gatherer and hunter about 8000 years ago. He has applied systematic study to cultivated plants and animals for only 300 years. |
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