Short Wave - A 142-Year-Old Science Seed Caper

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

On April 15, at four o'clock in the morning, a small group of scientists found their way to a secret location. A light wintry mix of rain and snow was falling. The lousy weather was a relief because it meant even less of a chance that someone might randomly pass by.Today on the show, NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce unearths why a new generation of scientists is digging up seeds under the cover of night buried 142 years ago.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, everybody. Emily Kwong here with NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfield Boys. How do you know? Hey, Emily. Hey, so you promised you would tell me the story of a secret science mission done under the cover of darkness. Indeed, indeed. So this happened earlier this month. A small group of scientists in Michigan rendezvoused at 4 a.m. So, you know, it was dark, cold, They told me it was raining or kind of snowing.

And they brought shovels plus an old meth to essentially dig for a kind of buried treasure. You know where we're headed? Yep. Okay, good. This sounds unmistakably like a caper. It is. It is a caper. One of the folks who went on this little expedition, David Lowry, told me it wasn't your typical research project.

Usually you're counting 1,064 insects. and then you're doing it again all day long. So this was much more exciting than it usually is. And that's because, you know, this experiment is really unusual. Yeah, what's so special about it? Well, for one thing, it started in 1879. 1879? So that means it's what?

142 years old. That's right. Great math there. Thank you. Usually researchers try to do studies that will get them results as quickly as possible, you know? But in this case, a botanist named William Beale had a question. And he knew that finding out the answer would require setting up a study that would outlive him. So, you know, that's exactly what he did.

And Beal's experiment has been handed down from generation to generation of scientists. So today on the show, a scientific experiment that just won't quit. We'll find out what the researchers needed to dig up and why they did it in the middle of the night. Plus, we'll hear how they feel about taking over a study that started. before their birth and we'll keep on going after they die. You're listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR. So now, tell me about this guy, William Beale. You said he was a botanist.

What was the big question he wanted to answer? So it's really kind of a simple question. How long can seeds remain viable underground? And, you know, the local farmers had been asking him, if we keep weeding a plot of ground, at what point will the wheat? stop coming up. And Beal just didn't know how long the seeds of weeds could be in the ground and retain the ability to germinate. So how did he try to figure that out? Well, he got 20 glass bottles. And Frank Toulouski, who's a professor of plant biology at Michigan State University,

he told me that Beale filled these bottles very carefully. And those 20 bottles, he filled up with a sandy seed mixture. And the sandy seed mixture contained 21 species. of plants with 50 seeds per plant. Now, these plants were just common weeds, and Beale buried the bottles in a secret spot on what is now the campus of Michigan State University. His plan was that every five years, he'd dig up a bottle and see what seeds could sprout. Okay, more math. So if it's one bottle every five years and there are 20 bottles, that means Beale expected

his experiment to last 100 years. Right. And, you know, it's going to be able to. on on longer than that. Beale dug up a bottle every five years until he retired in 1910. Then he passed the experiment onto a colleague who passed it onto a colleague and so on. And these caretakers made the experiment last longer than Beale ever intended just by stretching out the time between bottles. So they went from one bottle every five years to every 10 years. And now they dig up a bottle every 20 years. I love how this has been passed on. So the last bottle dug up

was 20 years ago? Well, 21. It was dug up in the year 2000. That's when Frank Toulouski went out with the previous caretaker to the secret location. Frank became the keeper of the experiment at that time. And he was supposed to dig up a bottle in 2020, but, you know, the coronavirus pandemic. Right. So, you know, it got delayed a little bit. But Frank Toulouski had been planning for the dig for a while before that and thinking about the most important part of the excavation. Specifically, who should go with him and learn the experiment's secrets so they could carry it into the future. I decided we needed to pass this on to the next generation as I turned 65 last year. In fact, David Lowry told me a couple years ago, Frank came into his office with the secret map.

Frank handed the map over and said, you know, in case something happens to me, you have the map. And a couple months later, he had a stroke. Fortunately, he mostly recovered from that. But there was a moment there where it was like, wow, I'm really glad that that handoff had occurred. Yeah. So that really is the hazard of this kind of long-term experiment. Someone loses the map. Absolutely. I mean, continuity is an issue. I mean, having it go really from person to person. And to make sure it never gets lost, there are now three new caretakers so that, you know, there's always at least two people who know what's going on with this thing. All three are scientists in their 30s and 40s at Michigan State. So we've got David Lowry, Marjorie Weber, and Lars Brudwig. All of them had heard. about this experiment many years before. It's a famous experiment, but none of them realized they might be a part of it. Lars Brodvik told me that taking this on feels different than any other

research he's done, like in his own lab. Almost like more pressure or something than normal, because I'm part of this bigger process. It's bigger than me. And I really like want to make sure that it's done right and carried forward properly, you know, both both for the generations of plant biologists in the past who have been involved with it, but also for those generations that are still to come, who will be involved in the future. So, you know, it was a really big deal when these three gathered together with Frank Toulouski on April 15th,

very, very early in the morning before sunrise. And now, why did they have to go out and check on this experiment in the dark? It was just so no one was around to see them digging in the secret hiding spot? It's partly that. Also, you know, it's just so the seeds and the bottles that are going to be left in the ground. don't get hit by sunlight, you know, which might trigger germination or affect them. So, you know, they went out there. It was dark, cold.

You know, it was kind of snowing and raining and wintry mix. They're digging in the ground. They're about nine inches right now. Even with the map and Frank there to show them the way, it was hard to find the right place. You know, they got off track. They had to dig in more than one spot. Marjorie Weber told me she was down on her belly on the ground

with her head in this hole, kind of like feeling around. in the darkness and the dirt. Oh. I think I found it. Wait, maybe not. I was a rock. Yeah, I'm serious. I don't know why Beale would put a rock down here.

But then she felt something smooth. Okay, now I for real found it. Yeah. And she asked Frank if you wanted to come down and have a look-see. Wow. Oh, wow. Hello, bottles. Oh, thank you.

All right. Oh. There's no relief like science relief. You know, your experiment's going to work out. So did they just extract these bottles from the dirt? Just one bottle, one bottle, very, very carefully. Marjorie Weber told me, you know, it was wild. The last person to touch it was Professor Beale 140 years ago, you know, this person who was writing letters to Darwin.

They rushed it to a lab. spread the seeds out on potting soil. And then Friday afternoon, the 23rd, David Lowry went to the lab to check. Looking over the soil, oh my God, there's something that germinated. We've got one seedling coming up right now. That is so exciting. So how many species do they think they will be able to germinate after more than a century in the ground? Well, last time in 2000, so that was what, 120 years, only a couple of different plants were able to,

to do it. So we'll see. A weed caper with a cliffhanger. I like it. Yeah. And they've actually added some experiments that Beale could never have dreamed of back in the 19th century. For example, another researcher named Margaret Fleming took a couple of seeds from a species that hasn't germinated in about 100 years. And she's going to run some RNA and DNA studies to see if any of the cellular machinery inside the seed is still active. Marjorie Weber told me that Beal's original question is still relevant today. We know that seeds can last a really long time in really perfect conditions, like in seed storage vaults or in the permafrost. We have these instances of seeds last a long time, but we really don't know how long seeds last just in the soil. And that's where

most of the seeds are. She and Margaret Fleming are the first women to be involved in this project since it began. I think that's a cool landmark. And I think it's going to be really cool to see how that changes over the next three or four bottle openings. Also, like what's the scientific community going to be like in 2100. This is like the best time capsule ever. Yeah. And 2100, I mean, I can't even picture it. So it's a bottle. Every 20 years, that means there are four more bottles to go, like 80 years worth of bottles left. Your math continues to impress. Yes. Toulouski is hoping he's going to be around to see the next one. So that'll be 2040. If I'm fortunate, I'll be 85. And I sure hope I can be there as a spectator and can watch the team dig it up with their new colleagues.

Because I would expect at that point in time, Marjorie and David and Lars will have picked another person or two or three to join the team so that it can be passed on to the next generation. Now, this in a way beautifully mirrors what seems like the whole scientific enterprise to me. Like each generation just takes science a little bit further and then passes it on to the next one who takes it a little further then. Yeah. And, you know, scientists never or at least almost never get to see, like, all the answers they'd hope for in their lifetime.

You know, like Beale, none of the folks who dug up this latest bottle are going to live to see the end of this experiment, unless something dramatic changes in human lifespan. But they told me it's been pretty inspirational just in terms of thinking about, like, what kinds of long-term experiments they might set up. And would they consider burying even more seeds for it? Maybe. Okay. Well, Nell, thanks for digging through all of this quite literally. It is my pleasure. Although I should note that they taped the digging themselves.

I was not there, just vicariously. I will be keeping close watch, though, and getting updates on what green plant life comes out of those antique seeds. So we'll see. Yes, we'll see. This episode was produced by Britt Hansen, edited by Giselle Grayson, and fact-checked by Rasha Arreini. I'm Emily Kwong. Thanks for listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.