@ Cal-Tech experiments produce freaks from seed corn exposed to radiation

EPILOGUE TO T BIKINI TESTS

By DON WHEELDIN

SCANT dozen miles away

from downtown Los An- geles in nearby Temple City a remarkable ll-year experi- ment with the descendants of atom-blasted corn seedlings is drawing to a close.

On a three and a half acre

dwarfed: and stunted off- spring less than six inches at full growth.

There are strange and curi- ous plant specimens in which ears of corn have sought. to shoot out where the tassel nor-

mally flowers. There are al- bino samples, doomed to die for° want of chlorophyl. (Chlorophyl is the green

coloring matter in plants that sunlight to convert air and water into food for plant growth.) There is much more. The experiments are jointly conducted by California Insti- tute of Technology, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. Cal-Tech has small building

uses

provided a on the site, the land, and the services of Dr. E. G. Anderson, professor of genetics. The department of agriculture has sent in Dr. “Al- bert E. Longley, an expert in cereal crops The AEC has pro- vided a monetary grant.

When the U.S. Navy de- tonated its first atomic bomb at Bikini on July'1, 1946, naval officials requested that some of the maize (corn) seeds that had been exposed to radiation at the bomb site be planted at the Cal-Tech station.

The first planting was made in the greenhouse at Temple City on, July 28, 1946.

It included five lots of hy- brid maize seed which had been exposed to atomic radia- tion at Bikini and four lois, planted beside them, that had been bombarded by X-ray: ra- diation in R-units (Roentgen) of 5,000R, 10,000R, 15,000R, and 20,000R. (The R-unit of radiation obsorbed by a person having an ordinary X-ray taken, is far less than 1 R).

The first crop was harvested in late September, 1946, and at first glance, according to Dr. Anderson, you could hard- ly distinguish it from any’ other crop.

However, upon amination, the were disclosed:

+ Out of 831 plants from Lot A of the Bikini seed group, 524, or 63.1 percent revealed sectors of abnormal pollen. (Pollen usually appears as fine yellow dust consisting of min- ute reproductive bodies called spores.)

closer ex- following facts

* Chromosomal rearrange- ments had taken place in 30

percent of all plant cells in Lot A.

+ The Bikini seed group demonstrated harmful muta-

tions equal to the X-ray group bombarded at-15,000R.

In reference to the abnormal pollen, an official report on the experiment states:

“A total of 31,782 ‘side branches were examined, of which 561% or 315 percent had partially sterile pollen. These partially sterile branch- es were distributed in 183 sec- tors varied from a portion of one branch to’nearly the whole tassel, but the small sectors Were most abundant.”

reas x

Succeeding experiments, which now include up to the llth generation removed from the original Bikini seed, have produced sharp and _ varied changes, called mutations.

These mutations have not developed evenly or equally in the reproduction process.

Beginning with the first crop, the corn was cross-pol- linated with standard plants.

Results brought on a variety of offspring, ranging’ from rel- atively healthy plants- that successfully segregated defec- tive cells and cast them off to deformed dwarfs barely able to push themselves through the soil. F

Nor did mutations, transmit- ted. from generation to gen- eration of corn plants, show up successively in each new crop; according to Dr. Ander- son.

Here again there was a ten- dency to skip over and jump generations and on the basis of information collected to date there is caution, by scien- tists in asserting definitiveiy what it means.

One thing is established, however, and that is: “most of the corn plants are afflicted with mutations that are harm- ful.”

“What would happen if you cross-bred irradiated corn plants with one another?” Dr. Anderson was asked.

“Well, the result would be such an awful scramble ac- companied by so much worth- less crud because of the violent mutations that it would be worthless for our immediate purpose,” he replied.

Can these violent mutations, which produce monstrosities, midgets, and other odd-ball maize plants be reversed? Is there any value for mankind to be gleaned from the warp- ing process?

These additional questions were put to scientists at the site and here are their an-

swers.

Strictly speaking, they held it to be -scientifically incor- rect to speak of the irreversi- bility of mutations although they agreed that process sel- dom takes place.

“On occasion, a reversion may take place. However, it is actually a new mutation,” ore scientist said.

As to value from the Warp- ing process, it was disclosed a small body of scientific opinion holds it to be possible that over a sufficiently long period of time ‘something of value” may develop.

The majority view brands the process as “degenerative, deleterious, and destined to end in death.”

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Meanwhile, the experiment with the descendants! of Bikini contaminated corn: seeds is be- ing conducted in concert with tests at Cal-Tech on irradiated Drosophila (fruit flies) and fungi.

Fruit flies reproduce every 10 days and the Cal-Tech ‘ex- periments have resulted in some violent mutations that match the monstrosities pro- duced in corn. They have pro- duced flies without eyes or sprouting jfour wings instead of two.

Although there is disagree- ment among scientists as to the degree of damage caused by radioactive fallout, there is universal agreement that the human genes and chromo- somes are affected in the same way as the life-giving matter in plants and insects.

A recent report of the Na- tional Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences answered the most often-asked questions concern- ing effects of atomic radiation in the following way:

Can the process of deform- ity, death and destruction of life in its various forms, step- ped up and added to by atomie radiation, be reversed? No.

Do the strange mutations, as in descendant seedlings of the Bikini maize, continue on gen- eration after generation with- out, weakening in any way? Yes. .

Are human genes and chro-

mosomes affected in the same*

way that plants and insect genes and chromosomes are affected by atomic radiation?

Yes. Ww

The final question is: Does that mean that we are destined to become a world of defec- tives?

“If the whole population of the United States received a small dose of extra radiation

Nevada.

> An explosion at the U.S. nuclear weapons testing site in A group ‘of_ U.S.

churchmen and lay peace

workers has issued a call “for prayer and protest action in-

volving civil disobedience” at the site between August 6 and 9,

anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

— say one Roentgen -— there is good reason to think that out of the next 100 million children to be born, several thousand would be definitely handicapped because of mu- tant genes due to radiation. These several thousand would, so to speak, be lost in the crowd.

“On the other hand, if 10,- 000 individuals were exposed to a much larger dose of radia- tion (on the order of 200 Ro- entgens) then there would be perhaps 100 handicapped chil- dren of these exposed individ- uals, in addition to the num- ber resulting from _ other causes.

“In addition to this contrast, in’ numbers of cases there is also a contrast in quality of damage. The personal view- point inevitably places great emphasis on the (relatively rare) instances of subnormal mentality, gross physical de- fects, or disorders which lead to the progressive ~ deteriora- tion and long delayed death of an apparently normal child. These tragedies cause severe distress to the affected indi- viduals ‘and’ their fariities; and

are clearly the most tangible and personal part of the gene — tic damage.

“From the population view- point, however, this part of the damage may be equalled of even outweighed by much more minor handicaps to very many more persons. i

“There is still a third aspect to consider. A population that is. exposed, generation afte! generation, to an increased amount of radiation will eX perience a rising death rate and a falling birth rate be cause of harmful mutations: until a new equilibrium is eS tablished between the . 10° creased rates of mutation and elimination.

“Tf in this process the death rate comes to exceed, the birth rate, the population will de-_ cline and eventually perish. At present we are extremely uncertain about the level of this fatal threshold for a hu man. population. This is on® reason why we must be cau tious. about increasing th® total amount of radiation 1 which the entire population 15 exposed.”

August 2, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 6 :