How To Genetically Modify a Seed, Step By Step
Soybeans in Automated Greenhouse Genetically modified soybean plants grow at Monsanto's automated greenhouse in Raleigh, N.C. The greenhouse has conveyor belts to move plants around for watering, weighing, and pictures, so scientists can monitor their health without ever having to handle them. Courtesy MonsantoUsing nature as a guide, geneticists build plants with qualities evolution could never produce ST. LOUIS - In a nondescript basement lab, jeans-clad engineers clutch blueprints, scrape stepladders across the unfinished floor and chat about the Cardinals as they tighten bolts on a new prototype device. At first glance, it could be any machine shop in the country. But then you notice the wispy strands of soybean seedlings curling to life, their root tendrils bunched into test tubes lightly packed with soil, and you remember - this place is all about seeds. Monsanto Co. produces 90 percent of the world's transgenic crops, using a complex marriage between ancient techniques...