Atomic gardening is a fad from the 1960’s where civilians were encouraged to experiment with atomic energized produce seeds for radiation-induced mutagenesis. Plants were exposed to radiation in the hopes they could generate larger, brighter, and more resistant fruits and vegetables to various stress. This entrepreneurship came in response to a creed for peaceful use of atomic energy after World War II, with the hope that atomic breeding could be used to reduce global hunger. This initiative shows the possibility for citizen science on sites of radioactive material.

Gamma Gardens on the other hand, are offial test plots where plants have been exposed to radiation. As a result of exposure to radiation, they harboured a range of unpredictable genetic mutations. Typically, Gamma Gardens take the form of a circular field where plants growing closest to the center are most exposed to a radioactive source. Further away, plants are less exposed, and likely less mutated. At the edges, dikes were designed to contain the radioactive material, and limit exposure to organisms outside the dike. Caesium-137 is recommended for this type of testing due to its short half life of 33 years. (“Gamma Gardens & Caesium 137 – The Center for Genomic Gastronomy”).

Left Top: Johnson, Paige. Brookhaven National Labs, New York 1958.
Left Bottom: Institute of Radiation Breeding, Hitachiohmiya, Japan
Right Top: Atoms for Peace symbol
Right Bottom: Scherschel, Frank LIFE Magazine, 1961