Seeds are being tested in space for climate change resistance

Could space seeds be the answer? Sorghum and cress seeds are being exposed to intense solar radiation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under efforts to boost their resistance to feed people on an increasingly warming planet, Bloomberg reports. Exposing the seeds to cosmic radiation would allow crops to endure hotter weather, increasingly barren land, a spread of pests and rising sea levels.

Why is this important? Most of astrobotany has focused on examining how plants can be grown to provide food for astronauts for possible space colonies, but this new experiment is designed to “help people on Earth adapt to climate change,” IAEA’s head of genetics and plant breeding Shoba Sivasankar told the business information service. Global yields continue to be hit by the adverse impacts of climate change, with rising temperatures and weather disturbances bringing food productivity down by nearly 13% since 1961, according to latest UN estimates.