160 Years Later, Scientists Grow a GM Potato That Could Have Prevented the Irish Potato Famine Details Alert sent: No Sites: PH Publish date: Fri 2014-Jan-3 Author: Follow @_ColinS_ Channel: Pests/diseases Text (summary): From 1845 to 1852, the Great Hunger devastated Ireland and Scotland. A widespread outbreak of potato blight wiped out the potato crop, killing more than a million Irish people, and sending many Irish and Scots emigrating to new lands, largely Australia, Canada and the United States. Digital History: A few days after potatoes were dug from the ground, they began to turn into a slimy, decaying, blackish “mass of rottenness.” Expert panels convened to investigate the blight’s cause suggested that it was the result of “static electricity” or the smoke that billowed from railroad locomotives or the “mortiferous vapours” rising from underground volcanoes. In fact, the cause was a fungus that had traveled from Mexico to Ireland. “Famine fever”–cholera, dysentery, scurvy, typhus, and infestations of lice–soon spread through the Irish countryside. Observers reported seeing children crying with pain and looking “like skeletons, their features sharpened with hunger and their limbs wasted, so that there was little left but bones.” Masses of bodies were buried without coffins, a few inches below the soil. Locations Location Coordinates Zoom Relevance Show on map Mexico 23°N 102°W 0.365 Ireland 53°N 8°W 0.742 Scotland, United Kingdom 56°N 4°W 0.389 United States 39.76°N 98.5°W 0.377 Australia 25°S 135°E 0.366 Canada 60.1087°N 113.643°W 0.351 Discovery Discoveries: Discovery method: Robot discovered URL: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2014/01/160-years-later-scientists-grow-a-gm-potato-that-c… Discovery method: Robot discovered URL: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/160-years-later-scientists-grow-a-gm-potato-that-could-have… Original language: English Original title: 160 Years Later, Scientists Grow a GM Potato That Could Have Prevented the Irish Potato Famine | Smart News | Smithsonian Original text (summary): From 1845 to 1852, the Great Hunger devastated Ireland and Scotland. A widespread outbreak of potato blight wiped out the potato crop, killing more than a million Irish people, and sending many Irish and Scots emigrating to new lands, largely Australia, Canada and the United States. Digital History: A few days after potatoes were dug from the ground, they began to turn into a slimy, decaying, blackish “mass of rottenness.” Expert panels convened to investigate the blight’s cause suggested that it was the result of “static electricity” or the smoke that billowed from railroad locomotives or the “mortiferous vapours” rising from underground volcanoes. In fact, the cause was a fungus that had traveled from Mexico to Ireland. “Famine fever”–cholera, dysentery, scurvy, typhus, and infestations of lice–soon spread through the Irish countryside. Observers reported seeing children crying with pain and looking “like skeletons, their features sharpened with hunger and their limbs wasted, so that there was little left but bones.” Masses of bodies were buried without coffins, a few inches below the soil.
