Join the Grand Traverse Humanists as they welcome Dr. Grace Fleming with a presentation titled "Buried Alive: The Continuing Story of Dr. William Beal's Audacious Seed Experiment."
In 1879, Professor William James Beal of Michigan State University began an experiment to determine the length of time seeds of some of our most common plants would remain dormant in the soil and yet germinate when exposed to favorable conditions. This experiment in seed longevity is still active today, and has become one of the longest continuously monitored scientific experiments in the world.
Dr. Margaret ("Grace") Fleming is the current custodian of Dr. Beal's buried seed experiment. Dr. Fleming has a B.A. in philosophy from St. John's College (Annapolis) and a Ph.D. in botany from Colorado State University. Her research background is in plant biotechnology and molecular biology. She made transgenic plants to study cellulosic biofuel production, earned a patent for a method of diagnosing herbicide resistance in aquatic weeds, and developed DNA assays now used in peach and apple breeding programs to cull disease-susceptible progeny.