Michigan State University scientists start a new chapter in a 142-year-old seed experiment
By: WSYM Staff
and last updated 2021-05-05 15:22:43-04
EAST LANSING, Mich. â The first hole the scientists dug was in the wrong place.
They were looking for a bottle, one of 20 buried in the fall of 1879 by a botanist named William James Beal in a secret location on the campus of State Agricultural College, the school that later became Michigan State University.
The bottle and the seeds inside are part of one of the longest-running scientific experiments in the world, an effort to figure out how long seeds can survive in the soil. The experiment has been going for 142 years and is set to run for 79 more.