To Err Is Human; To Error Is...Well...Space Engineering

We’ve all heard the adage. “To err is human”. It means for one to go astray in a way of thinking, or morally. But to error…that’s a different beast entirely. Sometimes it can be a case of poor judgment, such as in the sanctioning of Russia’s lewd lizard love-fest which culminated in the loss of contact with the gecko sex pod in orbital space. Sometimes it can be a case of oversight, such as in the miscalculation of the difference zero-gravity would make on the lens in the Hubble telescope.

Whether we’re missing out on “Game of Geckos” porn in space due to transmission failure or watching incognito spy satellites burn up spectacularly in sub-orbital space for all to see, there is one thing that is prevalent.

Getting to space is freakin’ hard.

Today at TI&IT we’re going to explore the deepest reaches of the true final frontier; spaceflights historical basement of catastrophic failures. And it isn’t just Russia, NASA, and the ESA that are prone to incredible mishaps.

Let’s talk about some of the light-hearted “Whoopsies!” the international community has faced in the race to outer-space.

“So Uh…This is in Inches Right?”

In November of 1999, the Scientific Community turned a collective facepalm to the United States when NASA’s doomed spacecraft, the Mars Climate Orbiter, just vanished. Scientists knew what had happened. It was gone, for good. Now the question remained, why had their $125 million Marvin the Martian spy satellite exploded? (Maybe they should have added a Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator…)

Turns out, private contracting firm Lockheed Martin made a slight boo-boo. That boo-boo being they programmed the landing software to tell the craft to make its calculations in terms of inches and pounds instead of meters and newtons. Because of this the Weather Channel never got the chance to give us a report from the red planet.

But the $125 million price tag was paltry in comparison to what happened at NASA just three years ago…

For the Glory of…Oh…You Exploded…

On March 4^th 2011, NASA launched their Taurus XL Booster rocket carrying the climate satellite “Glory” on board. The Taurus is a four stage rocket, meaning it will separate pieces of itself as it gets higher and higher into the atmosphere in order to gain more altitude. The problem was that the nose cone didn’t separate, so when the rocket reached a certain height it became too heavy versus the amount of fuel left and plunged into the Pacific Ocean.

Turns out, this wasn’t even the first time a Taurus Rocket pulled this on them. Two years prior to this launch in 2009 they had a similar problem with another launch. The Glory mission cost them a whopping $424 million. The mission in 2009 you ask? Around $275 million, totaling NASA’s two year losses at $700 million dollars. That can’t feel good on the wallet…

But not much can trump the Russian’s. No matter how many rockets and ships we blow up, we’ll never reach the insanity levels of the Iron Curtain…

Russia’s Cutting-Edge…Non-Existent Technology…

What do most of you think of when someone says “The Cutting-Edge”? Do you think of fancy new computers? Holographic projections? Cloning? (Toe-pick?) Regardless of what you think of, we’re going to talk about what the Russian’s thought. In 1969, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong made their famous literal moonwalk across the surface of our rocky little satellite, and the Russian’s were, well, miffed, to say the least.

So they packed their iron balls into their space suits and came up with a plan. Screw the moon, Russia was going to Mars and Venus. Their scientists predicted it would take three years (yeah right…) and they were going to not only fly to Mars, but land on it and claim it in the name of Mother Russia as well…after building a pole to pole train system!

How were they going to keep their cosmonauts alive during this arduous journey you ask? Why, by relying on technology that didn’t even exist yet of course! They were going to grow their food in greenhouses onboard the ship. And as far as their cosmonauts floating around in space for three years? They were, “just hoping for the best when it comes to periods of prolonged weightlessness since no one had gone longer than a few days in space before.”

Obviously this never happened. Like most of their rockets at that time, the plans never got off the ground. Several missions were conducted between 69’ and 71’ but every time the rocket would come back in pieces. Turns out, they weren’t very trusting of American technology (even though the Americans had already done it proper…) and instead of using liquid oxygen and hydrogen for fuel they decided it was smarter to use Benzene and Kerosene. How you say…boom?

Kerosene and Benzene when mixed together are highly explosive. But Russian’s have testicles made of titanium, so to hell with basic chemistry! As it were, Russian men weren’t the only ones with cahonies of steel. Turns out, Canine cahnoies were built Kremlin tough as well…

Space Puppies

Between 1951 and 1966 the Soviet’s sent Air Bud into orbit about twenty times. Unfortunately it wasn’t Air Bud, it was a different dog every time, because unlike Uncle Sam’s Orbital Chimpanzee’s the Russian’s had no intention of bringing the dogs back home, like their cosmonaut counterparts would soon come to realize, it seems their canine lives were expendable for the glory of Russia!

Perhaps the most famous of these Moon-bound mongrels was the Husky-Terrier mix Laika, immortalized forever above by Romania’s 1959 postage stamp. Laika, like all the space pups before her, was never planned to return home, she was just meant to test the effects of space on life-forms. Their official report of her demise, while tragic, was acceptable. A week or less into her journey, she ate her poisoned food and died peacefully.

…except that is NOT what happened.

The Sputnik-2 (otherwise known as Laika’s coffin) wasn’t designed to carry a passenger; it was much heavier than anything the United States had even been contemplating sending into orbit. In 2002 it was finally revealed how Laika died, overheating and stress. The temperature inside the capsule rose to hundreds of degrees, humidity increased, and five to seven hours into her flight, Laika stopped transmitting vital signs to mission control.

Despite the heartrending nature of her demise Laika taught us something invaluable about space, so her sacrifice was not in vain (as an animal lover it still makes me sad though…). Laika proved that humans could withstand extended periods of weightlessness and paved the way for human space flight.

But Russia and the U.S. aren’t the only nations that have suffered “hiccups” in their space programs. In fact, it seems every nation that enters the space race has the idea in their head that, “anything you can do I can do better!” But as I said before, getting to space is hard, and the next three nations and private contracting company had to discover that the hard way.

Missed it by a “Naro” Margin

In 2009, South Korea joined the game with its rocket, initially named the KSLV (Korea Space Launch Vehicle) but later changed due to copyright infringement to the Naro-1…(I’m just kidding… I have no idea who owns what patents anymore…). Regardless of why the name was changed, Naro had a few problems. Namely…it didn’t accomplish anything.

Just like our Glory mission, parts failed to disengage, making the rocket too heavy to achieve orbit and sending it crashing back down to the world below. (Too bad it couldn’t have landed on their neighbors “Dear Leader” instead.) The mission, costing 500 billion won (equivalent to about $450 million in United States) was a bust. So was the follow-up in 2010. In fact, it wouldn't be until 2013 when they would achieve their plans with the Naro-3.

Not so easy is it South Korea?

And what about our next contestant? Like the United States they used a monkey but like Russia it seems they may not have had Bozo the Bonobos best interests in their hearts. Let’s head on over to Iran for a U.N. sanctioned silo visitation! (Just kidding Iranians, you know I love you!)

“Iran’s Attempt to Launch a Monkey into Space Fails”

That is a headline to a real article. No joke.

You can’t make this stuff up.

In 2011, Iran attempted to join the rest of the astrologically accustomed world by launching a live Rhesus monkey into space. The test was designed to prove whether or not their technology was where it needed to be in order for human spaceflight to be achieved by their nation. That being said however…

…It was not.

For reasons undisclosed it seems by the country, the mission was a smashing failure. Pishgam Kavoshgar (which means “Explorer Pioneer” in Farsi) was a doomed launch, and the Pishgam of the equation, the Rhesus monkey, never got to see the moon up close.

Third Times a Charm…

…or not. In 2011, the third launch in a week of the ShiJian series of Chinese rockets proved too much for them to handle. The first two missions however had been successful, but the reasons for launching them? They never told us. The Chinese were no strangers to failures or success in the space race competition either. They’d been in the game since the 1950s and continued building ballistics throughout the Cold War…just in case.

They have mastered space flight though as well as anyone else has. They recovered from the 2011 incident by turning around and launching several successful unmanned missions to the moon, including their first soft lunar landing. (We talked about that before, you can read all about it here.)

And now for the final contestant on our list…the moment you’ve all been waiting for!

“Prime” time…

Amazon.com: Now Shipping To Space!

In 2011, (seems to be a theme here…), Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com and mastermind behind Blue Origin, suffered some setbacks to privatized space flight. In an apparent attempt to deliver Katy Perry CDs and J.K. Rowling novels to the moon their first sub-orbital craft had to email the customer and return their money.

An instrumentation failure caused the ground team to have to terminate the thrust on the rocket. After a 25 mile journey it came crashing back down... Just like Jeff Bezos’ dreams of building the first corporation on the moon that Rupert Murdoch doesn’t own. To date there have been several successful launches, but privatized space flight is still a ways off from being accessible for the general consumer.

Soooo… Yeah…

So we can all agree that this last decade has been one that saw many failures for the space bound world. Iran and South Korea got to experience what it felt like when really expensive toys exploded, a feeling the United States, Russia, and China were already well acquainted with. Privatized flight saw some expensive setbacks, and Rhesus monkeys are not well enough represented in the scientific community.

All of that aside, we can also all agree that getting to space, is a lot harder than we seem to think, and you can thank the brave Space Puppies of 1957 like Laika and the valiant heroes of 2011 like Pishgam for making it possible for the lot us bipedal flesh bags.

Thanks for reading everyone!

-       Ryan

Thanks for reading all! Be sure to send this around on Twitter and Facebook! Don’t forget to like and comment as well! If you want to know more about any of the topics discussed above today feel free to follow any of the links below. Happy Learning everyone and thank you for your continued support!

-       BBC news report from 2002 about Laika’s true fate

-       SkyNews.net article on South Korea’s failed launch

-       Wikipedia entry on Amazon’s Blue Origin program

-       Wikipedia entry on Chinese Space Program

-       Space.com article on multiple failed space programs

-       Wikipedia entry on Pishgam

-       Wikipedia entry on Laika

-       Cracked.com article on more insane Russian programs

Why We Taste: A Brief History of "Thyme" and the Rest of Your Spice Rack

If you’d have told me yesterday that Rome’s been sacked and burned, entire civilizations have been enslaved, and current superpowers in the world’s infrastructure had all revolved around one humble spice named Pepper, I’d have looked at you like you were crazy. As it is at the time of this writing though, I wouldn’t be able to call you crazy, because now I know the bizarre truth behind the spice, and many others like it.

Also if you’d have told me that spice brought about the birth of Capitalism I’d have been awestruck. As it turns out, taste was an extremely integral part of our past, it’s a huge commodity in our present, and I have a feeling it will continue like this into the future. Its created monopolies, spawned atrocities, and enriched our palettes for millennia.

But what are spices? Actually, let me rephrase that…why do we taste spices? And more importantly, how do we taste? Today at TI&IT we’re going to break that down. We’ll talk about seven different categories of flavor; our “buddies” on our tongue that help us distinguish between them, and the strange (and often violent) history behind a few of your everyday spices. In fact, chances are, you’ve eaten some of the spices, or are about to eat them at some point today.

But before we dig into the spicy history of the East India Trading Company let’s talk a little bit about the how and the why of taste.

Not To Be Pretentious…But “Taste” Isn’t “Flavor”…

Despite popular belief taste and flavor are two separate entities, however, for the most part we use the two terms interchangeably. For our purposes today we’re going to outline the differences between the two so later on it is very clear what we’re talking about when we get into classifications.

Taste is a chemical response to gustatory stimuli. Gustatory stimuli would be the food we eat. When something is inserted into the mouth, small receptors on the tongue called papillae or more commonly “taste buds”, receive information from the object. These transmit signals to the brain based on the four major taste areas of the tongue:

The four commonly agreed upon taste sections of the tongue are sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. Obviously we know the differences in those tastes, French fries are salty, most candy is sweet, lemons are sour, and espresso is bitter. But what happens when a food doesn’t fall into one of those categories?

Well it turns out, regardless of what it is, it can be classified into one of those four categories, but there is a broader spectrum out there. This is known as “flavor”. Flavor differs from taste in one tremendous way. Taste is a single sense in and of itself. In order to achieve flavor two senses need to combine, namely taste and smell. The gustatory and olfactory responses are closely linked with one another. I’ll give you an example.

Remember the last time you stopped out to your friends for a barbeque? Remember the ribs he had cooking on the grill? They smelled incredible didn’t they? In fact, I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they smelled so good you could taste them long before they had even touched your plate. That’s because the sense of smell is closely linked to the sense of taste.

So now we know the difference between the two, but how and why do we taste?

No Tongues Created Equal

The why of taste is a simple answer. We taste to identify whether or not something is safe to ingest. Think about it. Have you ever taken a swig of sour milk unknowingly? Tasted pretty nasty didn’t it and I’ll bet you spit it out and threw the milk away? Good thing you did too, sour milk is bad for your stomach, and your taste buds were there to help you identify that threat.

The how of taste, now that’s another story. See, everyone’s taste buds differ from one another. Some have more, some have less, some are predispositioned to certain tastes that others find gross. Because of this it’s difficult for researchers to make any kind of definitive chart for taste. The only thing agreed upon are the four basic tastes we discussed earlier, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter.

So how does the tongue differentiate between these different tastes? It’s pretty cool, let’s break it down real quick:

See those little bumps on the tongue in the picture above. Those are the Papillae we talked about earlier in the beginning of this article. Most people think that those are the taste buds…and technically that’s misleading. See, sometimes they can contain taste buds, but gustatory receptor cells are much smaller and not visible to the naked eye. They are generally housed in clustered in between the papillae.

The papillae lock food in place and keep it positioned during mastication (minds out the gutter…it means chewing…). During that period food particulates get trapped by gustatory hairs and delivered to the receptor cells. From there a series of nerves send signals to the cerebral cortex and interprets the information from the tongue, along with information from the nose, as flavor.

There’s a common myth that, “the tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body.” Well…it certainly is a muscle. But by no definition of the word “strongest” does the tongue hold any title. Don’t let it fool you though, while it may not be a comparatively strong muscle, flavor is a powerful motivator. In 408 A.D., Barbarians invaded Rome and demanded a ransom of pepper.

Yes…pepper. Like pepper, pepper. The same black granules you put on your eggs this morning.

Not only did they sack Rome for the pepper, after the Romans paid the ransom, they burned the place down and took the rest! Slavery has been driven all around the world due to the demand of Sugar. (Plantations anyone…?) Salt has been used as a preservative and flavor enhancer for centuries.

Oh yes. The tongue is a neat sensory organ, but the history behind what it’s capable of tasting is much richer than any chocolate mousse you’ll ever taste. From spices fit only for a King, to sweet commodities that take the world by storm, everyone has been trying to sate their palettes for centuries. No other company more so than East India Trading Company.

But we’ll get to them in a minute…first, let’s talk about their number one product.

“I’ll Trade You One Human For One Pound of Pepper”

Ah yes, pepper. A spice that at one time was so valuable; a pound of black pepper could buy a serf in medieval Europe his freedom. Spoiler alert, there weren’t very many free serfs roaming around. Long ago, pepper was more valuable than gold, which makes sense, as its practicalities were far more extensive. Not only is pepper a flavor enhancer, it is also a preservative.

In medieval times, pepper was reserved only for royalty. Princes for example would take up a hunt in pursuit of boar. When one was brought down it would be gutted, and its insides would be thoroughly rubbed with pepper. Not only did this make the roasted boar taste better, it would also help save any leftover meat from spoiling any quicker than need be. It was the spice of Kings that transformed this.

Into this:

There is some debate in the scientific and historical community about whether or not pepper was truly used as a preservative. It doesn’t have nearly as many stabilizing qualities as salt does. Nonetheless it didn’t stop pepper from being a hot commodity. It spawned conquests to India, spurred the “discovery” of North America, (You can’t discover somewhere that was already inhabited…sorry U.S. …), and actually helped fund the building of America as it is today.

It also spawned the East India Trading Company. Not only was this corporation the villain of the second “Pirate of the Caribbean” film, they truly were a villainous company in real life. Don’t like capitalism or shareholding? You can blame that on the EIC and the Dutch version, the VOC. It wasn’t just spice they had their hands in. Jewelry, tea, cosmetics, coffee, even human beings were trafficked by this company. At one point their grip was so ironclad on the Pepper Trade that they were classified as a monopoly. Not bad for a bunch of old 16^th century white dudes. (That was sarcasm…)

The V.O.C. and Outsourcing Murder

The systematic extermination of an indigenous population can be nasty business, so naturally in 1607 when the Dutch needed it done, they sent in just the right sociopath. Enter Jan Pieterszoon Coen. Many like to claim he began slaughtering the people outright; however, here at TI&IT we explore both sides of the story, so allow me to clear up this historical matter real quick before we continue.

Coen arrived in the Banda Islands of Indonesia in 1607, yes. The Dutch forced the people to work for very little, almost slavery status, and offered useless trinkets in trade, yes. The people of the Islands grew very tired of the Dutch taking advantage of them, yes.

So after all this buildup the Chiefs called a meeting with Coen and his finest men in which the Chiefs, known as the “Orang Kaya”, ambushed them and killed 40-50 (texts debate over the actual number) of his men. Naturally, this really peeved a psycho power-hungry governor like Coen into a fit of madness. He returned several years later with real soldiers this time and Japanese mercenaries. He rounded up all of the Chiefs and had them executed and impaled as a warning to any other villager who may want to try and stage another uprising against him.

Coen could have stopped there but he didn’t.

He ordered the people to sign a treaty, one which was easy to violate and impossible to follow. As a result of the arbitrary violations he ordered the extermination of the populace of the Banda Islands. 14,000 of the 15,000 native people lost their lives.

All in the name of Nutmeg and Cloves...

But we all know you can’t run a business solely on the company policy of genocide. So Coen decided to outsource his labor from the neighboring islands, by importing the innocent inhabitants as slaves. He repopulated the island with sadness and tragedy, but he sure did make those old rich white dudes even richer, and we all know, that’s what’s most important. (Once again…so…much…cynicism…)

But why all the murder and mayhem? What made nutmeg so important?

Well for starters it was a status symbol. If you could afford nutmeg you could purchase a London brownstone. In fact, much in the same way pepper could buy people, nutmeg could purchase property. In medieval Europe, around 20 kilos of nutmeg could buy you a rather nice, fully furnished flat. Not too shabby.

But Nutmeg had other uses as well. To understand them, we need to talk a little bit about the spice itself and how it grows. Let’s start with the tree:

Nutmeg grows on a tree, and its seed pod bears a remarkable resemblance to the way the seed pod of a horsechestnut (here in Michigan we call them “Buckeyes”) is set up. There are some differences however. First, and most noticeably, the outer shell of Nutmeg doesn’t look like a Sea Mine:

(The Submarine Mine: AKA Explosive Underwater Ball of Death)

But the sea mine does bear a remarkable resemblance to…

(The Horsechestnut: AKA Spiny Shell of DEATH)

Anyway I digress…this is what a ripe Nutmeg fruit looks like:

Nutmeg has several layers that must be peeled away in order to get to the spice. The outermost layer is the fruit. The flesh of the nut can be pulped to make jams and candies. The next layer of Nutmeg is called the “Mace”. That’s the red stuff you see in between the two cracked halves of the outer shell:

But even that isn’t thrown away. Mace is used in culinary dishes worldwide. Traditionally, it’s been used in the cosmetics industry because it contains the scent of nutmeg that can be extracted. It’s also a classic example of holistic medicine, said to aide in a variety of ailments, ranging from diarrhea to schizophrenia and pain reduction. (Although I don’t recommend coming off Abilify in favor of the spice rack for anyone suffering from mental disorders…)

But there’s another layer, (Criminey, it’s like a Matryoshka doll I swear…). Once you peel off the Mace you reveal a small, innocuous looking, dark brown nut. If you were to bite into this you would be greeted with an extremely bitter taste, almost foul. Why? You guessed it, because there’s another layer:

When all is said and done, that tiny little seed pictured above in the top of that little pyramid, roughly the diameter of an American Penny, brought the end of an entire civilization. Think about that next time you go to sprinkle some on your egg cream this upcoming holiday.

So if pepper can buy humans…

And nutmeg can bring out the genocide in people…

What the hell can sugar do???

Bittersweet Truth: The Raw Past of Sugar

Turns out, sugar can enslave almost an entire continent.

And create the first example of a human pyramid scheme.

Well…you know the American way…go big or go home…

Slavery was nothing new by the time sugar came into the picture. It had already been a long standing tradition of a conquering army to enslave a populace. But between 1505 and all the way up till the beginning of the 20^th century, Dutch and English “entrepreneurs” elevated the brutality and ferocity of the slave trade to a disgusting and disturbing art form.

Slaves were brought from Africa to North America to work on sugar cane plantations. This sugar was then taken to mills, where it was distilled into things like rum and molasses. The slavers would then take the rum back to Africa where anywhere between 110-130 gallons could be used to purchase an adult slave. Didn’t have enough for a full grown man? Only 80 gallons left in the hold? No reason to leave empty handed! For that amount you could buy a child.

In fact, sugar was so important it may have cost Great Britain a very important war. It’s arguable that while Great Britain was covering its “assets” on its sugar islands, they lost 13 colonies during the American Revolution. Many have said that the war would have turned out differently had Great Britain thrown all of its might against America instead of defending its sugar stores.

So what made this “White Gold” as the colonists called it so darn valuable?

Have you ever had sugar?

It’s tasty, delicious, and always leaves you wanting more.

Through trade with various nations the world became hooked and dependent on sugar. All because, “it tastes good.” Wars have been fought over sugar. Hundreds of millions of livelihoods have been lost because of it, and slavery still continues as a direct result of sugar demand in certain parts of the world to this day.

It’s amazing what people will do, all in the name of a few “buds” on their tongues.

-       Ryan Sanders

Hope Sophie Monk wasn’t too hot and spicy for you. I also hope you enjoyed reading this article on the history of Spices and how our tongues work. As always please feel free to share this around on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, or any other social media site you’re on, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog for more daily science! To know more about any of the topics discussed above feel free to follow the links below. Happy Learning everyone!

-       HowStuffWorks article on the Tongue

-       Wiki on East India Company (EIC)

-       Wiki on Dutch East India Company (VOC)

-       Documentaries by the BBC on various spices are listed below.

o  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuZujx-LMfg – Pepper

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsfchIo_SWw – Cinnamon

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmSMVr2Wkfs&list=WL&index=17 – Nutmeg and Banda Islands

The Tree of 40 Fruit: Nature + Science = Art!

With its bright and vibrant colors, the Tree of 40 Fruits looks like something out of a Science Fiction movie on a distant planet. But it turns out; this remarkable looking tree grows right here on our humble little blue ball. What’s more, not only are its leaves one of the most gorgeous displays nature can provide, it actually lives up to its name, producing 40 different varieties of stone fruits every season.

So how does this awesome little tree accomplish this?

Science of course!

And a little help from an artist slash boyhood farm-boy, Sam Van Aken.

Today at To Infinity and…In Theory we’re going to talk about the tree of 40 fruits, the different fruits it produces, and where you can go to see them. We’re also going to talk about “genetically modifying” nature to be a little more productive and examples of it that are already around us every day. We’ll also explore some of Sam’s other masterpieces from other exhibits.

But first, let’s talk about this tree…

I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts…And Plums…And Almonds…And Peaches…

Okay, okay, so the tree can’t produce coconuts. But as we mentioned before it can grow 40 varieties of stone fruits. What are stone fruits? Things like peaches, nectarines, plums, and cherries are stone fruits. Stone fruits are classified by their seed pouches, in the case of the aforementioned fruits, a “pit”. This pit resembles a rock, hence the name “Stone Fruit.”

So other than plums and cherries what else can this tree do? How about peaches, apricots, almonds, and many rare and exotic species? The specimens were acquired from the New York Agricultural Experiment Station by Van Aken for his grafting art project. The orchard there was about to be torn out and Sam was able to purchase the lease in time to get access to the plants and begin his Frankenstein Fruit Tree project.

In an interview with the website “Epicurious”, the author of the article asks Sam Van Aken, “What is the Tree of 40 Fruit and what inspired the project?” Van Aken’s response is as follows:

“At the time this project began I was doing a series of radio hoaxes where I hijacked commercial radio station frequencies and played my own commercials and songs. In addition to becoming acquainted with FCC regulations I also discovered that the term "hoax" comes from "hocus pocus," which in turn comes from the Latin "hoc est enim corpus miem," meaning "this is my body" and it's what the Catholic priest says over the bread during [the] Eucharist, transforming it into the body of Christ. This process is known as transubstantiation and [it] led me to wonder how I could transubstantiate a thing. How could the appearance of a thing remain the same while the reality changed? And so, I transubstantiated a fruit tree. Through the majority of the year it is a normal-looking fruit tree until spring when it blossoms in different tones [of] pink, white, and crimson, and late in summer it bears [more than] 40 different types of fruit”. To read the full interview click here.

So there you have it. He transubstantiated a tree. Except there is one problem with that…the literal translation of Transubstantiation is “the changing of one substance into another.” In his reference to the church he uses the “bread is my body” as his citation. While I don’t want to undermine the brilliance of what Mr. Van Aken has accomplished, I also don’t want to mislead people into believing he turned the tree itself into 40 kinds of fruit, that would be an example of transubstantiation, and as far as metaphors to describe the art aspect go it’s absolutely brilliant, but this is an example of something else altogether.

Genetically Modified Organisms!

Oh Sure…GMO’s Aren’t Scary When They’re Pretty…

Ha! Ha! Okay, I was totally kidding. But some of you probably thought I was serious for a second. This is exactly why I feel it’s important to clarify the very distinct differences between a genetically modified organism and the tree that Van Aken has created.

Your standard GMO has been changed all the way down to its core cellular structure. Every organism is comprised of sequential information. It’s called DNA. Our human DNA tells our unborn child what color his or her hair will be, whether or not they will be tall or short, freckles or moles, etc. These are called traits.

In a genetically modified organism the genetic code has been altered in some way, creating a set of predetermined traits based on whatever it is the researcher is trying to accomplish. These genetic traits stay with the organism and are passed down to future generations, be it through breeding in animals or seeds in the case of plants. In a GMO, its altered traits become hereditary.

On the contrary, in what Sam Van Aken has done there is no change to the plants genetic structure of a hereditary nature. If you plant a cherry pit properly, you’ll get a cherry tree. If you plant a plum, you’ll get a plum. From one single seed you will not be able to recreate the Tree of 40 Fruits. This is because it hasn’t been genetically modified, instead it has been grafted.

Where genetic modification is done in a laboratory with high-tech equipment used to alter genes on a molecular level, farmers and horticulturists alike have been using grafting for centuries to accomplish much the same task. One plant, typically called “The Rootstock”, is cut when it reaches a certain phase in its growth cycle to be spliced into what is known as “The Scion”.

The stock is usually bred for disease resistance and better growth. The Scion is used to convey the characteristics of the final fruit, be it Tomatoes, Potatoes, Peas, Olives, or other stalk and trunk based plants. If this were an example of GMO’s then the next season all the farmers would have to do is plant the seeds from the previous harvest. This isn’t how it works however, as grafting needs to be done the next season to achieve the same results.

It’s also important to remember that this procedure isn’t as simple as just cutting and taping two plants together. It’s a very delicate process in which the vascular structure of the two plants has to align perfectly in order for them to fuse into one. If this isn’t done correctly, both the rootstock and the scion will die. To see a a "whip-grafting" technique and how its employed on a mango tree check out the six minute video below.

From Mesopotamia to 19^th Century Wine Bottles

That’s right. Those are ancient stone tablets, and yes, that’s writing. Imagine having to leave a note for your mom in Biblical times that you have to stay after school. Talk about a pain in the butt. In fact, keeping with the theme in which plant grafting was created, those are ancient Sumerian tablets which have the names of Mesopotamian leaders inscribed into them. Neat huh?

Except there’s a lot of debate within the scientific community over whether or not horticultural propagation originated there or not. Some would say that it began in 1800 B.C., others are willing to budge a bit to ancient Biblical and Hebrew texts vaguely referencing the technique dated between 1400 – 400 B.C.

The first verifiable proof of this technique in writing however goes to the followers of Hippocrates in 424 B.C.:

“Some trees however, grow from grafts implanted into other trees: they live independently on these, and the fruit which they bear is different from that of the tree on which they are grafted. This is how: first of all the produces buds, for initially it still contains nutriment from its parent tree, and only subsequently from the tree in which it was engrafted. Then, when it buds, it puts forth slender roots in the tree, and feeds initially on the moisture actually in the tree on which it is engrafted. Then in course of time it extends its roots directly into the earth, thorough the tree on which it was engrafted: thereafter it uses the moisture which it draws up from the ground.”

Grafting found its way to Greece, Persia, Rome, France, Italy, and the Middle East. Books were published, and techniques were formed. It was a tremendous success and a great way to improve the stability of the agricultural system. It survived the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and even Thomas Jefferson made note of performing grafting in his own personal garden journal in 1767.

So why is this so important to the farming industry? Just take a look at this guy:

That menacing opalescent nightmare above is called a Grape Phylloxera, and they are some nasty little critters. Don’t let their diminutive size fool you. In large numbers the capabilities of these insects can be devastatingly catastrophic. For example, they can take a vineyard that looks like this:

And turn it into this:

In 1864 France that’s exactly what happened. A Phylloxera infestation caused an epidemic that put a squeeze on the grapes industry and crushed the vineyards. How was this hurdle that nature threw at them overcome? By using asexual propagation (grafting) of course! By grafting insect resistant grape rootstock onto the standard fruit bearing scion, French farmers were able to save their crops eventually. While Phylloxera hasn’t been eradicated entirely, it has at least been curbed…for now.

So now we know the when, the how, the why, and the what. There are just two questions that remain. First and foremost being, what inspired Sam Van Aken’s interesting art project, as it clearly wasn’t spawned out of necessity for survival, and where can we see some of these amazing trees.

Painting Trees? Pfft! That’s so Bob Ross…

I am a lover of art. However I am also a lover of food. That does not make me a chef. I am neither cultured nor pretentious enough to critique the man’s artwork. That being said I can say I like it. I may not understand what he’s trying to accomplish (or the way he expects me to interpret his pieces) but I certainly know I found his pieces visually striking, unique, and difficult to not only conceptualize, but also to bring to “fruition” (pun intended).

With all that in mind I’m going to post pictures of Sam Van Aken’s artwork and the titles for each piece, however I will not offer up an interpretation. I will also leave a link at the end to his personal website if you want to view the backstory of each piece and what they represent.

(New Edens)

(Thumper)

(A Hole In The Sky)

(Tree of 40 Fruit)

(Oh My God)

(The Many Deaths of Willem Dafoe)

Sam Van Aken has others as well. To see a complete list of his works, pictures, and explanations for his macabre art style you can visit his website by clicking here. Now for our last question of the day. Where can we see these trees?

Franken-Tree on Display

You’ll have to do some digging, but the trees are all on display in various locations across the United States in museums and nurseries. Locations include Louisville, Kentucky; Colby College Museum Of Art Waterville, Maine; Pound Ridge, New York; Hotel Bentonville in Arkansas; San Jose Museum of Art in California; and a couple other locations. They bear fruit from July to October and the amounts are said to be manageable enough so as not to be overwhelm the consumer.

I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t wait until these trees are commercially available for people like you and me to toss them in our backyards. Not only are they beautiful, they’re economical as well.

I’ll take forty of ‘em.

-       Ryan Sanders

Thanks for reading everyone! Hope you enjoyed the article today! As always, please share this around and spread the knowledge! If you want to know more about anything discussed above today feel free to follow the links below. Happy Learning!

-       A History of Asexual Plant Propagation (grafting)

-       Science Alert article on “The Tree of 40 Fruits”

-       Wiki on plant grafting

-       Sam Van Aken’s TEDx talk on his creation