A flexible "e-book" that can be viewed as an app, a website, or a printable PDF. The interactive e-book uses over 150 animations, photographs, illustrations, interviews, and a time-lapse video to tell the story of the development of maize, from domestication, hybrid vigor, genome sequencing, and transposons, to genetic modification and biofortification of modern maize.
Weed to Wonder shows the continuity of research on corn – from Native American agriculturalists to modern breeders, corn geneticists, plant physiologists, and molecular biologists – that culminated in the Maize Genome Sequencing Project in 2009. The e-book revolves around footage from Mexico, interviews with prominent scientists, and animations of different approaches to sequencing the maize genome.
The history of maize research is brought to life through reconstructions of George Shull and Barbara McClintock’s work at Cold Spring Harbor, rare photographs, and links to original publications and artifacts. The e-book also includes a time-lapse video of growing maize plants – from germination, through growth spurts, to pollination, senescence, and harvest.