Space project plants a seed of curiosity

Aasiya Ismail, a 16-year-old student from Pakistan, had a lot of questions in mind when she learned that Chinese astronauts took Pakistani seeds to China's space station for space breeding.

"Pakistan Science Foundation asked students of different schools to write letters to the astronauts who will help Pakistan achieve an agricultural milestone by taking our own seeds to space. I had many questions, but I was most intrigued by the role it would play in ending poverty," Ismail says.

China helped Pakistan by taking the seeds of seven types of herbs to the Chinese space station for space breeding by exposing them to cosmic radiation and microgravity to mutate their genes, and the PSF asked students to write a letter to Chinese astronauts in a bid to enhance their interest in science.

The teenager spent a month writing the letter after doing research about space breeding of seeds and the Chinese space station.

The letter was selected from among the many letters received by the foundation addressed to the astronauts.

Ismail says that, as a teenager, she feels scared for her future due to climate change-triggered food security challenges, so she asked the astronauts, "Will space seeds end poverty and hunger in the world, because the countries like Pakistan are currently experiencing an economic and environmental crisis, which is feared to result in hunger, poverty and indigence?"

Ismail got answers to all her questions at a recently held event to mark the successful return of the seeds, during which a Chinese astronaut told her about the Chinese space station and the importance of Chinese seeds in meeting the food security challenge.

"The mutant seeds may be screened to breed new varieties that are resistant to drought and waterlogging … after years of effort, China is now able to develop a wheat with denser plants, more ears and higher yields," the astronaut told Ismail through a recorded video played at the event.

He also urged the 16-year-old and other young students to work hard and devote themselves to their studies and, in the future, play their part in the cooperation between China and Pakistan.

Samina Saeed, Ismail's physics teacher, says that the Pakistani student's interaction with the Chinese astronaut will motivate other students to study science.

The seeds were launched into orbit, carried by the Shenzhou XIV spaceship, on June 5, and after six months, returned to Earth with the same crew on Dec 4.

Atia-tul-Wahab, a professor at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi, says it was her institute that proposed the project.

"We sent some grains to space and kept the same quantity in our laboratory. Now, upon their return, we will closely examine them and do tests at our laboratory. Then, both seed varieties will be sowed separately and the end results will be compared," she says.