A closer look at science: Why are carrots white?

Summer comes with rain.

It has been a week since the species in Tinglin Town became larger. During this period, major media have reported on this magical event. CCTV's "Into Science" also came to the town, and the town leaders took it very seriously because it was the first time a national television station came here to film a program. The show was filmed over three and a half days. In order to welcome the arrival of the program team. The entire Tinglin Town launched a campaign to "be civilized and refrain from spitting for 84 hours". When the program team arrived in Tinglin Town, all residents and workers were prohibited from spitting. Do not spit out phlegm. If you swallow it on the spot, if you encounter some people who are unwilling to vomit and are unhappy, you must avoid being discovered by CCTV.

At the welcoming banquet, the person in charge of the program team said. Don't be so nervous, please feel free, please feel free, they won't care about this. This is not the pursuit of the "Into Science" column team. The purpose of the "Into Science" program is to get into science, because it has been going on for several years. , have never entered science, so they will definitely only take this as their goal. Not to be distracted by other things, the person in charge gave an example of a special topic being conducted in a certain county about why the carrots grown in a garden of Zhang, a farmer there, were white. Professional film crews are taking detailed close-up shots of radish. Suddenly, the teaching building of the nearby school collapsed as students were chasing and playing on it, killing 86 people. More than a hundred people were injured. They notified the news team of the TV station immediately. Before the arrival of the news team, they never turned their camera away from the carrot. This is concentration. This is professionalism.

The mayor cheered loudly. Said: Your undivided attention is exactly what is lacking in reform and opening up. It’s also something that many news workers lack. I’d like to raise a toast to you.

The director of the program team sat upright and said politely. Because of our persistence, many questions were answered one by one.

The director glanced at the staff proudly and said slowly: "The investigation of this program is very difficult. We have been stationed locally for more than two months, Chinese Academy of Sciences." Many experts and comrades from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences also came over. We monitored the growth of the carrot field, and the station also attached great importance to this program. Because it was suspected that the movement of sunspots caused the carrots to turn white, the station specially invited cosmologists to monitor the changes in sunspots.

The accompanying leader of Tinglin Town nodded frequently and listened intently.

The director continued: Later. We found that these are not the reasons for the whitening of carrots. We considered the water source and invited water quality experts from Beijing to conduct investigations and tests here. After testing, it was found that the tap water here exceeded the standard in all aspects. However, it is only harmful if used by humans. It is not harmful to plants, after getting this news. The program team was confused. Some people also suggested that there was a problem with the air quality. We quickly invited environmental monitoring experts from Beijing to monitor the situation. The results are the same as water quality. Monitoring results show that although air pollution seriously exceeds standards, it can only cause humans to suffer from various cardiovascular diseases and cancers. Plants cannot mutate. This way. The train of thought of our program team was interrupted.

As he spoke, the mobile phone of a young comrade who was accompanying him rang, and the mayor quickly waved his hand. The little comrade didn't dare to look at his cell phone. Quickly turned off the phone.

The director took a sip of beer. He continued: Later. Our program team suspected that there might be a problem with the fertilizer. After questioning, it was revealed that they used human excrement for watering, and the farmers recalled. There was not only his feces in the cesspit behind his house, but also his wife's feces. But now the septic tank is being renovated. The first-hand information from that time has been lost, and his wife is now working out of town. In a scientific manner. Our program team decided to restore fertilizer on site. The program team sent a team of people to find Zhang’s wife who was working at a KTV in the provincial capital. We asked her to do it for us. At first, Zhang's wife was not very cooperative. Her main consideration was what if it was really some substance produced from the mixture of her and her husband's feces that caused the plant to mutate. Will he be arrested? Our program team patiently persuaded her, saying, if the monitoring results are really like this, don't be afraid, you have to trust CCTV. Our CCTV will never tell the truth. So please rest assured.

In this way, Zhang’s wife defecated very cooperatively. After our column team obtained Zhang’s wife’s stool. He rushed back to the county where Zhang was located overnight. But we ourselves did not dare to mix this hard-won feces easily. We invited the top forensic experts in the country. After the forensic doctors arrived. According to the local temperature at that time. The humidity and the mixing degree of feces and urine were calculated using computers. In the laboratory, we were mixed and simulated a fertilizer that was closest to the situation at that time.

Everyone at the dinner table was watching. Listening intently while eating the vegetables, the director continued to say proudly: After the fertilizer was mixed, we found some carrots as samples in another place, and we watered the carrots. And a camera was used to record the growth process of normal carrots after being watered with this fertilizer for more than a month, but. Unfortunately, in the end, the carrots still did not turn white.

The director interrupted: This is the last part I want to say. Our program team did not give up. After a night of meetings and expert speculation, we decided. Take the seeds back to Beijing. Testing will be done first in Beijing. See if there are any changes in the genes of this seed. This caused the carrots to turn white and fat, and they were sent to the United States for testing when necessary. But I believe that the field of genetics in our motherland can solve this problem. The moment we get the seeds. The answer is revealed.

All the town leaders were so anxious that their buttocks got off their chairs.

The director said: Photographer Xiao Liu made a keen discovery. There are three words written on the packaging bag. White radish, the answer is finally revealed. It turns out that Zhang is illiterate. He bought the wrong seeds and planted white radish. After the mystery was revealed, many comrades in our program team cried. The hard work of these two months finally paid off.

Everyone in the town breathed a sigh of relief. The mayor stood up and said: On behalf of Tinglin Town, I would like to offer a glass of wine to our Entering Science column group for your serious and scientific attitude and tireless spirit. Determination to never give up, I was very touched after hearing this. science. It is an important driving factor for social development. Under the premise of political correctness, as long as science is promoted. Promote energy conservation and innovation. Society will definitely progress.

The director picked up the wine glass. He drank it all in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said: Later, this program was highly praised by the people in the station. The leader in charge of film review in Taiwan thinks. It coincides with the education-based power advocated by the central government. It is precisely because of this farmer's low cultural quality that such a thing happened.

As a result, the entire country's television stations invested more than one million yuan in research. If he was literate, the country would not have such waste. so. In the final analysis, more than one million yuan was wasted this time because of the low cultural level of the farmers. This is a good negative example.

There was thunderous applause at the table.