Daily Quiz for January 26, 2020

[Mike Nolan]

What is kernza?

[See the full post at: Daily Quiz for January 26, 2020]

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[BakerAunt]

I have never heard of it, so I guessed and answered incorrectly. Interesting!

[Joan Simpson]

I guessed right but I always enjoy the why as Mike explains also.

[Mike Nolan]

UNL isn't one of the institutions in the Kernza project, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a sample of it to try, I've been trying to make a contact at KSU, which has a world-renown grains program. (When Prof. Raymond Calvel decided to take a sabbatical in the USA, he did it at KSU.) They run a number of week-long training programs, but they're a bit pricey, $1800 for the one on grain milling.

I've got some triticale coming this week from the grains researcher in my wife's department.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, but I want to know who put the tribbles in the quadrotriticale?

[Mike Nolan]

Fans of the original Star Trek show will get that reference, of course.

Star Trek's second season was my first year in college. NBC had announced it would not be renewed for a third season that fall, and college campuses across the nation started a petition to get NBC to renew the show. It was successful, and there was a third season before NBC pulled the plug. After the renewal was announced, a number of the organizers of the petition drive, including a friend of mine at Northwestern, received a package from Gene Roddenberry, with a Tribble in it.

I haven't spoken to my friend in many years, I hope he kept his Tribble.

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