Genetic engineering was meant to save chestnut trees. Then there was a mistake.

washingtonpost.com

31 points·bookofjoe··11 comments

Recent and related:

TACF is no longer supporting development of D58 American chestnut trees - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573765 - Dec 2023 (58 comments)

America lost the chestnut, its "perfect tree" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38754581 - Dec 2023 (137 comments)

Lots more links here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38757983

I have always been excited about genetically modifying trees, but chestnuts seem like the wrong subject to advance the research on.

They have saddled themselves with the burden of ensuring the nuts are safe for human consumption, including isolation and rigorous tracking and labeling which created this situation.

Trees are also really good at turning atmospheric CO2 into valuable building materials, and no one cares if their house is safe to eat.

Cut your teeth on a project like that, and when the science has mastered that global-warming-combatting housing-shortage linked solution, we can circle back at yummy holiday snacks.

Yes, a tree that grew crazy fast for mass timber so there was no need to log existing forests (and disturb the soil where most the carbon is sequestered) in hard-to-predict ways would be fantastic!

Isn't that just bamboo (technically not a tree)

Maybe! I am not an expert in these things!

The internet tells me yes, "cross-laminated bamboo" is a thing.

Hopefully the Darling 58 ones can still go through.

Paywalled

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