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Статті в журналах з теми "Field crops Victoria"
1
Bretag, TW, PJ Keane, and TV Price. "Effect of Ascochyta blight on the grain yield of field peas (Pisum sativum L.) grown in southern Australia." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 35, no. 4 (1995): 531. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea9950531.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Field experiments were conducted to determine the crop losses caused by ascochyta blight in different pea varieties grown in Victoria. For each variety, the reduction in yield associated with disease was determined by comparing grain yields in plots not sprayed with fungicide (disease present) and plots where the disease was controlled with fungicide sprays (no disease). There was considerable variation between pea varieties and lines in disease severity and crop losses. Individual varieties had different levels of tolerance to disease, and there were large differences between varieties in the percentage yield loss caused by the same level of disease. Disease severity was closely correlated with reductions in grain yield, and for most varieties there was a 5-6% reduction in grain yield for every 10% of stem area affected by disease (first 10 internodes on the main branch). Ascochyta blight caused substantial reductions in grain yield of all commercial pea varieties grown in Victoria but was usually most severe on the early-maturing varieties. For 15 varieties, empirical crop loss models to predict the relationship between disease severity and reduction in yield were developed. A disease survey of commercial crops was then conducted and estimates made of yield losses caused by ascochyta blight using the previously developed crop loss models. The estimated yield losses caused by ascochyta blight in commercial crops in Victoria in 1986 ranged from 3.1 to 26.4% and exceeded 15% in over three-quarters of crops surveyed. The results suggest that field pea production in Victoria is seriously retarded by ascochyta blight and that the development of effective strategies to control the disease should be given a high priority.
2
Borstlap, Sylvia, and Martin H. Entz. "Zero-tillage influence on canola, field pea and wheat in a dry subhumid region: Agronomic and physiological responses." Canadian Journal of Plant Science 74, no. 3 (July 1, 1994): 411–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.4141/cjps94-078.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Field trials were conducted over 4 site-years in southern Manitoba to compare the response of Katepwa wheat, Westar canola and Victoria field pea to zero tillage (ZT). The experimental design was a split plot with tillage system as the mainplot (ZT vs. conventional tillage (CT)) and crop species as the subplot. All crops received protection from insect, weed and disease pests. Tillage system had only a limited impact on crop dry matter accumulation or grain quality. Where differences were observed, crop performance was enhanced under ZT. Seasonal evapotranspiration (ET) was either reduced or unaffected by ZT, while ET efficiency (ETE: kg ha−1 mm−1 ET) was either increased or unchanged by the shift from CT to ZT. Higher ETE under ZT was attributed to less soil water evaporation. Significant tillage system × crop species (T × S) interactions for growth parameters, ET and ETE indicated that field pea often benefitted more than wheat or canola from ZT. A significant T × S interaction at one of the four sites indicated that water extraction between 30 and 90 cm was higher for pea and canola in the ZT compared with CT treatment, while soil water extraction by wheat was reduced under ZT. At a second site, lower ET for all three crops under ZT was attributed to reduced water use between 90 and 130 cm. Despite some effects of ZT on crop growth and water use, no significant tillage, T × S, or site × tillage interactions were observed for grain yield. It was concluded that under the conditions of this study (i.e. precipitation and temperature conditions close to the long-term average), Westar canola, Victoria field pea and Katepwa wheat were, for the most part, equally suited to ZT production. Key words: Soil water extraction, evapotranspiration efficiency, crop quality, grain yield, canopy development
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Bretag, TW, TV Price, and PJ Keane. "Importance of seed-borne inoculum in the etiology of the Ascochyta blight complex of field peas (Pisum sativum L.) grown in Victoria." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 35, no. 4 (1995): 525. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea9950525.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Fungi associated with the ascochyta blight complex of field peas were isolated from 436 of 691 seedlots tested. Of the fungi detected, 94.8% of isolates were Mycosphaerella pinodes, 4.2% Phoma medicaginis, and 1.0% Ascochyta pisi. The levels of infestation of seed varied considerably from year to year and between seedlots, depending on the amount of rainfall between flowering and maturity. Within a particular pea-growing region, the level of seed-borne infection was often highest in seed from crops harvested latest. In addition, crops sown early were usually more severely affected by disease than late-sown crops, and this resulted in higher levels of seed infection. There was no correlation between the level of seed infestation by M. pinodes and the severity of ascochyta blight; however, where the level of seed infection was high (>11%) there was a significant reduction in emergence, which caused a reduction in grain yield. It may therefore be possible to use seed with high levels of seed-borne ascochyta blight fungi, provided the seeding rate is increased to compensate for poor emergence.
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Anderson, Geoffrey C., Ken I. Peverill, and Ross F. Brennan. "Soil sulfur—crop response calibration relationships and criteria for field crops grown in Australia." Crop and Pasture Science 64, no. 5 (2013): 523. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/cp13244.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Accurate definition of the sulfur (S) soil test–crop grain yield increase (response) relationship is required before soil S test measurements can be used to if there are likely to be responses to S fertilisers. An analysis was done using the Better Fertiliser Decision for Crops (BFDC) National Database using a web application (BFDC Interrogator) to develop calibration relationships between soil S tests (KCl-40 and MCP) using a selection of sampling depths and grain relative yields (RY). Critical soil test values (CSTV) and critical soil test ranges (CSTR) were defined at RY 90%. The ability of the KCl-40 extractable S soil test to predict grain yield response to applied S fertiliser was examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown in Western Australia (WA), New South Wales (NSW), and Victoria and canola (Brassica napus L.) grown in WA and NSW. A smaller dataset using MCPi-extractable S was also assessed. The WA-grown wheat KCl-40 S CSTV, using sampling depth to 30 cm for soil types Chromosols (Coloured), Chromosols (Sesqui-Nodular), Kandosols (Grey and Yellow), Tenosols (Brown and Yellow), and Tenosols (Grey, Sesqui-Nodular), was 2.8 mg kg–1 with an associated CSTR 2.4–3.2 mg kg–1 and a correlation coefficient (r) 0.87. Similarly, KCl-40 S CSTV was defined using sampling depth to 10 cm for these selected soil types and for wheat grown on Vertosols in NSW. The accuracy of the KCl-40 S CSTV for canola grown in WA was improved using a sampling to a depth of 30 cm instead of 10 cm for all soil types. The canola KCl-40 S CSTV using sampling depth to 30 cm for these soil types was 7.2 mg kg–1 with an associated CSTR 6.8–7.5 and an r value 0.70. A similar KCl-40 S CSTV of 7.0 mg kg–1 was defined using a sampling depth of 10 cm, but the CSTR was higher (6.4–7.7 mg kg–1) and the r value lower (0.43). A lower KCl-40 S CSTV of 3.9 mg kg–1 or 31.0 kg ha–1 using a sampling depth of 60 cm was defined for canola grown in NSW using a limited number of S-rate calibration treatment series. Both MCPi (r = 0.32) and KCl-40 (r <0.20) soil S test–NSW canola response relationships using a 0–10 cm sampling depth were weak. The wheat KCl-40 S CSTR of 2.4–3.2 mg kg–1 can be used widely on soil types where soil sulfate is not leached during the growing season. However, both the WA canola CSTR of 6.4–7.2 mg kg–1 using a sampling depth of 30 cm and NSW canola CSTR of 25–39 kg ha–1 or 3.1–4.9 mg kg–1 using a sampling depth of 60 cm can be considered in regions outside of WA and NSW.
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Smith, A. M., and G. McDonald. "Interpreting ultraviolet-light and fermentation trap catches of Mythimna convecta (walker) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) using phenological simulation." Bulletin of Entomological Research 76, no. 3 (September 1986): 419–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0007485300014917.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
AbstractUltraviolet-light and fermentation trap catches of adults of Mythimna convecta (Walker) in Victoria, Australia, could be related to the times of various stages of larval development in oat crops by means of a day-degree accumulation model. Mated females were more attracted to fermentation than ultraviolet-light traps, and predicted oviposition times closely coincided with fermentation trap catches. The phenological model successfully mimicked the observed larval instar development in the field. Peak moth flights occurred within three periods. The first peak period (October to mid-November) usually contained mated moths which generated larval populations in maturing oat crops; in 1983, these moths probably occurred in late August. The second (mid-November to December) contained unmated females; in 1983–84, moth flights during this period could be related to the emergence of moths from crops 70–130 km north of the trap site. The third peak period (January to February) also comprised unmated moths which had usually emerged locally and were probably emigrating.
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Latham, L. J., and R. A. C. Jones. "Incidence of virus infection in experimental plots, commercial crops, and seed stocks of cool season crop legumes." Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 52, no. 3 (2001): 397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ar00079.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Experimental plots of cool season crop legumes growing at diverse locations in Western Australia were inspected for plants with suspect virus symptoms over 4 growing seasons (1994, 1997, 1998, 1999), and plant samples were tested for infection with alfalfa mosaic (AMV), bean yellow mosaic (BYMV), cucumber mosaic (CMV), and pea seed-borne mosaic (PSbMV) viruses. All 4 viruses were detected in faba bean (Vicia faba); BYMV, CMV, and PSbMV in field pea (Pisum sativum); AMV, CMV, and PSbMV in lentil (Lens culinaris); and AMV and CMV in chickpea (Cicer arietinum). Among minor crop species, AMV, BYMV, and CMV were found in narbon bean (V. narbonensis) and grass pea (Lathyrus sativus); BYMV and CMV in dwarf chickling (L. cicera); BYMV in bitter vetch (V. e r v i l i a ) and L. clymenum; and AMV in fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum). Incidences of individual viruses varied widely from site to site but plot infection sometimes reached 100%. Symptom severity varied widely with virus–crop combination. In large-scale surveys of commercial crops of field pea and faba bean over 2 (1998, 1999) and 3 (1994, 1998, 1999) growing seasons, respectively, randomly collected samples from each crop were tested for presence of AMV, BYMV, CMV, and PSbMV. In 1999 they were also tested for beet western yellows virus (BWYV). All 5 viruses were detected in both species. BWYV was found in 35% of faba bean and 56% of the field pea crops sampled in 1999, with incidences of infection in individual crops up to 40% and 49%, respectively. PSbMV was found in 42% and BYMV in 18% of field pea crops in 1999. In individual crops, highest infection incidences of BYMV and PSbMV detected were 31% for BYMV in faba bean in 1998 and 9% for PSbMV in field pea in 1999. CMV and AMV incidences in both species never exceeded 7% of crops or 4% of plants within individual crops. Infection by 2 different viruses within individual crops was common, even 3 were sometimes found. Cultivars infected with most viruses were Fiesta and Fiord for faba bean, and Dundale, Laura, and Magnet for field pea. BYMV was detected in the crop tested of dwarf chickling. In tests on seed samples from Western Australia of 30 commercial seed stocks of field pea, 11 of faba bean, and 50 of chickpea, PSbMV was detected in 11, 1, and 1, respectively; CMV in 1, 1, and 3; BYMV in 3, 1, and 0; and AMV in 0, 0, and 1. This appears to be the first record of seed transmission of CMV in pea and faba bean. Seed samples from Victoria were also found to contain viruses: PSbMV in pea and AMV in lentil. Widespread infection with viruses in evaluation plots and commercial crops of cool season crop legumes is a cause for concern, especially where individual crop incidences are high and 2 or more viruses are present. Sowing of infected seed stocks leads to introduction of randomly dispersed sources of virus infection within the crop sown, resulting in spread of infection and yield losses. Appropriate control measures are discussed.
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Horne, PA, and JA Horne. "The life-history and control of Hapatesus hirtus Candeze (Coleoptera: Elateridae) in Victoria." Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 42, no. 5 (1991): 827. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ar9910827.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The incidence and life-history of potato wireworm, Hapatesus hirtus Candeze, in Victorian potato crops were studied, and insecticidal control measures assessed. Larval stages were present and active throughout the year. Ten larval instars were identified, probably requiring several years to complete development. Egg development occurred in October-November and the most likely timing of oviposition was December. The relative numbers of larval H. hirtus detected in soil samples, pre-planting baits and harvested tubers are presented. Baiting with halves of potatoes provided an efficient means of detecting areas likely to suffer wireworm damage. One formulation of chlorpyrifos ('Lorsban') was effective in reducing damage to, and larval numbers in, potatoes in field trials. The granular formulation of tefluthrin and the controlled release chlorpyrifos were not effective in protecting potato tubers.
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Bailey, P., and J. Comery. "Management of Heliothis punctigera on field peas in south-eastern Australia." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 27, no. 3 (1987): 439. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea9870439.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Cypermethrin was found to be an effective substitute for DDT in controlling Heliothis punctigera in field peas. A single spray of cypermethrin prevented significant damage by larvae to field peas in trials in South Australia and Victoria over 3 seasons. Endosulfan was not as effective as cypermethrin. Bioassays of leaf discs dipped in cypermethrin showed that residues of 0.1 mg a.i. kg-1 caused 50% feeding inhibition, 0.43 mg a.i. kg-1 caused 90% feeding inhibition and concentrations above this caused increasing acute mortality to fourth instar larvae. Residues from field pea crops sprayed at 40 g a.i. fell to 0.43 mg a.i. kg-1 2-3 weeks after application. Two to 3 weeks protection is probably the maximum time for residual activity to be useful because the crop outgrows the sprayed foliage. To ensure that larvae are exposed to the maximum area of treated surface, the spray should be timed to coincide with the appearance of larvae in the crop, rather than spraying at a particular growth stage of the crop.
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Hollaway, GJ, and TW Bretag. "The Occurrence of Pseudomonas-Syringae Pv Pisi in-Field Pea (Pisum-Sativum) Crops in the Wimmera Region of Victoria, Australia." Australasian Plant Pathology 24, no. 2 (1995): 133. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/app9950133.
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Donald, E. C., I. J. Porter, and R. A. Lancaster. "Band incorporation of fluazinam (Shirlan) into soil to control clubroot of vegetable brassica crops." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 41, no. 8 (2001): 1223. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea00135.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Commercially suitable methods for application of fluazinam were evaluated in field trials conducted in Victoria and Western Australia. Incorporation of fluazinam into the soil in bands 23 cm wide along the transplant row (to a depth of about 15–20 cm) immediately before transplanting was the most effective method of application. Plants grown in soil treated in this way developed significantly less clubroot than when fluazinam was applied using either a spot drench (100 mL/plant) or a continuous spray over the plants immediately after transplanting. The banded soil incorporation treatment consistently increased the marketable yield of broccoli and cauliflower. In one trial, banded soil incorporation increased the marketable yield of both crops by at least 80% compared with the other commercial methods of application currently in use. The banded soil incorporation treatment was more reliable and effective in a range of soil types than the high volume drenches currently used. This method of application remained effective, significantly reducing clubroot severity, when the volume of water used to apply fluazinam was reduced by 80% from 2500 to 500 L/ha.
Дисертації з теми "Field crops Victoria"
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Pino, Ivano <1977>. "Monitoring Ice Velocity Field in Victoria Land (Antarctica) Using Cross-Correlation Techniques on Satellite Images." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2008. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/1177/.
Повний текст джерелаКниги з теми "Field crops Victoria"
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Beating the bugs: Protecting Victoria's economically significant crops from pests and diseases. Melbourne: Govt. Printer, 2004.
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Kumojima, Tomoe. Victorian Women's Travel Writing on Meiji Japan. Oxford University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198871439.001.0001.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
Victorian Women’s Travel Writing on Meiji Japan: Hospitable Friendship explores real-life instances and literary manifestations of cross-cultural friendship between Victorian female travellers and Meiji Japanese, examining its ethico-political significance against the backdrop of British ‘New Imperialism’. Shifting critical focus from the individualist model of subjectivity to affective relationality, Tomoe Kumojima conceptualizes the female travellers’ open subjectivity as hospitable friendship and argues that femininity proves to be an asset in their praxis of more equitable cross-cultural contact in non-colonial Japan. Political affordances of literature are the book’s overarching thread. Kumojima opens new archives of unpublished correspondence and typescripts and introduces contemporary Japanese literature hitherto unavailable in English, shedding a refreshing light on the works of Isabella Bird, Mary Crawford Fraser, and Marie Stopes. The book traverses the themes of identity fluidity, literary afterlife, international female solidarity, literary diplomacy, cross-racial heterosexual intimacy, and cross-gender friendship. It traces the shifts in the representation of Japan in Victorian discourses prompted by Britain’s colonial management, Japan’s successful modernization, the Anglo-Japanese bilateral relationship, and global geopolitics, demonstrating how the women travellers complicated and challenged Oriental stereotypes and imperial binaries by creating counter-discourses through their literary activities. Kumojima also offers parallel narratives of three Meiji female pioneers in Britain and burgeoning transnational feminist alliances. The book addresses the absence of Japan in discussions of the British Empire in the field of literary studies and that of women and female agency in the male-dominated historiography of the Anglo-Japanese relationship.
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Metzinger, Thomas, and Jennifer M. Windt, eds. Open MIND, 2-vol. set. The MIT Press, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10603.001.0001.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
A unique interdisciplinary collection of papers and commentaries by leading researchers and rising scholars, representing the latest research on consciousness, mind, and brain. This collection offers the most comprehensive collection on consciousness, brain, and mind available. It gathers 39 original papers by leaders in the field followed by commentaries written by emerging scholars and replies by the original paper's authors. Taken together, the papers, commentaries, and replies provide a cross-section of cutting-edge research in philosophy and cognitive science. Open MIND is an experiment in both interdisciplinary and intergenerational scholarship. Open MIND grows out of the MIND Group, an independent, international body of young philosophers and scientists with a strong interest in the mind, consciousness, and cognition. The original and supporting materials are available online at open-mind.net. Authors includeMichael L. Anderson, Andreas Bartels, Tim Bayne, Christian Beyer, Ned Block, Paul M. Churchland, Andy Clark, Carl S. Craver, Holk Cruse, Daniel C. Dennett, Jérôme Dokic, Chris Eliasmith, Kathinka Evers, Vittorio Gallese, Philip Gerrans, Rick Grush, John-Dylan Haynes, Heiko Hecht, J. Allan Hobson, Jakob Hohwy, Pierre Jacob, J. Scott Jordan, Victor Lamme, Bigna Lenggenhager, Caleb Liang, Richard Menary, Albert Newen, Alva Noë, Gerard O'Brien, Elisabeth Pacherie, Jesse Prinz, Joëlle Proust, Antti Revonsuo, Adina Roskies, Jonathan Schooler, Anil K. Seth, Wolf Singer, Evan Thompson, Ursula Voss, Kenneth Williford
Частини книг з теми "Field crops Victoria"
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Minard, Pete. "The Decline of Terrestrial Acclimatization." In All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental, 108–20. University of North Carolina Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469651613.003.0008.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
This chapter covers ASV’s conflicts due to financial problems and the failure of acclimatization species and acclimatized animals that became agricultural pests, such as rabbits. The rabbit population, which became known as the rabbit plague, caused ruined crops and environmental disasters. Farmers demanded the right to destroy rabbits, protection of their property rights, and revision of the game laws. Recognizing the failure, the institution questioned the utility of acclimatized terrestrial vertebrates for pest control and emphasized protecting agriculturally useful native animals to control pests. New generation of scientists in the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV) and the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria (ZASV) were concerned with national nature, extinction, and animal welfare. Recommended strategies like seasonal protection of animals were issued to prevent the possibility of imminent extinction.
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Filkov, Alexander, Brett Cirulis, Brendan Holyland, and Trent Penman. "Analysis of thermal behaviour of merging fire fronts in crop field experiments." In Advances in Forest Fire Research 2022, 1579–84. Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/978-989-26-2298-9_240.
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Merging fires are known as destructive fires resulting in loss of life and houses. Despite growing efforts in the past decade to understand merging fires, there are still many knowledge gaps about their behaviour, especially at the field scale. In this study, we conducted experimental harvested crop burns in Victoria, Australia, in March and April 2021 to better understand thermal behaviour of merging fire fronts. UAVs with visual and thermal cameras were used to capture high-resolution fire propagation and the combustion process of merging fires. During experiments 50 junction fire fronts (32 forward and 18 backward) and 24 coalescence fire fronts were studied. For thermal analysis, 15 forward and 4 backward junction fire fronts, 6 coalescence fire fronts, and 10 parallel fire fronts were considered. Special methods were developed to process IR footages and compare the combustion process of merging fires and linear fire fronts (head and back fires). To do this, regions of interest (ROIs) containing the merging fire and linear fire front were selected in each frame using FLIR Research Studio. The ROIs were then exported using as bitmask images together with radiometric JPEG image containing both fires. Using the R programming platform, we determined the length and shape of the perimeter of fires for each JPEG image and defined buffer zones within the fire perimeter inside the ROI for each fire for further pixel temperature analysis. Thermal analysis showed that for forward junction fires the median temperature of head linear fire fronts was higher than forward junction fires except towards the end of merging. While in backward junction fires, the proportion of pixels with high temperature was much higher than in back linear fire fronts, indicating much larger burning areas. The temperature distributions of coalescence and parallel fires showed a decrease in the number of high-temperature pixels toward the end of the merge for coalescence and throughout for parallel fires. The fire behaviour observed in the field experiments demonstrates the necessity for better understanding of merging of fire fronts and the relationship between fuel, weather and fire line interaction.
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Teukolsky, Rachel. "Introduction." In Picture World, 1–20. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198859734.003.0001.
Повний текст джерелаАнотація:
The introduction explores both Victorian and contemporary theories of visual culture, while developing the book’s own interdisciplinary methodology. Visual culture studies, media history, art history, literary history, and cultural history number among the book’s disciplines. The chapters move across media to study novels and poems alongside photographs and illustrations. Weaving together both visual and textual strands, the book presents a revisionist, multidisciplinary approach to “culture” as it was lived and experienced in the nineteenth century. Academic divides between the disciplines today have obscured the cross-media connections studied in the book. The book’s approach captures the historical reality of the nineteenth century’s turbulent media moment, when the bounds of high art and mass culture were not yet fixed, and words and images mingled indiscriminately in the cultural field.
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Keats, Jonathon. "Gene Foundry." In Virtual Words. Oxford University Press, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195398540.003.0013.
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As the nineteenth century was the age of iron and the twentieth belonged to silicon, the present century will be identified with carbon. CO2 is the iconic greenhouse gas, imprinted on our vocabulary with talk of carbon footprints and allowances and offsets. For synthetic biologists, however, the carbon debacle has counterintuitively positioned this debased element as our savior. The future they foresee will supplant grimy factories of concrete and steel with clean colonies of living cells. To use the terminology of Freeman Dyson, gray technology will be replaced by green. Among the most celebrated physicists of the twentieth century, Dyson has become one of the foremost promoters of synthetic biology, a field that technologically is to genetic engineering what genetic engineering is to crop cultivation. Conceptually the distinction is even more radical than that: whereas genetic engineering merely modifies preexisting creatures more precisely than selective breeding, synthetic biology aims to fabricate entirely new organisms from nonliving materials. Unconstrained by genetic history, these artificial life forms can be intelligently designed to produce fuels or pharmaceuticals with unprecedented efficiency. The sheer audacity of synthetic biology lends itself to hyperbole, aptly captured in a 2007 Nature editorial: “For the first time, God has competition.” Yet the language of synthetic biology, also known as bioengineering, hardly bespeaks a cosmic paradigm shift. DNA constructed at a so-called gene foundry gives specialized function to a generic cell referred to as a chassis. A Victorian industrialist would have no trouble following the metaphoric language. He might even find work as a bioengineering consultant: the quaint iron age phrasing reflects the old-fashioned framework underlying this brave new discipline. After all, radical as artificial life may be philosophically—and significant as it may be environmentally—it’s technically just a strenuous construction project, with manufacturing challenges akin to building a bridge or a steam engine. That may explain why one of the most successful synthetic biologists working today, the Stanford University professor Drew Endy, trained as a civil engineer. Together with colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Endy has methodically approached synthetic biology as a problem of developing reliable building blocks and assembly protocols.