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Library – Archives – Humanities  / Education / Center for Humanities & History of Modern Biology / Exhibits, Projects and Initiatives / Plant Science, Biotechnology, & Agriculture

Plant Science, Biotechnology, & Agriculture

About

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This history of science project arose from two separate sources.

The first is the Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation’s support for “the study of Long Island history and its role in the American experience.” (Visit the Gardiner Foundation’s website here.) The history of science and technology is an important part of Long Island’s history. Scientific research forms a significant part of the region’s economy and this field will only continue to grow in the future. The director and research staff at CSHL Library and Archives were thrilled to receive support from the Gardiner Foundation to explore the history of STEM on Long Island.

The second source for this project is a gap in our knowledge: although the history of agriculture and the history of science are closely related, those connections have not been explored as thoroughly as they should be.

This project explores the connection between agriculture on the one hand and science and technology on the other. It combines this with the local history of Long Island. The result is a local history of agricultural research, biotechnology, social change and scientific discovery that links ordinary farmers and scientists on Long Island to the greater political, economic and cultural stories of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Anyone interested in learning more about this project should contact our historian, Dr. Antoinette Sutto. Those wishing to consult the CSHL Archives sources that we used should contact the Archives. You can contact us here.

Plants need nitrogen to grow, but a significant portion of the nitrogen in fertilizers is not absorbed by the soil or used by the growing plants. Rather, it washes away into waterways, rivers, and the ocean. This in turn has had devastating effects on marine life. In some areas, excessive nitrogen in the oceans has caused algae blooms that kill wildlife, make it dangerous for people to consume fish or shellfish or in some cases even swim in affected waters. This problem isn’t limited to poorer countries. Nitrogen pollution is a serious problem here on Long Island. In our case, the nitrogen comes primarily from septic tanks and cesspools, although nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers also plays a role. Nitrogen pollution in the waters around Long Island has hampered fishing, made it dangerous to eat seafood from some areas, and caused environmental changes that make coastal areas more prone to flooding.