 So good afternoon, everybody. My name is Hermann Birstmeyer. I have the pleasure today to welcome you to this event, Seeds in Space, on behalf of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, on behalf of our rector, Professor Eva Schulev-Steindl, who is unfortunately not available today. The whole rectorate is today on a retreat, and they cannot join this event. But she gives to you and to all of us her warmest and best greetings. We are looking forward to an interesting afternoon, addressing topics of global food security, and also addressing the impact of breeding and induced mutations in this context. And we're very proud that the EIA and FAO choose BOKU as a place to host this event. So thank you very much, and welcome to all colleagues, and also, of course, to our BOKU students. We're going to have an interesting afternoon, and we're very proud that we can also listen to Director General of the Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi. Also, the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Kuhu Dengu, and to another astronaut who spent time out there in space and will report about experience you have as an astronaut, Kaila Barong. With this, I wish you an interesting, a thrilling afternoon here at BOKU, and hope you enjoy the afternoon. Thank you, Professor Bursmeyer. Ladies and gentlemen, all protocol observed, welcome to this very special Seeds in Space event. Please allow me to welcome our online audience who is following live all around the world. Bienvenue, bienvenida, haohin, merhaban, willkommen. I am Sophie Boutoud-Lacombe. I'm the Director of Communication of the IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency. And I will be your moderator for this event today. So I would like first to thank Mr. Professor Bursmeyer and his colleagues at the University of Natural Resources and Life Science here in Vienna to host us for this event. By holding this at the BOKU University for in the lecture theater where we are right now, we aim to connect with an uncured student and young people to become the science and technology experts of the future. So the IAEA and its partner for the event, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, known as FAO, our long-term youth engagement champions. And we have an exciting program ahead. So we hope to inspire you and you enjoy it. This event today, we tell the story so far of the seeds in space, a journey that began almost five months ago on 7 November 2022, when IAEA and FAO crop seeds were launched into space from Nassau Wildlife Flight Facility in Virginia in the United States of America to the International Space Station in space. The aim is to understand the effect of cosmic radiations and the harsh space conditions on developing crops that are more resilient to increasingly harsh growing condition on Earth. So the seeds are still in the ISS, in the International Space Station. And this event is taking place actually one week before they are coming back on Earth. So we have with us today NASA astronaut Kayla Baron and plant mutation and genetic expert Shobha Sivesankar from the Joint IAEA FAO Center, who will explain how space science and nuclear techniques in plant breeding have come together in this exciting exploratory experiment. So first, I invite you to watch a video about the Seeds in Space project, our close partners. Since 1964, the two organizations are working together in the Joint FAO IAEA Center of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture based in Sabersdorf, right near Vienna. And the IAEA Director General, Rafael Maiano Grossi, is expressing his regret not to be able to be with us today live, has his traveling to Ukraine. He intended to be live from the train, unfortunately, a connection issue does not allow it. But he had also recorded in case that was the case, and luckily we did. So we have a video message from him. So I invite you to follow it. And then it will be followed by the remarks of the Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Kwon Dong-Hyu, who recorded his message from Rome. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our Seeds in Space event. If this video is playing, it means I have not been able to successfully connect with you from my current location on a train traveling through Ukraine. I'm very sorry I cannot be there in person, of course, but I know you are going to have a fascinating event today. You are going to hear from inspiring women who work in space and nuclear technologies to benefit people all over the world. The Cosmic Crops Project is a very special one. This is science that could have a real impact on people's lives in the not too distant future by helping us grow stronger crops and feed more people. And the crops we hope to develop will feed the people who need it most, those already on the front line of climate change, desperately trying to grow enough food for their families in the face of increased droughts and invasive pest species. The idea that we could use such an inspiring center for international scientific collaboration like the Space Station to find new ways to combat the worst effects of climate change here on Earth, it's remarkable, quite literally out of this world. And this is another reason why this project is so special. IAA and FAO scientists have already been mutating seeds for 60 years and creating thousands of stronger crops for the world to use. But this is the first time we have experimented with such an exciting field as astrobiology. As we all know, space exploration captures young people's interest and fires their imagination. An encouraging youth in STEM is a long-term investment of the IAA. By holding the event here in a Boku university lecture theater and working with Boku on an outreach for this first-of-a-kind space theme event, we are inspiring the nuclear experts of tomorrow. Thank you for being a part of this exciting journey. If the world's population will reach about 10 billion, we will need to produce more food to feed the growing population and new demand from the new middle class. Better production and better nutrition will be key. And better seeds are critical for the world's millions of small-holder farmers to produce more with less and increasingly challenges growing conditions. For this reason, we needed to find the innovative tools in the toolbox through science and technology. We know well the big potential for genetics and breeding to improve crops. Spontaneously, mutations are the basis of evolution. And together with chromosome crossovers, they have a driving crop domestication and a crop improvement for centuries. This is why the application of a nuclear science technology has strong potential. For the first time, the food and agricultural organization of the United Nations in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency send plants into space to study the generation of a novel genetic diversity from exposure to the harsh space environment for better adaptation to the biotic and abiotic stresses and the climate change on Earth. FAO has been working closely with IES since 1964 to contribute to the sustainable food security and the safety by using nuclear technologists and biotechnology. Our partnership has indeed reached a new heights. Once those seeds are back on Earth, we will be able to see the effects of the cosmic radiation, microgravity and extreme temperatures and compare them with those induced in our joint laboratories. This groundbreaking experimenter can help develop the crops that are able to adapt the climate change and boost the global food security. I'm very proud of our partnership with IEA, bearing the fruit of both IES for years and now with seeds that travel through space. I mean, all of the resilience of nature and the excitement by this endless benefit that space exploration can bring to transform our ecosystem to be more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable across the globe. Space breeding of the crop of varieties can provide new opportunities to achieve the four betters by the production, by the nutrition, by the environment, by the life living on the hand. I wish you a successful meeting. Thank you. Thank you to both Director General of the IEA and FAO for being virtually with us today. By naming our event Seeds in Space, Cosmic Crops for Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation, we are highlighting an important goal, to improve lives and economies around the world through food and agriculture, using nuclear techniques and cosmic radiation in space, but how exactly are we doing this? Our experts today will tell us. We have the pleasure to have with us online from the USA, NASA astronaut Kayla Baron. Mrs. Baron served as member of the NASA SpaceX Crew 3 mission to the entire national space station from November 2021 to May 2022. She and the international crew spent 177 days in orbit. Mrs. Baron, the floor is yours. We are very excited to have you with us today. Hello, and thank you so much for including me today. I'd like to thank the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna for hosting this timely and relevant event. I'd also like to convey my gratitude to the IAEA and the FAO Director Generals for spearheading the Seeds in Space Initiative and their teams for bringing us together for this important discussion. Finally, I'd like to recognize Ambassador Holgate, who leads the US mission to international organizations in Vienna, and Ambassador McCain, who heads the US mission to the UN agencies in Rome for serving as a bridge between NASA, the IAEA, and the FAO, and for including me in this important conversation. I'm honored to participate in this event which highlights such an important initiative. The Seeds in Space project promises to bring the benefits of science and technology to the critical pursuits of sustainable agriculture and food security. And this in turn can have substantial impacts on our collective quest to achieve the UN sustainable development goals, particularly eliminating global hunger and improving agricultural resilience and adaptation to climate change. Each of our organizations brings a unique perspective and expertise toward a common goal. Just one example, NASA provides advanced remote sensing capabilities that can help track and monitor crop growth, weather patterns and land use changes. This information informs programs and policies that improve agricultural practices and food security. Such efforts demonstrate the value of international cooperation and the benefits that can be realized through the application of advanced technologies and scientific expertise to address global challenges. During our six month mission aboard the International Space Station, my crewmates and I helped execute over 300 independent scientific investigations, many of which contribute to a better understanding of how our planet works and how to improve the lives of people around the globe. Some of these were related to plant growth in agriculture, including developing drought resistant strains of cotton and better understanding how to grow food and microgravity to support future long duration space missions. Season space is an exciting complement to this work. And I can't wait to see what we learn about how the unique environment of space can induce mutations and seeds that will allow them to flourish on our changing planet, contributing to food security around the globe. I look forward to your questions and thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's conversation. Thank you very much Mrs. Byron for giving us this fascinating insight on what it's like to live and work in space, something experienced by very few people. We all be jealous here. So we look forward to speaking with you again in the question and answer segment very soon. And now I have the pleasure to introduce Shobha Sivatankar. Mrs. Sivatankar has 30 years of experience leading and managing international agriculture research and development programs. She's currently the head of plant breeding and genetics at the Joint FAOIE Center of Nuclear Applications in Food and Agriculture here in Vienna in Sabersdorf. And Mrs. Sivatankar, the floor is yours. Thank you Sophie. Good afternoon, Excellency, distinguished guests, colleagues here and online. First of all, I wanna thank you to Boku, Professor Hermann for this opportunity to hold this event here. And as Sophie introduced, I'm a scientist, I'm a plant breeding and geneticist working with the Joint FAOIE Center. And today I wanna present to you the work that we do on using induced genetic variation for crop improvement, for food security and climate change adaptation. The work that we do in plant breeding and genetics contributes to the United Nations sustainable development goals. One, which is no poverty. Two, zero hunger. Three, good health and nutrition. 13, this is climate change adaptation. And then 15, life on land where our contribution is primarily to improve genetic diversity. Briefly, the plant breeding and genetics group at the Joint FAOIE Center is focused on demand driven research in innovations and applications. And our mandate is to be developing improved climate change adapted crop varieties for food and nutrition security, reduce poverty through nuclear and related technologies, biotechnologies. We start off our breeding pipeline to improve crop varieties with induced genetic variation. The rest of the steps that we see in those bullet points are same with any other plant breeding or animal breeding pipeline. And in this case, we have genomics, precision phenotyping or selection, speed breeding technologies, and then seed systems. And these demand driven innovations are developed and delivered in our system through research discovery projects and capacity building. This is more for the researchers and scientists on the audience. For plant mutation breeding, we start off with induced genetic diversity. The rest of those three panels on the right are what we do in the lab, in the greenhouse or in the field. And the two central panels deal with phenomics or phenotypic selection and then genomics and speed breeding. The last panel is where varieties are developed and disseminated for farmers in order for them to finally leading to improved production at the local and global level for food nutrition security. On the first panel is where you see the different mutagens that we use. Normally we use gamma rays and x-rays, but there are newer mutagen sources that are coming into the use. For mutation breeding and plant crop improvement, currently we support technology transfer projects in 53 national projects and regional nine projects across more than 100 countries across the globe. Now, just to start and talk a little bit about crop improvement over time and where we are going with the space study. So historically, you see at the very top, domestication started with selection for improved rates. Larger produce, non-shattering of grains, all of this 10,000 years back, we were selecting. And then breeding and improvement came into the fray and we've been starting with traditional breeding for plants and also molecular marker-assisted breeding. And then at the bottom, you see future improvement, which is actually currently ongoing, which is using all of the newer technologies of molecular and the genomics era to be developing and precisely breeding varieties for a variety of traits, such as improved yield, resistance to drought, heat, all of that. So now, where does mutants stand? Some crop-natural mutants have been around for a long, long time and they have contributed together with chromosomal crossovers for the development of new and improved varieties. On the first panel, sorry, on the left side, you would see mutants of maize. Maze is one of the crops that have been bred the most across the globe, especially in North America, in Europe and other places. And this particular book, this is the front page of a book on maize mutants. This is 400 pages pictorial representation of mutants around the globe. And on the top of this cover, you see colored kernels of maize and this colored kernels was what led to the discovery of transposons or jumping genes that causes changes in phenotype. And to this was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1983 for physiology or medicine for Dr. Barbara McClintock, who was working off of Cornell University and Missouri University. And then on the right side, you see a more recent one of a mutant where you can see a large plant which is the normal size of the maize plant and a much smaller mutant. This is also a natural mutant. So these are natural mutants that have contributed to one way or the other for traits. I put up this particular one on the right side because you see that the size of the plant is so reduced. We started our space project for climate change on earth. But as we think more and more about what we could do for growing plants in space, this is one example. You see the size of the plant, you see the size of the cob and you see the size of the seeds right there. Continuing with that team. Now, demonstration, then went to breeding, then we had green revolution and now we have something called the omics revolution. So the genes of the green revolution in the 1950s, 40s, 50s, 60s, famine was profound in a lot of the world and I still remember lining up on the ration keel in India as a five year, six year old to get rice. So this was a time when famine was so much and that is when the genes of the green revolution became important, starting off with rice and wheat. And this led to the development by Dr. Norman Borlaug, the development of dwarf and high yielding rice varieties, disease resistant wheat, which led to the removal of the famine and for food sufficiency. This was much early and these were these semi dwarf, high yielding varieties were natural mutants that were selected at that time, but the genes came to be known much, much later when technology advanced. And we're still continuing to that advancement of technology over time. So the gene that was contributing to the trade in 1950s was identified in 1999, 2002 period. What we do in plant breeding and genetics at the Joint FAO IAE Center, we try to induce genetic variation for developing improved crops and varieties for more than a hundred countries across the globe. Seed crops, you see a variety of seeds on that panel. Seed crops are very, very easy to breed by induced genetic variation. And these are the crops that come through from a lot of member states for improvement. And we apply gamma rays traditionally, X-rays and develop traits, grain yield, drought tolerance, heat tolerance, disease resistance, resistance to insects such as the fall armyworm that is devastating parts of Africa and other parts as well right now, resistance to weeds like striaga and at the devastating parasite that takes off more than 80% of a farmer's crop. And this is mostly in Africa. And then grain quality and forage digestibility and other traits. Now we come to improvement of vegetative and perennial crops. And at the Joint FAO IAE Center, this is also something that has been done, continues to be done. We've been mostly working with banana previously, but other crops are also important. Compared to seed crops, the vegetative crops are more difficult to improve because the genetic variation is much, much less because they are clonally propagated. There is no fertilization. So no chromosomal crossovers and no diversity. So we use induced genetic variation to bring newer traits to them. In this case, it's also difficult because it's easier to use tissue culture and cell culture and then apply the radiation to them. So these are the technologies that are developing and transferring to member states for improving vegetative and perennial crops. Some examples that we are working on currently cassava, an important crop of Africa, potato and sweet potato, Asia and Africa and fruit trees all over the world. So we're currently working in Olaf and there is a newer project that is coming in for other crops as well. One of the aspects that we are bringing into the picture is speed breeding. Normally, plant breeding takes a long period of time to develop a new variety. It could be from eight to 10 or 12 years. So here we are trying to reduce the time of the breeding and precision of the breeding using a variety of technologies and some of them are mentioned here. One of the technologies that have recently been successful with us is rapid generation advancement and we've been able to generate six generations of the crops, of the pulse crop lentil in our greenhouses at the Joint FAO IAE Center. And these controlled environments have facilitated much, much research and capacity building for our member states and countries and these greenhouses are critical for us and more recently in the member states have been very graciously provided us more sufficient funding to improve those greenhouses that have been more than 35 years old. Capacity building is another important factor and this happens in our laboratories and this is through fellowships, internships, group training at the national and regional levels. We also help to develop protocols and kits that can be used by member states. A few research success examples on the top, you see Bangladesh developing rice mutant varieties for crop improvement under climate change. Then you see Sri Lanka developing tea to improve plant diversity and quality and cotton mutant varieties that take up more than 40% of the cotton area in Pakistan. Indonesia becoming self-sufficient in soybeans using mutation breeding. Bulgaria developing nutritious vegetables with induced genetic variation with gamma irradiation and Mauritius developing heat tolerant tomato varieties with gamma irradiation. Now here you see the mutant variety database that we have and the countries that are contributing. This is a voluntarily contributed database that we have at the joint of your IAEA center and it collects varieties that have been bred by induced genetic variation. China leads and Asia Pacific leads and then comes Europe and other countries. Now we start off with our journey from historical domestication, conventional plant breeding, molecular assisted plant breeding, genomic assisted plant breeding, and now to be looking at space breeding, what happens in the space with the extreme conditions, spaces known as the ultimate harsh environment. And for us, we wanted to go as far as the low earth orbit of the International Space Station and to take two crop seeds off to the International Space Station and then see how that will compare to seeds maintained on earth and seeds that have been induced with radiation with gamma or x-rays. So our question to start off was can cosmic radiation, microgravity, extreme temperatures trigger chromosomal changes and mutations in plant seeds that can lead to adaptation to harsher climate on earth. We use the seeds of Arabidopsis, which is actually a model plant. It's a weed, very tiny seeds and sorghum, an important millet crop. And it's important to point out that during this international year of millets, 2023, sorghum happens to be one of the crop seeds, plant seeds that were sent to the International Space Station. What we did here was to be placing the seeds inside and outside the space station. Inside the space station, you're getting mostly microgravity. Outside the space station, you're getting pretty much everything in space, microgravity, the extreme temperatures, and finally the large amounts of radiations. And so the seeds will be coming back as Sophie was mentioning next week. And so this is, I wanted to just show up because we have in the International Space Station something called the Japanese External Module, which is JEM, and there you can see EPP, the external platform, yeah. And that is where the red rectangle shows where the seeds are actually sitting outside the space station. And the outside seeds have been there for five weeks, and then they got moved internally, and the inside seeds would be sitting there for five, for three months, sorry, three months. And they will be returning next week, hopefully, with everything going as planned, because it was interesting that on November 6th was when the seeds were supposed to be flying to the International Space Station. We were all there, and it was supposed to be taking off at 5.42 a.m., and everybody was waiting, and then suddenly we found that five minutes into the flight time. Now five minutes before it was going to take off, we found that there was a fire alarm in the Northrop government facility where it was taking off, and then it was canceled and was moved to the next day, and then we all lined up again, and watched the flight on the next day. So now, I wanna just briefly bring up something that came in Nature Reviews, and this is based upon what I was seeing earlier on spontaneous mutations and the plants that were growing very, very small, the mace plant. So when I saw that, I put this as another slide here as well. So we started our experiment saying, okay, let us see how, if we take the seeds to the extreme environments of outer space, would they cause chromosomal changes that would help the seeds to grow and adapt better to harsh conditions on Earth? And that is what we will be doing. Subjecting the seeds to heat, drought, salinity, and cold as well, and to see how they will be surviving. But then this thing comes into mind as well. Can we mutate for improved growth characteristics, smaller foot space to occupy in space, and then with sufficient yield, with nutrition and ability to grow in those conditions in space? Can we do this? So this caught my attention. This is research at the University of Adelaide, but it's a joint project with US, UK, and Australia. And the researchers on Earth are identifying crops that would be bringing a salad that is completely nutritious to the astronauts in space. So with that, I want to thank you and just leave you with one comment. We've been traditionally using induced genetic variation, which is one approach to improve crops, but induced genetic variation brings to you a wide variety of genetic changes from which you can easily select for the characteristic that you're looking for. And from the gamma rays and x-rays that we've been using, we are moving on to ion beams and electron beams, and now we are moving into space to see if the full gamut of radiation would cause the kind of changes in the chromosomal DNA and bring phenotypes that are of importance to Earth under climate change. Thank you very much. Thank you, Shobha. Thank you, Mrs. Sivasankar, for sharing with us your expertise and telling us how this vital work is important for better crops here on Earth, but also how to feed people that are working in space. And if you look at the slides you showed us, well, I would like to eat the one on the right. The one on the left is, let's, you know, exciting, I would say. So we are now opening the Q&A session. Let's hear from the participant here in the room, the students, I see some students here, who would like to ask question to astronaut Ms. Byron, Killa Byron, who is still with us, and plant-building genetic expert, Mrs. Sivasankar. So I invite the people in the room to just put their hands up. That's pretty standard. And if you're both speaking online and you want to ask a question, then use the link under the live stream video, please. Who has a first question? First question here? No, not yet. So we had some questions already online. I'm looking if there is new that have entered, but I can take those that were already asked. So Mrs. Byron, we had some for you. I will give you two in a row. So can you grow plant in space? Do they get enough sunlight? That's the first one. And what is the future of space food? I think both, you know, you can answer that. Thank you. Yeah, we can absolutely grow plants in space, but as you mentioned, asking about sunlight, it's a really big challenge because we have to figure out how to supply them everything they're used to having on earth, but in this really unique environment. So they need water, they need nutrients from soil or some other medium, and of course, they need light. But we've been growing in plants in space for quite some time. The International Space Station is a perfect laboratory for us to try this. And actually, while I was up there, we harvested a crop of hatched chili peppers, most of which we packaged to send back to scientists on the ground, but because part of the experiment was trying to understand how we could actually feed astronauts in space and how we perceive the taste, the texture of foods, we actually got to sample some of them. So they're a big part of our best taco night of the entire mission. So that was a really cool experiment to be a part of. And there were actually five different plant growth experiments going on during our mission. So we got to see a variety of different techniques to grow the plants, to water the plants, to provide them nutrients and monitor them. So they're getting light from artificial sources, a lot like you would see in grow boxes on the ground. But plants can do surprisingly well in microgravity. There's a few tricky things, engineering and scientific problems we have to work through, but eventually this is something we'd like to see done at scale to support missions that are even longer duration than what we see on the international space station or in even more remote areas, like on the lunar surface in a habitat or eventually on a vehicle heading to Mars on a three year round trip. The benefits aren't just nutritional either, we all really enjoyed attending to these live plants. I think anybody who gardens on the ground or has house plants in their home knows that it can bring you a lot of joy to take care of another living organism. And especially in such an industrial environment like we have on the space station, seeing something green and natural really boosted our mood. So it was a really cool thing to be a part of and something we look forward to continuing to do in the future and on a bigger scale. So yeah, more plants in space is always good from an astronaut's perspective. Thank you, and I should have mentioned this question was from Sam, 14 years old. So the second is from Dan, 17, what is the future of space food? So Shobha, do you want to answer or Mrs. Baron? The future of space food. We'll always have the kind of food that we have on our missions now. We have dehydrated food or thermo stabilized food, canned food, but I think having fresh fruits and vegetables would be a really big change to our diet, our routine diet up there. I think having those nutrients would be really important. So like I mentioned, we're really trying to understand how we can grow plants, crops in vehicles and on the surface of other planetary bodies. We're using the space station as a test bed for that. And I think we'll continue those experiments during the Artemis program. Eventually when we have habitats on the lunar surface. Thank you. So more tacos night in space, right? We have these fresh foods. Plants in space are always good by us. I imagine. So I know you will have to leave sooner than the end. So I want to focus on the other question we received for you. So we have one from Charlotte, 10 years old. What sort of training did you have to do like space flight simulations? And Tobias, 23 years old said, how did you become an astromote? I think I'll answer the second question first and then I can talk a bit about our training. So for me, my path to become an astronaut actually was through the United States Navy. I'm still an active duty naval officer. And my path was through the Navy submarine force. So I had the privilege of serving in a really remote environment where we're sending human beings to live, work and accomplish a mission in a place where human beings aren't supposed to be the depths of the ocean. And it was after that experience, all the things I learned from what it takes to have a really diverse set of expertise across a team to make good decisions in a time constrained, high risk environment aboard a submarine that I made the connection between how similar a submarine is to the International Space Station and the challenges astronauts face there. It takes the same kind of team to succeed in that environment. And that's what inspired me to believe that I could even be a part of the space program. It was something that inspired me for a really long time but it never was something that I pictured myself being able to contribute to until after my time in the Navy submarine force. Our training at NASA is really wide ranging. Right now we're focused primarily on space station missions but we're also getting ready to fly our first crewed Artemis mission to the moon. So we do training that kind of runs the gamut from spacewalks to robotics operations to how our vehicles work, whether that's our launch vehicle or the International Space Station itself. We learn all about those systems, all about what you can expect on a normal day and what you can expect on the worst day if we had some sort of an emergency we had to respond to. So our training is really robust. We're kind of jacks of all trades, masters of none and luckily we're supported by a really big team of experts on the ground all across the world. So that allows us to do this really complex work with such a small crew and space. Thank you very much. Now I would like to ask in the room if there is more question, yes please. The ambassador from Nigeria is with us, so. So, Ogana, sorry. Thank you very much. And I would first of all thank IEA, FAO, Boku University and the US for this event. I would want to first and foremost draw attention to the questions which have been asked earlier from very young people and that is by making them interested in the field. A very important field which would help humanity but especially those of us who are at the worst end of food insecurity and malnutrition. And so just to suggest that at another stage we should have some diversity of younger people involved in this event. Now my question is how can we share the technology, experience and findings of this research with those who are at the worst end of food insecurity and malnutrition. And obviously it is people from my continent. How do we share? Is there any plan? Is there any program? Is there any thoughts on how to ensure that they benefit and together we deal with this problem effectively? Thank you very much. Thank you very much for this question. I think this is for you, Shobha. How do you transfer all the work that is done in the laboratories in Sabistov? So currently we do have mutation breeding projects that are using gamma radiation and with countries across the globe. So we are supporting using just gamma radiation or X-ray radiation. Now once this particular experiment is starting to yield results, once we know that there is a really spectacular change hopefully with the climate change adaptation that we will be testing these seeds under then we're hoping that we can actually send bulk amounts of seeds. And this is a conversation that I've had very, very preliminarily, very briefly with someone that I'm discussing, the science research integrity at NASA. And at this time there are no specific plans. First we want to see what's going to be happening when the seeds return and during our studies. But if they are proving us a hypothesis is right, then there is massive amounts that need to be done following this experiment. And for the most challenged areas for climate change such as Sub-Saharan Africa, arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle Eastern countries parts of Asia. And that's where this would be actually having the first effect. Drought is the major challenge and then comes heat. Warming temperatures affect pollinations and when pollinations are affected there is no yield for the farmer. So if we can circumvent that, that is where we will go. But really keeping my fingers crossed for the first results to come through. Thank you, Shobha. Thank you for your question, Ms. Adder. We have 3,400, if I'm not mistaken, new varieties of plant that have been developing through induced mutation. And they are of course for the countries that are the members of the FAO and the IEA. So really we're dedicated to give you your countries around the world this technology for those plants to be able to feed people. We had over questions coming in. So for you, Mrs. Baron again, how do you think microgravity could affect the plant seeds? If you have any idea on that, this is Lucas. I don't have the age. And what is the uniqueness of using cosmic rays compared to gamma x-rays to initiate seed mutation breeding? That's Kistead, Joe. So that would be maybe for you. But first, Mrs. Baron, about the microgravity. I think it's a really interesting question that'll be fascinating to hear what the research shows when you get these seeds back on the ground to get an opportunity to analyze them. I know you guys are really excited for them to return. But that's what I thought was one of the most interesting questions actually when I was reading the proposal of this project and the research you're hoping to do because as was mentioned, we can radiate seeds on the ground. But what is special about the space environment, that holistic space environment that could induce maybe more interesting or a higher rate of mutations? I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm excited to learn as you analyze the seeds when they come back and see how they grow in these different environments. Absolutely. And then the extreme temperature are also another very specific element in space. And we know there is three batch of seeds. You mentioned it, Shoba, earlier, one that is inside, one outside. And we have a third one that stayed inside the stove and had the regular type of irradiation. So that's where we will be able to compare the different mutations. Okay. I saw another hand raised, okay, yes, please. And sir, also in the back, you had a question, please. The microphone, yes. Thank you. You mentioned using tissue culture for vegetative propagate plants. When do you apply the irradiation? Is it before or after embryogenesis and what kind of selective pressure do you apply? Very little radiation, but it is after embryogenesis, after tissue culture, embryogenesis, and then we try to have cell culture if possible, but not all crops are getting easy to get friable callus and generate the cell culture. But with cell culture, if you irradiate the cell culture and then develop the callus and move it forward, your chimeras are going to be minimal. And that is the reason that we irradiate as early as possible, yeah. What kind of selective pressure do you apply? Like just temperatures or humidity? Depends on the characteristic that we are looking for. For example, if you're looking for coffee, leaf, rust resistance, then we are exposing the callus to the challenged by the inoculant. For banana, TR4 fungal disease resistance, we challenge them with inoculation of that. What else? Most of our tissue culture projects are with disease resistance, so we're challenging them with the disease inoculation, yeah. Thank you very much. So, sir, you had another question, please. And while we're giving you a microphone, I'm giving you a game, you win a game, you ask a question inside, you win a game. So this is a nuclear quiz game. I have four of them, so more questions to come. Please, sir. Yeah, I'm Josef Grösle, I'm a professor for genetics and cell biology here at Boku and thanks for having this meeting here at Boku and thanks for this very interesting talks and for presenting this highly interesting project. So what I would like to ask is, so what was the criteria for selecting sorghum as a crop fruit, so there would be many other interesting, so are you planning to continue with other species as well? Yeah, this is my main question that I would like to have. Yeah, to start off with, we wanted seeds as small as possible, so that is where Arabidopsis and sorghum came into the picture. Sorghum has been continuously researched in our lab for some other traits, so we wanted to continue that particular research on the sorghum as a crop. Then Arabidopsis has a very good genome, that is a small genome, that has been, you know, a re-sequence, we have enough genomic information, so it'll make it very easy to compare and also to be doing screening experiments in a very small space. So that is the reason for Arabidopsis and sorghum, because we also have enough re-sequencing information on at least one of the varieties, but we'll continue to be doing the sequencing to understand, but that's the continuity there, but starting off very, very small seeds. How do we continue this? First, we want to be seeing what's going on with these two plants, and we'll start off with Arabidopsis because that's going to be easier for us to be doing in the greenhouse, in the controlled environments. So following that, we would like to explore other small seeded crops. There is also a coordinated research discovery project that brings together about 15 different advanced research institutions that is having, as part of this, part of the project, space irradiation. So there we have rice coming back from space, wheat from space, and cotton from space from our collaborators. So yes, we'll follow through as necessary with the crops of major interest to countries, member countries of the Giant FLIA Center, yeah. And are there any specific expectations from the, let's say, combination of harsh environment in this space, let's say, for selecting, for this harsh, for the demanding needs because of climate change on Earth? So are there any specific reasons for having these expectations? Yeah, the expectation is that, because with the gamma radiation and X-ray radiation that you're doing, that you've been routinely doing, we are developing plants and crops that are capable of resisting some of these extreme conditions like drought, heat, resistance to insect pest diseases. So with exposure to outer space and sitting outside, there's a combination of different conditions that are going to be impacting. We know that with gamma radiation, the chromosomal changes are large, like large indels, chromosomal rearrangements. We know that with chemical mutagenesis that people used to do back in the day, there the DNA effects is point, very point mutations. And in between these two lie, the effects of iron beam, we are starting to know that as well. So now when we are hitting with a combination, can we bring multiple types of DNA effects? And that will serve multiple types of traits, because we know that, you know, we could say that a weed resistance, parasitic weed resistance is going to be a simple trait, five, four genes or something like that. Drought tolerance is going to be a complex trait with so many parts of the genome involved. So is this going to be happening for us for climate change adaptation? Thank you. Thank you. Is there any, yes, sir, question? So the microphone should come to you. I was thinking in the line of the question that was asked, the last question. I was thinking I know that if we apply specific mutation like gamma rays, we know how the changes might be. But in the context that we are applying a whole combination, is there any technique to differentiate what particular exposure is affecting a particular part of the sequence and can we separate them when we are looking at it in the downstream analysis? Yeah, this is something that I would like to do too, but for the time being, we can only separate the effect of the microgravity that is mostly inside with less of the external radiations. And then, you know, all of the radiation that is coming on the outside. So we have a radiation card inside that chamber that is holding the seed. It'll give us the extent of the radiation that is received, but it's not going to be, you know, separating what kind, what, and we don't have temperature information as well. So we won't be able to distinguish and delineate that in this first feasibility study. And hopefully we can understand more from colleagues in NASA at the Ames Research Center and, you know, from NASA in general, can we actually pass this out when we are breeding with different kinds of effects that comes from space on a seed that is exposed? And I'm not sure at this time how we would go about that, but it's a discussion that has to happen with others as well. Does that help? Yeah. Yeah. The second question I'd like to know is I am very, very interested in climate smart crops. Yeah. And like I said earlier, Africa is going through a kind of worst time with fluctuation in climate change and everything, and there's no steady pattern. Yeah. We can say the drought would be much this year or the rain should be much this year. So I know some people are doing crop models that could, that they are simulating crop models that could understand the changes that they see and then the crops adapt to the changes that are prevalent. Is there anything in the line with your research that, okay, this mutation can give us varieties that could grow with respect to the fluctuation of the climate at the time being not specific to droughts or when the rains are much of the droughts, stuff like that? Yeah. We do have crop modeling that is happening within our soils group in the joint FAO, IAEA center. So climate change modeling and crop idiotype development for these things, for the climate change models that we develop. However, specifically to be identifying a combination of stresses that come to a crop at this time, we are not doing. So for drought, we will be looking at reproductive stress during the pollination window and see how that's going to be affecting our grain filling stress. We can combine that and even seedling stress for selection but we probably cannot combine this particular drought stress and see there's a flooding that's coming at the early part, right? Right now we cannot but we can do that with genetics. We can do that with genetics because if we know that this is the genetics that's influencing drought behavior and this is the genetics that is influencing submergence which we know to some extent we can combine these in crosses in a pyramiding. Even if it's an inbred crop, you can actually pyramid. So these kind of things we can do. So yes. Yes sir. I have been working on this reading for some time now and I know that for irradiation, we have different doses of the gamma radiation. I work with the gamma atomic energy and I'm here for that and thanks for the chance. So I'm asking that if we are going to space to do this radiation, which is more of cosmic, is there a way to measure the amount of dose? And also in the normal things we do for irradiation, we do change the doses. We have different doses for grain, 10, 20 and a half of them. So I'm just looking at how do we optimize the conditions in terms of the grain? And then perhaps it's a new science though but I'm just wondering about the conditions and then to also be informed about that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Maybe we can ask Byron, Mrs. Byron. How do you evaluate in space the amount of irradiation you receive in your body as an astronaut? Is there a way you measure it? Yeah, we actually have a few different kinds of dosimeters aboard the International Space Station. So some of them are area dosimeters. They're stationed around the internal structure of the International Space Station but we also just like any radiation worker anywhere have personal dosimeters. So those are with us at all times aboard the space station, they're active dosimeters. So we're able to monitor themselves, monitor them ourselves if we want. And then of course we also have special sensors that we take with us outside when we're on space walks that are rated to perform in vacuum conditions and at a range of temperatures. So all of that data is collected by our medical team on the ground and analyzed when we get home to better understand our radiation exposure. We're kind of unique as radiation workers. The normal radiation worker limits that you would see with OSHA or in the nuclear Navy don't really apply to us. We have a different set of regulations that governs astronaut exposure because we have these high exposure periods but they're rare throughout our careers. So it's a really defined period with multiple years between our next mission. So we're monitored very closely and it's tracked on the ground to help predict long-term health effects. But we're also pretty healthy populations. So we haven't actually seen a higher incidence of mortality by cancer in the astronaut population but as scientists you know it's a small study, small N. So with not very many astronauts to analyze we're not quite sure exactly what the effects of cosmic radiation are on our long-term health outcomes. But there is measurements, right? There is measurements so eventually we could compare. Yes, Shobha. Yeah, there is a radiation card just like the dosimeter that Ms. Barron is talking about. There is a radiation card that is inside the seed container that's placed outside the ISS but we cannot actually do the kind of dose responsive radio sensitivity studies. No, not yet. Like you said, it could be a science that can be developing eventually as well because we could probably have different kinds of protection to have less amounts of this radiation or less amounts of less radiation and temperature depending upon the chamber that is holding the seed. So, but that's all in the future. Mrs. Barron will have to leave at 15. So we have a few minutes. Is there a last question for her here in the room or online? I'm looking on the Mentimeter if we're having any questions answering. Yes, Mrs. Ambassador. The microphone will come to you. Thanks, I'm, you know, science is a journey of discovery and so I'd be really interested to hear from both of our speakers, particularly in the context of plants in space. What surprised you most about an experiment that you ran or your experience, as you pointed out, caring for plants in space? What would be unique that we might not guess about space agriculture? Yeah, for us as a crew, I think having so many different plant experiments going on was how emotionally invested we got in the cultivation of those plants. I mean, they're under experimental conditions run by principle investigators on the ground. So we're not really making any of the choices that you do with your own plants at home. Am I over watering? Am I under watering? Am I giving all the plants the things that they need? But we got really invested in the success of these plants. And I think that was really the, you know, related to the psychological benefit of just really caring how it turned out and really wanting to see them grow and succeed. And so I think that was really cool to see across a crew with different personalities, different backgrounds. Some people who have never taken care of plants on earth are all of a sudden taking care of plants in space, but everyone really got invested in those experiments and had a lot of fun doing them. I was excited about the tomato plants, tomato that was actually producing fruits in the ISS. So that was very exciting for me. But just thinking about, you know, what external space would do to seeds, considering the science that we are doing for radiation-induosgenetic diversity, that was, you know, when it comes and when some colleagues are doing some of these things, it was more interesting to go into that space, yeah. But excitement came from seeing those plants grow and produce fruits inside the space station. And last question, if there is no one in the room, that, oh, yes, please. Do you have a microphone? Okay, it's coming from the top. So I was wondering if increasing the resistance of plants make the attributes, for example, vitamins and fibers decrease as it would make more of its energy towards being resistant towards climate change, so temperatures and decreasing in water. Yeah, yeah. So that's always, you know, something that we debate about how much can you actually have a carbon flow into a characteristic that we want rather than, you know, have that carbon flow completely dedicated to respiration and photosynthesis. So it's a balance. And most times in the seed industry, even people are developing new crop varieties to withstand climate change, there is always something that we look at for comparison. Under normal conditions, you grow the plant and there is a certain yield. And then under drought, with the improved genetics, that yield penalty does not happen. Or if the yield penalty happens, then you have a certain amount of window, certain window that you can compromise on. So yeah, carbon flow, for example, drought tolerance, you know, a lot of proline biosynthesis, glycine betaine, compatible osmolites, all kinds of things are going to be required for tolerance. If it's all going there, then you're going to be penalizing the plant's growth. But when you can select, you can really select for that penalization to be at as minimal or as comparable to the normal conditions, yeah. Thank you. We need indeed those plants to be nutritious down the road. Yeah, yeah, yes. If they are still alive and resistant. I have one question for you, Miss Barron, before you leave. We have young ladies here with us in the room, but also I'm sure online. What would you say to the young girls that want to study and don't know exactly what they want to study? How could you inspire them about studying science? Because we know sometimes young girls, they stop and they don't engage in the science field. So what are your message for them? Thank you. I think I would share two things. Science and math engineering these subjects are really challenging for everyone. And I think it's easy to get the impression that if all of a sudden a subject in school is harder for you, it means you're not good at it. And that couldn't be further from the truth. These subjects are hard no matter who you are. And especially if you're passionate about them, if you're curious, kind of leaning into that challenge is how you get through those tough moments in class and then eventually go on to study at higher levels. But the other thing I would share as you navigate these choices is that you should never shut a door on yourself. I think sometimes we can be our worst enemies in terms of pursuing our dreams because when you have big goals, big dreams, it's easy to be intimidated by them, just internal to yourself. And so I've had fantastic mentors along the way. I've always been grateful to be surrounded by people who believed in me and believed in my capabilities. And because I was brave enough to share my dream with the people around me, I had people to encourage me in those moments of doubt. So I would just encourage you to continue your dream big, don't limit yourself and engage others in those moments where you're not sure if you can make it because that's how you continue on these journeys to do big things. Thank you very, very much for this message, Ms. Byron. And yeah, we arrived to 3.15, so we would like to thank you very much. If you can stay with us, please stay with us. If you have to leave, we will understand. We had other questions, Shobha, that were more specific for you. So one is if the experiment works on these seeds, will you send seed more to space? So if it succeeds, will you send more? And which other seeds will you send? Would you send the same? So Emilia, 24 years old, asked that question. We do want to be sending more seeds if the experiment succeeds. And we would like to change the type of seeds that we send. What seed we would be sending? At this time, we do not know, but in the laboratory of the Giant FAIA Center, we have work on legumes and cereals, and so which of those crops are actively being researched on at any particular time? Lentil is one crop that we are working on. There would be some interest in seeds, so those would be the kind of things that, and at the same time, those should be important to most of the member states that we support as well. Yeah. And we had another question from Anna, 22 years old. How soon will you know whether cosmic radiation will have an effect? Once the seed comes to us, then in about three to four, comes to us meaning, comes to cyber stuff, Austria, then three to four months will be sufficient for us to see what's happening to the Arabidopsis seeds. So hopefully, I'm hoping that by October, November, we have some of the early results. The surga will take more time because we have to take it to the field. It is a three to four month duration crop, so it takes time. It takes time. Is there any other questions here in the room? No. I don't see any other, I look again. Oh yes, here. So, Suda from Iraq says the nuclear law first. I'm very impressed with the great achievement, okay. Is there a chance for this operation, sorry, this one is for this operation to be, I don't see the end of the question, Joe, if you can help me with that and send it by text, I will ask it afterwards. Is there any other questions? No. I still have two nuclear queues to be win, so two more questions, please. Yes. Is there any expected outcome where you say it was successful and it is a different opportunity to use? Yeah, mutation breeding, or was it just to try out now how it generally affects the seeds to send them to space? Or are you checking for specific traits? How would we have an impact on them? Yeah, we'll be looking at drought, effect of drought. We'll be looking at salinity and then high temperatures and possibly low temperatures as well on the seeds that return. We have seeds that are sitting with us for exposure to gamma radiation and X-ray here in cyber stuff, so we'll be testing them as well. Success would be that we find something that is extremely tolerant to those stresses that I mentioned, that we cannot get from the aliquots of seeds or the samples of seeds that are being retained here on Earth and being exposed to gamma rays or something else. But the first question, the first part of your question, mutation breeding, we've been supporting our member states, member countries to be using mutation breeding for a large number of years and member states have developed more than 3,400 varieties that we know of, much more that we do not know of for all of these different kinds of traits, for nutrition, for yield, all of that, using gamma radiation or X-rays. So these are mutation breeding resulting varieties that we currently have across the globe. So now we're testing mutation breeding with the space. But yes, success will be if we find that spectacular results with drought, salinity, or something that we are not getting with the seed that we are exposing to the radiation here. And keeping fingers crossed, yeah. Okay, so thank you, Joe, for sending me the questions. Okay, so one says, please explain about seeds grow in comparing conditions. Are they compared in the ISS or on Earth? I can even answer that one myself. They will be compared in cyber stuff, not in the ISS. In the ISS, they are only receiving the radiation. Then, does the ruling of the European Commission on new genomic techniques impair the work of the REA on mutation breeding? And are you also using NGTs in cyber stuff? Yeah, the ruling of the European Commission of 2018 separated gene editing or precision breeding as we call now from mutation breeding. Mutation breeding has been tested a method of breeding for more than 60, 70 years. So that particular ruling does not affect mutation breeding. Do we do NGTs, yeah, modifications here at cyber stuff? We have started to be developing the technology for precision breeding to be validating our mutants. Because in order to be editing the genome and to be doing precision breeding, you need to know which particular base pair or which region of the chromosome you need to modify. And in order to know that, you have to go to a mutant first. You have to have a mutant and the mutant is the characteristic, right? And then you delve in deep to find the molecular change that is causing that characteristic. Then you tie these together and then you have the DNA sequence or base pairs that you can then edit. So for us, it is important being in the mutation breeding community to be validating our mutants using these genetic associations and then the precision breeding. So we will be having the technology in-house for any of the member states who have the regulatory infrastructure and the desire to be using the technology. But we will not be using the technology for breeding, per se. Thank you. Is there any other questions here online? Waiting for you, Joe? No, okay. So then that will close our event. So before we close, we would like to share with you our Youth Comic Book Contest, so-called Seeds in Space, opened for 14 to 18 years old. And we're inviting young people to use their artistic skills to tell the Seeds in Space story. So if you know how to draw or you have someone in your family, a sibling, a friend who is from 14 to 18 years old, tell them that the winning drawings will inspire the official Seeds in Space comic book to be published by the IAEA and the FAO. And here is a short video made to help you to understand more about the comic book. Are you between 14 and 18 years old? You like comics and you like to draw? The Seeds in Space competition is for you. The IAEA and the FAO have sent Seeds into space to create new varieties of plants that are resistant to climate change. Choose one or more stages of this fascinating project and create a comic panel illustrating the stage you've chosen or a comic strip if you want to illustrate a few steps and send your drawings before 16 April 2023. The winner drawing will be used to inspire Seeds in Space comic book. Also all nominees will receive gifts. You want to know more? Click on the link. Good luck. Do tell your siblings, your friends and anyone you think who would be interested about the contest and don't forget the deadline is Sunday 16 April 2023. So at this event, we come to a close. And I would like to express our deep thanks to astronaut Kayla Baron of NASA as well as to the permanent mission of the United States to the IAEA for their diligent support in the coordination with NASA and particularly to you, Ambassador Holgate. I would like also to express our gratitude to Professor Birchmeyer and his colleagues of the University of Natural Resources and Life Science here in Vienna, the BOKU, for hosting this event, being a scientific and technical organization it was a privilege for the IAEA to be here today. To our online audience, thank you very much to have been with us today and for your questions. I know someone said please answer my question but I did not saw it in the one we shared with me so I'm sorry for that. And you can keep abreast of all the project development by following our website and social media after the seeds returns on Earth in April 2023. Thank you everyone for attending this event. We hope you enjoyed it. Merci, gracias. Thank you very much.