Sunday Supplement: A Lyon in Space Research
Dr Charles Lyon was researching space plants before a human being had been to space.
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Back in 2022, I found this photo for sale on eBay. The auction is entitled “1964 Coleus Plant Grown in Clinostat Shows Leaves Facing Wrong Way Press Photo”, and the blurb says it’s from a large archive of press photos. There’s also a view of the back, which suggests the man in the photo is Dr Lyon.
I reasoned that the photo must show Dr Charles J Lyon of Dartmouth College, who was working (with NASA?) on plant gravitropism studies at the time. I don’t know why the photo was taken, however, and whether it ever appeared in a newspaper.
With a little time on my hands over the holidays, I have found out more about Dr Lyon and his astrobotany research, and… potentially… the first plant grown in space.
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