Jessica Atkin, a researcher at Texas A&M University, got chickpeas to sprout in fake moon dirt. Her trick: stir in some organic matter and a specific fungus, the kind that already cuts deals with plant roots down here. Then wait.
This is the best news I have heard in some time. I should check myself. It is one plant, in a tray, in Texas. The moon remains a sterile grey rock that wants everyone who visits it dead.
Still. For roughly four billion years the moon has been undefeated against agriculture. A woman with a petri dish and a cooperative mold finally took a round off it. I will not be writing the harvest story, but someone should.
A chickpea. On the moon. Eventually. Hummus is, against all odds, on the roadmap.
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Based on the original article "The lunar botanist with a plan to farm vegetables on the moon".
