The London Telegraph reports that blue roses will be avaliable in about a year. "The discovery was made by chance by two biochemists conducting research into drugs for cancer and Alzheimer’s in a medical laboratory at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Professor Peter Guengerich and Dr Elizabeth Gillam were trying to find out how the human liver breaks down drugs when they came across a liver enzyme that had a startling effect.
’When we moved a liver enzyme into a bacterium, the bacterium turned blue,’ Dr Guengerich said. "We were aware that there were people in the world who had been interested in making coloured flowers, especially a blue rose, for a number of years." (Via
Drudge).
I think that the most important question is clearly whether our wives and girlfriends will accept these blue roses as an apology or for Valentine’s Day. Will any women weigh in and help us answer this important question?
Plant breeders have been pursuing the blue rose for decades if not longer. I heard a talk on the subject about 10 years ago. It was at the annual Syposium on Molecular Spectroscopy at Ohio State.
And the key breakthrough came from completely independent research on cancer and Alzheimer’s. Just goes to show, it really is all one universe.