They gathered in secret, in the dead of night. To find their way, they consulted a map originally drawn more than a century earlier, counting paces and triangulating their position with compasses. When they reached what they hoped was the right spot, they began to dig.
It sounds like something from a movie, but it’s a scene that has played out over and over in real life — and will again in about 17 years. The treasure-hunters are a group of scientists at Michigan State University, taking part in one of the world’s longest-running experiments. Instead of a chest of gold, their treasure is a vault of seeds buried in 1879. Their ongoing mission, passed down through the years, is to answer a seemingly simple question: How long do seeds retain the ability to grow?
Technically speaking, a seed is a plant embryo wrapped, along with a reserve of food, ...
