Variations are natural changes that help things adapt to environmental conditions. Shirai and I have thought long and hard about making sure our experiment has only one variable, the mutations from the Space Shuttle seeds.

It seems that the American fast plant companies call their seeds Astro Seeds, and I have written them to make sure they are the same, exact seeds as the Japanese Space Shuttle seeds.

We worry that water might be a confounding variable, and are going to explore the plant and garden stores to make sure our soil mixture and even Osmocote fertilizer are the same. If need be, I will ship soil and fertilizer to Kushiro, using research funds.

The only other problem might be temperature, as it is hard to control in the classroom. The website for fast plants seems to hint that most classrooms are too warm. We hate to have temperature as a variable that might give us different results.

I am contacting my university people about this.

Also, I brought a Power Point presenttation on just what a mutant is. It is not an alien! But the folks here felt it was too advanced, so we are remaking it. We want to use words that may translate easier and, of course, the object of the CD is to help students realize that mutants are a natural part of nature, and a necessary one.

Cynthia Jones,
Over and out!