China's Supersized Space Vegetables Raise Eyebrows and Questions

Scientists of the Guandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences claim that sending seeds into space can result in vegetables of unusual
size as are shown in the pictures in this article. The 21lb tomatoes,
nine-inch chilies and 210lb pumpkins that are featured in the pictures
are allegedly the benefit that results from spending two weeks in orbit.

Different vegetables from the batch of 2,000 seeds which were launched back in 2006 have since been selectively bred in order to cultivate those which had the most desirable characteristics. Researcher Lo Zhigang of Guandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences does not claim to have a reason why the time in orbit would affect the seeds but offers that microgravity and exposure to cosmic radiation could be partly responsible.

"We don't think there's any threat to human health because the genes themselves do not mutate, just their sequence changes." (Lo Zhigang)

Understandably, the claims are being met with a healthy degree of skepticism from Western scientists, including NASA researchers and those at DuPont who have done their own experimentation. They stated that there were no observed genetic mutations and that the benefits did not justify the costs involved. One has to wonder if these vegetables are the result of time in orbit or just plant breeding and some good old-fashioned state propaganda. [The Daily Mail]