Amber waves.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Briefly Noted - Norman Borlaug and his hybrid wheat - Brief article

Outside the U.S. Botanic Garden on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., stands a fitting tribute to Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize--winning biologist who is often credited with saving a billion people worldwide from starvation.

Ranks of wheat stalks grow in a raised bed. They're tall, but not too tall. They do not snap in a strong wind. They resist diseases such as rust, the too-frequent cause of famines through history. The robust strains developed by Borlaug using innovative plant hybridization techniques and planted in Mexico, India, and Pakistan, were carefully engineered to withstand a variety...