author
Thomas S. Osborne
A mid-20th-century agronomist who helped explain how nuclear science could be used in farming, he wrote clearly for curious general readers as well as students. His best-known work turns a highly technical subject into an accessible look at plant breeding, soil research, and agricultural experimentation.
1 Audiobook
Atoms in Agriculture: Applications of Nuclear Science to Agriculture (Revised)
by Thomas S. Osborne
About the author
Thomas S. Osborne was an American agronomist and science writer associated with the University of Tennessee. In Atoms in Agriculture, he is identified as an Associate Professor of Agronomy, and the booklet’s author note says he led plant-breeding research at the university’s Agricultural Research Laboratory for the Atomic Energy Commission, work he had been doing since 1953.
That same note says Osborne earned his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University and his doctorate from Washington State University. It also describes him as "a teacher at heart," explaining that his published writing grew out of responses to students who asked about the effects of radiation on seeds.
His best-known book, Atoms in Agriculture: Applications of Nuclear Science to Agriculture (1962; revised 1963), introduces readers to the use of radioisotopes and radiation in areas such as plant nutrition, animal metabolism, pest research, and crop improvement. Even from the title and structure alone, his work stands out as part of a moment when agricultural science was trying to make fast-moving new research understandable to the public.