http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:12:07 GMT Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/92 Doing maize genetics, according to one geneticist, is “really cool.” It is exactly this kind of enthusiasm that fuels <a href=http://www.biology.missouri.edu/people/person.lasso?-Search=Action&-Table=Faculty_Research&-Database=Tracking&-KeyValue=73>Karen Cone</a>, Professor of <a href=http://www.biology.missouri.edu/>Biological Sciences</a> at MU, who specializes in plant genetics. Asked to summarize what researchers in her field actually do, Cone laughs and responds, “Geneticists make mutants…a geneticist learns about the way something works in real life by screwing it up, trying to figure out what’s wrong with the mutant, and then inferring what is normal when the mutant isn’t there.” The mutants that Cone makes involve corn and purple pigmentation. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/articles/show/92 (LuAnne Roth)