microscope in the greenhouse
Located just minutes away from the main campus, Uplands Farm consists of three greenhouses with 5,000 square feet of growing space and a series of growth chambers, and twelve acres of fields where crops are rotated biannually. Its agrarian atmosphere provides a striking complement to the high-tech neuroscience labs and the Genome Center.

   
Arabidopsis "Uplands Farm is an agricultural field station that is maintained by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for their plant group. We do genetic research on maize and Arabidopsis [Arabidopsis thaliana, a member of the mustard family commonly called mouse-ear cress]."

 

 

greenhouse "Uplands Farm has a pretty big history. At the turn of the century, the property was cleared, the buildings were built, and an active dairy farm ran right up through the 1950s. The folks who owned it conducted research on DDT here. They sprayed the fields, and had the cows graze, and they were able to follow the trail of the DDT through the milk, which led to DDT being banned.

"The Nature Conservancy was able to purchase the property, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory then purchased 12 acres in 1984, and we put these greenhouses up and farm it to this day.

"I would say that the best part of working here is being a small part of all the research that goes on here. Even though it’s a small part of that research, it’s still probably the most important part because you can’t understand DNA in plants if you don’t have any plants."
—Tim Mulligan, manager of Uplands Farm
 

Uplands Farm is the place that most closely reflects the intellectual legacy of Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock .


Farm manager Tim Mulligan was mentored by Barbara McClintock. She persuaded the hiring committee to give him his first job at the farm. Seventeen years later he still loves to come to work every day.
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