Yuan Longping, the renowned and respected Chinese scientist often taken for a farmer, has found the world a way out of famine. Unde-terred by the prevailing ignorance of heterosis in rice and other self-pollinating plants, he has dedicated himself to research into hybrid rice since the 1960s, and his feats have won him the accolade "father of hybrid rice" and earned him the honor of being made foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences Why is Yuan so obsessed by hybrid rice research? How did he manage with such simple conditions, scarce aterials, backward technol-ogy and insufficient information? What global impacts will Yuan and his team have? This book may give the answers.