In 1958, Dr. Walton C. Gregory of North Carolina State University exposed 200lbs of peanuts to a massive amount of radiation and planted their seeds. One of the resulting crops produced peanut seeds the size of almonds, which Gregory then sent as a gift to his friend Muriel Howorth. Howorth was apparently a big fan of all things atomic (which is why you always had to make sure your underwear wasn't sticking out of your pants around her) and she loved these "NC4X" peanuts so much, she served them during a dinner at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London. And none of her guests apparently gave a crap.
While Howorth was reacting to the peanuts like your dad does to an obviously photoshopped picture of a guy posing with a giant fish he "caught" (i.e. going berserk and asking people "can you believe this shit?!") everyone else was unenthused. Most didn't even want to try them. Instead of cupping herself and going "How about you suck on deez nuts then," Howorth decided to do the most British thing ever and blow off some steam via gardening. She planted the peanuts, which germinated in just four days and grew 2 feet high. The plant created a media frenzy.
Soon there were newspaper and TV interviews, book deals, speeches. Howorth used her newfound fame to create the Atomic Gardening Society, and invited scientists from all over the world to help her promote atomic gardening as a viable form of agriculture. One of the society's "scientific advisers" was the self-proclaimed nuclear scientist, author of All About Radiation (1957), and the founder of Scientology:Â L. Ron Hubbard. Although Hubbard was as much a real scientist as Dr. Dre is a real doctor (among other things, his book claimed that you could actually cure radiation poisoning with vitamins), the man was pretty well known, and his involvement did help bring atomic gardening into the spotlight so ... thanks? We guess? Maybe?