Rice fields have always occupied a special place in the heart of Yu Su-may, who was born to a rice farming family in Waipu Township, Taichung County. Endowed with the unswerving perseverance for which Hakka women are so justly renowned, Yu is a pioneer in rice genome research and Taiwan's leading patent holder in the field. (Jimmy Lin)

Humans have engaged in wet rice ag-riculture since as far back as 10,000 years ago. Today, the practice has spread across the entire planet, and the harvest constitutes the number-one staple in the diets of some 3.5 billion people worldwide.

During the "green revolution" of the 1960s, dwarfing of rice and wheat resulted in dramatically better yields (as dwarf plants use more of their energy for filling the grain than in growing taller), but the gains in output have not kept pace since then with population growth. To make matters worse, the United States triggered a global grain shortage and spiraling prices in 2006 when it diverted 14% of its corn harvest to ethanol production. Even major rice-producing nations such as Vietnam, Thailand, and India ordered rice exports to be halted or reduced.

Luckily, biotechnology is progressing at leaps and bounds. Scientists are working on transgenic crops to find more effective means of producing food and energy. The "second green revolution" is barreling ahead, and wet rice agriculture is once again a key focal point of research.

Yu Su-may, a distinguished research fellow at the Academia Sinica's Institute of Molecular Biology and a pioneer in the field of rice genetics in Taiwan, has obtained more patents in her field than anyone else.

So what is so engrossing about wet rice research? Why is Yu Su-may so hopelessly addicted to it?

On the first day of 2009, while virtually all of us were sleeping off the previous night's celebrations, Yu toiled away alone in the laboratory, where she works year-round without vacation on preparations for the bioenergy segment of the Executive Yuan's national energy plan.

But paddy rice is the true love of her life, and at the mere mention of it Yu's eyes light up.