在预算紧张的时想要健康饮食并不太容易。一个小小的西瓜要2.68英镑（≈22元），相同的价格能买8袋蛋奶饼干。
实现吃瓜自由多亏了她
国人实现了“吃瓜自由”离不开80岁高龄依然坚守在科研一线的吴明珠院士。20世纪50年代吴院士主动请缨、远赴新疆，穷尽一生心血选育瓜种。
图源：新疆农业科学院哈密瓜研究中心
Wu Mingzhu is a melon expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering. This 92-year-old has devoted her life to cultivating more than 30 varieties of fruit in China.
1930年，吴明珠出生于湖北武汉。1953年，她从西南农学院园艺系果蔬专业毕业，与“中国杂交水稻之父”袁隆平是同级校友。
图源：央视三农视频截图
在新疆的工作条件十分艰苦，但是吴明珠和同事花了3年时间，走遍当地300多个生产队，一块瓜地一块瓜地调查，最后收集了100多份资料，整理成44个品种，成为后来育种的基本材料。
Born in Wuhan, Wu graduated from the Department of Horticulture and Fruit Science of Southwest University in 1953. In 1955, she volunteered to research melons in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where working conditions were tough at the time. She spent three years visiting over 300 production teams throughout the region, identifying 44 melon varieties.
图源：央视三农视频截图
这条瓜种培育之路，吴明珠院士一走就是五十多年。
如今吴奶奶因阿尔茨海默病已认不得人，但当老人吃了医疗人员为她端来的西瓜，记忆瞬间被唤醒。她依然还惦记着心里一辈子都放不下的瓜：
“西瓜8424我最喜欢，而且是我的拿手好戏。因为样子好看，果型好，也好吃。”
In the 1990s, she and her team developed "8424," a high-quality watermelon in east China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and gradually extended the variety to northern areas of China.
