Month: January 2015
Pear Bulb
IMAGE: “Die Glühbirne,” 2015, from “The Light Inside,” photograph by Radu Zaciu. German slang for light bulb is “die Glühbirne,” or “the glow pear.” As Romanian photograph Radu Zaciu explained to Petapixel, his latest series, “The Light Inside,” was originally inspired by this word play. IMAGE: Photograher Radu Zaciu preparing a cauliflower; photograph via Petapixel.…
Gastropod: Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast: the most important meal of the day. Or is it? In this episode of Gastropod, we explore the science and history behind the most intentionally designed, the most industrialized, and the most argued about meal of all. Armed with a healthy dose of caffeine chronopharmacology, we embark on a global breakfast tour that exposes…
Holy Radish Water, Scientists!
IMAGE: Bottles of holy water (available at the Sacramentals Foundation of Omaha, Nebraska) and a radish. In a paper published in the journal Psychological Reports in 1979, Sandra Lenington measured the mean growth of 12 radish seeds watered with holy water against that of 12 radish seeds watered with tap water. It was not, Lenington…
Outsourcing the Mouth
Until recently, the question of whether an apple was truly ripe could only be answered by destroying it. The human mouth, with its variety of multi-functional sensory detection mechanisms, provides the traditional—and, until recently, the most reliable—guide. But once an apple has been bitten, there is, as Eve reminds us, no going back. For eaters,…
Gastropod: Night of the Living Radishes
For this special New Year episode, Gastropod transports you to Oaxaca, Mexico, for the legendary Night of the Radishes, celebrated the night before Christmas eve, where locals present their most elaborate and inventive radish carvings. You’ll also get a taste of entomophagy, otherwise known as the practice of eating bugs, when Cynthia and her partner…