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Do We Love Mum’s Cooking Because She Made Us as Well as Dinner?
In our popular culture we have a complicated relationship with mutants. For every Teenage Mutant Turtle and Wolverine, there is a Magneto, a Jason Vorhees or a Thing. The hillbillies from Deliverance probably qualify as mutants but I’m not sure whether Godzilla is a good guy or a bad guy? Are zombies mutants? Regardless, it… Continue reading
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Darwin, Lamarck and the Murder Scientist
One day, years ago, when I was a cocksure university undergraduate, I was chatting to some Jehovah’s Witnesses who had come to the door of the share house I lived in. We discussed a few things but at one point the guy I was talking to said that when it came to evolution he didn’t… Continue reading
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Quick Bite: New research shows what was on the menu 2 million years ago
The Ship of Theseus is the name given to a thought experiment first related by Plutarch around the beginning of the second century. In this story the ship Theseus rescued the children of Athens with was kept by the people of Athens and used every year in a pilgrimage to Delos. Over time, and many… Continue reading
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Eugenics and Genetic Diversity: What Bananas Can Teach Us
Discover why the Cavendish banana is vulnerable to extinction. Learn how genetic diversity, polyploidy, and monoculture shape modern food security and biology. Continue reading
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What Is Umami? The Science Behind the Fifth Basic Taste
Discover the science of umami. Learn how taste receptors, glutamic acid, and MSG interact on the tongue to create the savory 5th basic taste. Continue reading
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The Science of Milk: Emulsions, Lactose, and Casein Chemistry
Discover the complex chemistry of milk—from fat globule emulsions and lactose intolerance to casein micelles and how dairy behaves in the kitchen. Continue reading