November 1, 2005

1 min read

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Case Cracked—Working Knowledge on Nuts

By Mark Fischetti

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"How are nuts shelled commercially?" asks Scientific American reader Bill Lush. "Every time I struggle with a Brazil nut or a pecan I wonder. It must be tough, since we're dealing with a natural product that varies in size and shape. And don't tell me it's done by hand--I would be soooo disappointed."

Lush's note expresses a frustration many people share during Thanksgiving and the December holidays--the stressful attempt to crack a nut just enough to open it without crushing the prize inside. Production plants can process 30 to 60 tons of nuts a day, smashing fewer than one tenth of 1 percent.

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Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

More by Mark Fischetti
Scientific American Magazine Vol 293 Issue 5This article was published with the title “Case Cracked” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 293 No. 5 ()
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican112005-7aM8e5Pa3dFKpH2rLzh5Ac
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