What Makes Food Taste So Good?
Deliciousness is the happy result of a surprising blend of factors, some of which have nothing to do with your taste buds
Features
The Flavor Connection
Unique combinations of chemical compounds give foods their characteristic flavors
The Science of a Perfect Cup of Coffee
From plantation to bean, roasting to crema, Kefa to cafe, there is more to your latte than you might imagine
The Physics of Champagne
A million mesmerizing bubbles rise from a glass of sparkling wine. Scientists believe they now understand how these tiny bits of fizz are born, take flight and burst in a nose-tickling spray...
The Race to Save Chocolate
Pests, fungal infections and a changing climate threaten cacao crops and the chocolate they produce. But researchers have strategies to rescue this favorite sweet
A Top Chef's Recipes for Eating Invasive Species
What's the best way to control ecological pests? Feed them to the world's greatest predator—us
What Science Says about Eating Right
A nutritionist boils a mountain of conflicting diet advice down to a few simple principles
Is Food Addiction Making Us Fat?
Brain research reveals that fats and sugars may increasingly be driving people toward obesity
A Plan to Fix the Obesity Crisis
Science has identified four steps to losing weight that can improve the odds of success
Safeguarding the Food Supply
To defend against a growing risk of food tainted by contaminants, man-made or natural, we need new technologies and better oversight
The Origin of the Modern Western Diet
Ever wonder why dessert is served after dinner? Modern cooking evolved out of 17th-century ideas about diet and nutrition
The Conflicted History of Alcohol in Western Civilization
Booze was the beverage of choice for much of human history. But over the past millennium, views of alcohol in the West have swerved from warm embrace to moral vilification to a worry about the human costs of abuse...
Time Line: The Amazing Multimillion-Year History of Processed Food
Humans have been “processing” food ever since we tamed fire and invented bread. Processed food has powered the evolution of the species, the expansion of empires and the exploration of space...
5 Steps to Feed the World and Sustain the Planet
A global plan, ambitious but doable, could double food production by mid-century and simultaneously rein in the emissions, deforestation and pollution caused by agriculture
GM Foods on Trial
Proponents of genetically modified crops say the technology is the only way to feed a warming, increasingly populous world. Critics say we tamper with nature at our peril. Who is right?
The Quest for Lab-Grown Meat
A handful of scientists aim to satisfy the world's growing appetite for hamburgers—and eventually steak—without wrecking the planet. The first step: grab a petri dish
Reclaiming the Lost Flavor of Heirloom Produce—without GMOs
Making modern supermarket fruits and vegetables so big and hardy drained a lot of their flavor. Scientists now have the technology to bring it back—and it doesn't involve genetic engineering...
The Alarming Environmental Costs of Beef
Producing beef for the table releases more heat-trapping greenhouse gases than most people realize—far more, pound for pound, than are generated by the production of most other kinds of food...
Graphic Science: A World of Food, Delivered to America's Doorstep
U.S. imports of fruits and vegetables are on the rise—especially avocados from Mexico
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- From the Editor
Presenting: “The Science of Food”
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