Content by Rachel Ehrenberg, Knowable Magazine
Getting It RipeFrom <em>meh</em> to wow: The science of fruit maturation reveals new paths to better flavor
Thu, 09/19/2019 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. If you’re lucky, you’ve tasted a perfectly ripe fruit—a sublime peach, perhaps, or a buttery avocado. But odds are most of the fruit you’ve eaten tastes more like wet cardboard. Although…
A Middle Path to Sustainable FarmingHoming in on hybrid, low-input methods that will safeguard the environment and feed future billions
Wed, 08/28/2019 - 12:01
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. Alfalfa, oats, and red clover are soaking up the sunlight in long narrow plots, breaking up the sea of maize and soybeans that dominates this landscape in the heart of the U.S. farm belt. The…
How 3D Printing Could Help Shape SurgeryTechnology is enabling increasingly lifelike models of organs to help doctors practice operations
Tue, 07/09/2019 - 12:02
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. What you see in the image below is a lobe of a liver, times two. On the right, a flesh-and-blood one, removed from a transplant donor; and on the left, one created from plastic to represent…
A Blizzard of ‘Sustainability’ LabelsEarth-friendly certifications and standards abound for products like coffee, chocolate, and palm oil. But do the programs work?
Thu, 06/20/2019 - 12:02
A frog the size of a fingernail. A poncho-clad farmer leading his mule. A tree, some intertwining leaves, a silhouetted figure holding a pot. Such logos are stamped on labels of coffee, cocoa, mangoes, jeans, and myriad other products, certifying…
Low Marks for Performance ReviewsHere’s why the ritual, dreaded by managers and the managed alike, falls short, and what might work better
Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:01
Companies spend millions of dollars and burn countless hours conducting performance reviews and devising checklists to assess their employees, and business scholars have studied the issue with great urgency and intensity. The results so far? By all…
Bad Bosses: Dealing With Abusive SupervisorsSome managers rely on berating and bullying employees. Researchers have learned one thing: It doesn’t work.
Wed, 05/08/2019 - 12:02
More than a decade has passed, but Mary Mawritz can still hear metal-tipped tassels flapping against leather loafers—the signature sound of her boss roaming the halls of his real estate company. “Whenever I heard that jingling, I would get sick to…
Reaching Out to Touch Virtual RealityNew technologies mean we won’t just see and hear digital information. We’ll also feel it.
Wed, 04/10/2019 - 12:01
In Steven Spielberg’s 2018 film, Ready Player One, based on the 2011 book by Ernest Cline, people enter an immersive world of virtual reality called the OASIS. What was most gripping about the futuristic tech in this sci-fi movie was not the VR…
The Dating Game: When Food Goes BadNew technologies to predict spoilage time could slash the massive waste between farm and fork
Tue, 04/09/2019 - 12:03
In August 2011, a can of Great Value peas joined the nonperishables in my pantry, one of several panic purchases as Hurricane Irene barreled toward my home on the northeast U.S. coast. But the emergency passed, and the can, with its unassuming blue-…
Fighting Crime With StatisticsTaking advantage of ‘natural experiments,’ researchers analyze data to look at what works
Mon, 02/04/2019 - 12:03
If Fyodor Dostoyevsky had been a mathematician, he might have written a book called Crime and Statistics. However, since “statistics” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “punishment,” it wouldn’t have sold as well. But such a book would make a…
Scientists Look to New Technologies to Make Food SaferCold plasma and high-pressure systems might help reduce the risks of foodborne disease outbreaks
Tue, 12/04/2018 - 12:02
Nearly every month, it seems, comes a new report. In March 2018, there was news of contaminated romaine lettuce, which eventually led to five deaths and sickened more than 200 people across the United States and Canada. In May 2018, about 100 people…