On the origin of carrots
Do you know where your carrot, if you have a carrot, comes from? A new study from the University of L鈥橝quila in Italy outlines one approach to finding out.
鈥淚t must be noted鈥︹�� the paper explains, 鈥渢hat the methods proposed so far for tracing the geographical origin of carrots as well as for discriminating between organic and conventionally grown carrots, are somewhat scarce.鈥� In this report, partially titled , Samantha Reale and her colleagues explain exactly why and how they addressed that scarcity.
Advertisement
In a way, they accomplish some of what rabbits do: sniff out the origin of a number of long, pointy vegetables. But the researchers do so in a more high-tech manner. They propose a multi-part carrot detection method or, in other words, an 鈥渁ttenuated total reflectance Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy鈥� and headspace solid-phase microextraction followed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection鈥�.
Experimenting on three varieties of Italian carrots, they say they were able to correctly identify, about 80 per cent of the time, which of three regions a carrot came from.
Sticking points
A humble stick can yield up many insights. Of which here are three.
鈥淭he phenomenon of the 鈥榟owling wind鈥欌�� occurs as strong winds whip around bare tree branches and electrical transmission lines,鈥� Lutz Kasper and Patrik Vogt in a recent issue of The Physics Teacher. The two aimed to 鈥渃reate this sound in the lab by swinging sticks quickly through the air鈥�. They succeeded in this, and also in understanding how to shape the howl, finding that 鈥渢he frequencies present depend upon the swinging speed and the diameter of the rod鈥�.
Pieter Jolly examines a more refined stick-based activity in his study . His analysis, in The South African Archaeological Bulletin, centres on photos from 1910 or 1911. Jolly explains: 鈥淎 particular posture adopted by dancers in some of these photographs, stooped and supported by two sticks, is represented in San rock paintings鈥� This article investigates the symbolism of the dancing sticks and whether the rites in which these sticks are employed originated with the San or whether they originated with southern Bantu-speakers.鈥� Probably the San, he concludes.
Jinhua ham is one the world鈥檚 great hams, with 800 years or so of history in China. Yet it stinks, sometimes. Despite being salted and dried, the meat can spoil, its stench trapped inside. Changyu Zhou and their colleagues are using sticks to how Jinhua hams go bad. The researchers obtain their samples using the 鈥渢hree sticks鈥� sniffing method: 鈥淏amboo sticks are inserted into the sacral vertebra, knee joint and hip joint of hams, and then the aroma adsorbed on the bamboo sticks is evaluated by [a] professional panel.鈥�
Howling and Howling
Annoying as noise can be, moaning and groaning don鈥檛 help to alleviate the problem. Howling does. So does Howling. Alan Howling and D. H . Howling. Christopher Howls, meanwhile, has an eye on acoustical catastrophes.
Alan Howling at the Swiss Plasma Center tinkers with new technology to perform a fairly conventional acoustic service: active noise cancellation. Howling and his team play with as an improvement over speakers that use a diaphragm in a rigid frame. A plasma actuator has no fragile moving parts. It does have some kinks, however, which Howling and his team are quietly attacking.
D. H . Howling at the Edison Laboratory in New Jersey wrote a paper called . This was in 1956, when magnetic tape was used for recording and playing back sounds. Howling tried to nail down what was causing unwanted noise in the recordings. He fussed mainly about subtle problems in the materials used to make the tape. The more obvious causes of noise, he wrote, had already been tamed 鈥渢o a tolerable level鈥�: wow and flutter (fluctuations in the tape movement), friction and electromagnetic discombobulations (鈥渃hatter鈥�) between parts of the system.
But don鈥檛 mistake Howlings for Howls. Christopher Howls at the University of Southampton, UK, has a coming out in which he and two colleagues cheerily worry about logarithmic catastrophes at acoustic event horizons, which are effectively sonic black holes.
The persistence of time
tells of, and then shows, the strangeness of time. He wrote to Feedback at the end of January 2023: 鈥淐an any 快猫短视频 readers beat this for a delay between writing and acceptance of a paper? Ours has just been accepted 鈥� in Austral Ecology 鈥� after 11 years and 15 journals! It shows that some small new world monkeys will risk bad stings for a new unit of energy, the Snickers bar. (To be pedantic, about half a Snickers bar). I bet someone somewhere will laugh and say 鈥極nly 11 years 鈥� peanuts鈥�. 鈥�
Feedback wrote back to thank him. In return came this message: 鈥淚 am now retired, though still interested to hear from you鈥� 鈥� Peter Shaw January 2021鈥�.
Got a story for Feedback?
You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.