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Food Science

Though still in development, Google's Im2Calorie program can compute the number of calories in a glamor shot of your food.

Google is Trying to Count Calories in Food Porn

All you need is an Instagram photo and an algorithm

Texas longhorn cattle.

How “Meat Banks” Are Helping Farmers Preserve Precious Livestock

Frozen sperm and tissue are being stored to protect commercial animals and help save rare heritage breeds

New Research

Scientists Have Finally Figured Out Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes

No, it’s not gas from bacteria

Murray's bagels in New York City.

How Chemistry Gives New York City Bagels an Edge

Is it really all in the water?

This chocolate may look fine, but it’s just a few steps away from disaster

New Research

X-Rays Reveal Why Old Chocolate Turns White

Liquid fat turns out to be the culprit

New Research

Veggie Power? Artificial Muscles Made From Blinged-Out Onions

Turning root vegetables into working muscles requires gold, electricity and imagination

New Research

Forget Fake Meat…How About Fake Milk?

Move over, soy—a group of bio-hackers is trying to turn snippets of DNA into milk-producing yeast

Cool Finds

Test Tube Burgers Get a $324,989 Price Cut

The scientists behind lab-grown meat think they can soon offer it at a price most of us can actually afford

Cool Finds

This Onion Will Never Make You Cry

A Japanese food company has designed an onion that won’t make you cry

One group of scientists says that they've figured out a way to make rice with fewer calories.

New Research

Why Would Cooling Rice Make it Less Caloric?

Scientists suggest a new way to prepare rice that they say could help slow the worldwide obesity epidemic

Ask Smithsonian: Why Do We Love Junk Food So Much?

The jury is still out, but some are suggesting that sodas, chips and fries trick the brain into thinking no calories were consumed

Peanut butter, known to the National Institute of Standards and Technology as SRM 2387.

Cool Finds

The Weird World of Standard Reference Materials, From Peanut Butter to Whale Blubber

Get the full story behind a $761 jar of peanut butter and other exorbitantly priced everyday objects used by scientists

The World of Chocolate

What Physics Tells Us About Making the Perfect Chocolate

Like carbon, the treat can take on many crystalline forms, so a master chocolatier must know how to temper it in just the right way

Is fine chocolate slipping through our fingers?

The World of Chocolate

How to Save the Chocolate Tree Without Sacrificing Flavor

Demand, disease and climate change are threatening cocoa, but a new breed of clones could keep the treat abundant and tasty

You can thank these Theobroma cacao flowers for your brownie sundae.

The World of Chocolate

You Wouldn’t Have Chocolate Without Invisible Flies and Extreme Yeast

It takes a wild and temperamental menagerie to bring the beloved candy to store shelves. Bon appétit!

(Clockwise from top left) Katrin Macmillan, Ashutosh Saxena, Richard Lunt and Horace Luke are hard at work on exciting new projects.

Eight Innovators to Watch in 2015

From food science and robotics to solar tech and sustainable architecture, these folks are poised to do big things

Cool Finds

The Science of Why Champagne Pops

The American Chemical Society takes a look at the science of champagne

Cool Finds

Truffles Have a THC-like Substance in Them

This produces a euphoric smell that likely evolved as a way to trick animals into eating them

Lab-grown beef—it could be dinner.

Five Animal Products Scientists Can Now Grow In a Lab

In early experiments, scientists are growing meat in vitro and bioengineering yeast for dairy

Miracle fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum, grows on bushy trees native to West Africa.

Can This Berry Solve Both Obesity and World Hunger?

At a playful café in Chicago, chef Homaro Cantu is experimenting with miracle fruit, a West African berry that makes everything a little sweeter

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