Humans

By Krista Charles
Bananas in a floating market in Thailand
Zoltan Bagosi/Alamy

People living in the Mediterranean may have been sampling South Asian and East Asian cuisines up to thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
Philipp Stockhammer at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany and his colleagues examined microscopic food remains present in the teeth of 16 individuals from the Levant, a region east of the Mediterranean Sea. The people lived in the 17th and 11th centuries BC in the cities of Megiddo and Tel Erani.
The team found that these people – who came from a range of social classes – ate foods from South Asia or East Asia, including sesame, soybean, turmeric and banana. This pushes back the timeline for these foods appearing in this region by centuries or, in soybean’s case, millennia.

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“We had always thought this early globalisation was limited to precious stones and metals. Now we see that this early globalisation went hand in hand with the globalisation of food,” says Stockhammer.
His team determined what foods were eaten by analysing dental calculus, a form of hardened plaque that archeologists usually remove – but don’t examine – from excavated skeletons to clean them.
“I hope this will trigger awareness for dental calculus in the future and show how much potential there is. If you clean it up, you basically destroy this unique treasure box that you can open,” says Stockhammer.
“There’s still a lot that we don’t know about food histories in Africa, Australia and the Americas as well,” says Andrew Clarke at the University of Nottingham, UK. “So, I think there’s quite exciting opportunities to apply these techniques to other regions.”
Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2014956117 More


Christmas dinner is a joyful occasion, but if you’re doing the cooking, the pressure to deliver a perfect meal can be a headache.
Fortunately, a little bit of science can go a long way, and if you want to nail those perfectly crisp, buttery roast potatoes, win over even the most hardened Brussels sprout hater and light up the room with a spectacular flambéed Christmas pud, then look no further.  
In this week’s Science with Sam, we take a look at what gives Brussels Sprouts their unique flavour, explore why crispiness is so desirable in food, and how a little bit of chemistry knowledge will wow your guests when it comes to pudding time. 

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Video Transcript
Christmas dinner is a joyful occasion, but if you’re doing the cooking, the pressure to deliver a perfect meal can be a bit of a stress. To help you out, we’ve got a few science-based tips to help you nail some of the most important parts of the meal: crispy roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts to win over even the most ardent detractor and a spectacular flaming Christmas pudding.
Brussels Sprouts
Brussels Sprouts are members of the brassica family, which have evolved to produce bitter compounds as a defence against herbivores. They do this by storing precursor molecules in their cells. When the plant is damaged, the precursor molecules are released from their packaging and they come into contact with enzymes that convert them into the aversive chemicals we love to hate.
It’s no wonder then that around the Christmas dinner table nothing divides opinion more than sprouts.  I think they’re great if they’re cooked well, but if you’re a hater, there are a few science-based tips that might win you over.

1. Eat your sprouts with red wine. 
Now, I need little encouragement to have a glass of red wine with Christmas dinner, but a study found that drinking red wine reduced the perception of bitterness in the sprouts. The idea is that the tannins in red wine make proteins in saliva clump together, and this may interfere with the distribution of bitter chemicals in the mouth.  Either that or you are too drunk to care.
2. Exposure therapy 
We can learn to like foods that we dislike by pairing them with foods that we do like.  In one study, children aged 3 to 5 were given Brussels sprouts as a snack for 14 days. One group got sprouts on their own, and the other with cream cheese.  At the end, all the children were given sprouts on their own and asked if they liked them. Among the children who’d eaten sprouts on their own, less than a quarter said they liked the taste. But among the group that had them with cream cheese, 72 per cent said they liked them. So, if you don’t like sprouts,  dip them in cream cheese, or wrap them in bacon, whatever works for you.
3. Cook them right. 
For me, the best ways to cook sprouts are frying and roasting. Here, I’ve sliced them up thin and I’m going to fry them in a little oil.  
The key is to get them nice and brown. High heat facilitates the Maillard reaction in which sugars and amino acids react and produce a wide range of delicious compounds. When you get them nice and brown using these methods, cruciferous vegetables develop wonderful nutty and savoury flavours that you don’t get from boiling them in water.
4. Flavour enhancers
You can also offset the bitterness by exciting your other tastes.  I like to add shallots for sweetness, a squeeze of lemon juice for acidity, and bacon or parmesan for salt and umami. To be honest, these magic ingredients will perk up any vegetable side dish.
Crispy roasts
Crispiness is one of the qualities we most prize in food, but why do we find it so appealing? It could be because it often arises when raw ingredients become delicious and nutritious cooked food. Or maybe we associate it with high-fat foods, which we find particularly rewarding.
Whatever the reason, a crispy roast potato is one of the ultimate delicious and rewarding foods. Here are some tips to guide you to crunchy perfection.
1.Choose the right potato
There are two broad types of potato: waxy and floury.  Waxy ones have thinner skins, have a smoother texture and stay firmer when they are cooked, so there are good in salads, but for roasting you really want the floury type, which have a higher starch content. King Edwards like these, Maris Piper or Russet potatoes are good varieties for roasting.
2. Boiling
Potato cells are packed with starch granules, which swell and burst during cooking, forming a gel. It’s this gelatinised starch that forms the crispy crust on a roast potato. 
The cells of the potato are held together by a type of sugar molecule called pectin. Boiling also breaks down the pectin allowing fat to get into the potato when you roast it, helping create a nice thick crust. 
You can help that even more by adding bicarbonate of soda to the water, to make it alkaline, this weakens the pectin so the potatoes soften more quickly. Half a teaspoon is enough for 2 litres of water.
3. Choose your fat and flavourings carefully
We’re going to be roasting these potatoes at about 200C.  That’s quite hot and close to the smoke point of some types of oil, such as extra virgin olive oil. That means the flavour will be affected and may start to taste bitter. I prefer to roast potatoes in a neutral-tasting oil like sunflower or vegetable oil. You could also go for goose fat or duck fat for extra flavour.
I’d also avoid adding garlic or herbs at this stage as they will probably burn in the hot oven. If you want to, add them towards the end of cooking. 
Preheat the roasting tray with the fat, and toss the potatoes well.
After 20 or 30 minutes, give them a turn. Keep watching them closely. They should take about an hour to get properly brown, but the exact cooking time depends on your oven and your potatoes.
Christmas pudding
A flaming pudding is the perfect finale to the Christmas meal. Follow these rules to make sure you get a fire as bright as Rudolph’s nose.
1. Get it hot
Because alcohol is easily vaporised, it mixes well with the air.  It’s important that both the pudding and the alcohol are hot,  so that more alcohol is vaporised. If you try and light cold spirits, it’s going to be disappointing.
2. Get the strong stuff
You need a spirit that’s at least 40 per cent alcohol, but if you’ve got anything stronger that’s going to give you a bigger and longer-lasting flame.  Here we’ve got some 63% overproof rum.  Nice.
3. Add a bit of colour.
Pure alcohol burns with a blue flame, which is nice but a bit muted. If you choose a spirit containing sugar or add sugar as we have here, you get a more luminous yellow flame. 
The yellow flame happens when some of the carbon doesn’t get oxidised, and gives off fine particles of soot.  When the soot particles ignite, they make a bright yellow flame.
Happy holidays from all of us at New Scientist. As a present, we’re giving you a 20 per cent discount on a subscription to our magazine – click the link in the description to sign up. We’ll be back with more videos in the New Year, so subscribe to your channel so you don’t miss out. Merry Christmas!
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Christmas dinner is a joyful occasion, but isn’t always easy. Fortunately, a little bit of science can go a long way. If you want to perfect those crisp, buttery roast potatoes, flambé the tastiest, boozy Christmas pudding, and win over even the most hardened Brussels sprout hater, then look no further. This weeks Science with Sam has some science tips for a better festive meal.
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By Michael Marshall
Ancient hunters may have made spear points or arrowheads out of human bone
David Lyons/Alamy

Stone Age hunters in northern Europe made the sharp ends of their weapons from a surprising raw material: human bone. The choice may have had a symbolic purpose, such as imbuing the arrows with the skill of a dead expert hunter.
Before the arrival of farmers, Europe was inhabited by Stone Age hunter-gatherers. They roamed a landscape very different to today. The planet was deep in a glacial period, so lots of water was locked up in ice sheets at the poles – and sea levels … More

This year, scientists took action to support Black Lives Matter. Let 2021 be your year to advance race justice, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Humans | Comment 16 December 2020
By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Michelle D’Urbano

ON MY desk in my home office I have a few items that keep me focused and inspired. I have an autographed photo of myself with Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green, the first Black woman to helm a Star Trek series. Next to that, I have a Barbie Uhura in the box, autographed by Nichelle Nichols, the Black woman who played the first Black Star Trek character, along with an autographed, black-and-white picture of Nichols in costume. I also have a woodcarving of a famous Toni Morrison quote, “The function of freedom is to free someone …
Article amended on 21 December 2020
We have clarified the number of statements posted by P4J. More

The pandemic may have stolen many of the headlines of 2020, but this year has been a bumper year for other science, too. Can you remember it? Find out in our covid-free quiz

Humans 16 December 2020
By Bethan Ackerley

The Thwaites glacier in Antarctica
NASA

1 We kicked off 2020 with the cheery news that the “doomsday” Thwaites glacier in Antarctica is losing about 35 billion tonnes of ice per year. It is currently about the same size as which island?
A Ireland
B Great Britain
C New Guinea
D Java
2 On a lighter note, in June, we published pictures of Uraba lugens, a caterpillar that wears its old heads as a hat. How many times can it moult its head?
A 4
B 7
C 9
D 13
3 In September, we reported that astronomers may have … More

Failing fringe electro band Cosmic String have got a strange new gig, writes winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award Adrian Tchaikovsky in his new short story Difficult Times

Humans 16 December 2020
By Adrian Tchaikovsky

Lucy Jones

“There’s a gig,” says Clawhammer Dougie Jones, or at least his little homunculus trapped in its window on my laptop.
“What gig?” In the window next door, our vocalist Alana Domingo mirrors my utter disbelief. “There aren’t any gigs, Doug. The gig economy left the building.”
Doug blinks at us, that beatific way he has. Like he’s some guru of wisdom about to change your life with a handful of words; like the colossal hit of mescaline he took on that US tour 20 years ago never wore off.
“My people,” he tells us, an opening that has never, in the history of music, … More

Watching TV and staring at flickering flames produce similar physiological effects, offering intriguing clues to the enduring power of entertainment – and the origins of sociability

Humans 16 December 2020
By Colin Barras

Getty Images

LAST year, it was Frozen. This year, it might be Eight Below. A holiday during the long, cold Michigan winter is a chance for my family to spend some quality time together. And what better way to enjoy our evenings than by watching movies on TV?
Some might call this a waste of time. Anthropologist Christopher Lynn begs to differ. He believes there is a good reason why many of us like gathering around the idiot box. Far from being frivolous, it is a legacy of a behaviour that arose to help humans survive the unforgiving Stone Age world.
It is tempting to see human evolution through the prism of technological breakthroughs that brought tangible material benefits. When our ancestors learned to make projectile weapons, for instance, they could hunt more effectively and secure more reliable sources of meat. Softer aspects of life, such as the ways we socialise, might seem less important to the success of our species. But Lynn, who is based at the University of Alabama, says we socialise not because we like to, but because we need to.
That may seem obvious to anyone who has struggled with isolation during lockdown this year. But Lynn goes further still. He thinks that the pleasure we gain from relaxing around the TV with friends and family might help explain why humanity became so social in the first place. It all began, he says, when our ancestors learned to control fire.
We have known for decades that the use of fire transformed life for early humans. It allowed them to cook food, for … More