Something such as prosaic as the smell of freshly squeezed orange juice turns out to be more complicated than most can imagine. In grapefruits, a single compound called 1-p-methene-8-thiol is highly characteristic of the juice's smell. In lemons, two versions of citral (geranial and citral), differing only in the position of groups across an untwistable... Continue Reading →
The English word pepper is ambiguous. Botanically it could be refer to plants that produce black powdered pepper. The angiosperms (flowering plants) who serve as a source of that spice belong to the order Piperales and to the 3600-member family Piperaceae. (Kings play chess only for goodness' sake is a mnemonic for remembering the order of... Continue Reading →
Find out why the suit of clubs is named as such and discover the parallels between the origins of European cards and the natural history of legumes.
