Animals' stomach lining produces cheese

Vegan cheesemaking relies heavily on nuts and seeds

We might associate vegan cheese with current health trends, but there’s actually been a small-but-growing market for plant-based cheeses since the 19th century. But for vegan cheeses to appeal to a wider demographic, they have to compete with the familiar flavors and textures of dairy cheeses.

The invention of cheese likely came from a fruit fly landing in a pail of fermenting milk

The chance encounter around 5,500 years ago laid the groundwork for cultured milk products like yogurt and cheese. Over time, microbes evolved in tandem with goats, sheep, and wheat to give us the wide variety of cheeses that we enjoy today.

Microbes are essential to creating the many varieties of cheese, influencing texture and taste

Microbes break down proteins and fats and produce compounds with distinct tastes. These microbes can include bacteria (like the one used to give Swiss its trademark holes), molds (like the ones that give blue cheese its distinctive veining), and countless other tiny organisms.

Ancient Romans helped develop modern cheese production techniques

The ancient Romans loved cheese and experimented with different processes to elevate its flavor, like aging. Some of their innovations, like Pecorino Romano, you can still find today. Others, like the smoked goat-milk Caseus, we only know about through historical records.

There are 6 essential steps in cheesemaking

The six basic steps that are required to turn milk into cheese start with acidification and end with ripening (aka aging). This guide explains what happens at each step and how it contributes to the finished product.

Why there’s barely any cheese in traditional East Asian food

East Asian cuisine has historically been cheese-free, but why? Several unique circumstances combined to limit—or eliminate—the dairy product in dishes from Japan, Korea, China, and other nearby countries: Livestock were seen as working animals rather than nutritional sources, and most people were lactose intolerant. As Western cuisine becomes more popular globally, though, cheese is making its way into more East Asian diets.

A New York farmer established the first cheese factory and revolutionized the industry

Jesse Williams, a farmer in New York state, had a passion for cheese but didn’t have the resources to produce it at the scale he desired. So, in 1851, Jesse and his son opened the first cheese factory, sourcing milk from multiple local farms and producing 100,000 pounds of cheddar—in their first season. Soon, Williams had hundreds of factories and created the prototype for cheesemaking as we know it today.

Why cows are loving their new robot caretakers

Autonomous robots are transforming dairy farming by letting cows choose when to be milked or cleaned. Dairy robot manufacturer Lely says this ability to decide reduces a cow's stress and increases milk production. The robot systems are costly, but are marketed as increasing efficiency for dairy farmers. And the cows appear to love them.

Gastroliths, or ‘stomach stones,’ help animals digest plants in their stomachs

Most often used by birds and reptiles, gastroliths help break down the cellulose of plant cells, which can resist decomposition from stomach acid alone. Over time, gastroliths become smooth and are regurgitated before being replaced by larger stones.

Feeding grazing cattle seaweed cut their methane emissions by almost 40%

The largest share of the 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions from livestock comes from methane released when cows burp. A study found that introducing a seaweed supplement in pellet form significantly reduced these emissions without affecting cattle's health or weight.

Why Pabst Blue Ribbon switched from brewing beer to making cheese during Prohibition

The brewer marketed its product, Pabst-ett, as "whole milk cheese food," available in both block and spreadable forms, as well as various flavors.

About two-thirds of humans lose their ability to produce lactase after weaning

Lactase is an enzyme that digests lactose—a sugar in milk and dairy products. While genetics strongly determines lactase persistence, factors like famine, disease exposure, and gut bacteria also influence symptoms and evolution.

Serbian donkey cheese is the most expensive in the world

Only one farm in the world produces pule, a cheese made from rare Balkan donkey milk that can cost up to $600 per pound. Pule is special for a number of reasons, including the unusual ingredients and the amount of labor required to produce it. Everything, including milking the donkeys, must be done by hand.

The US government reportedly hoards 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in caves

In limestone mines said to be hundreds of feet below the ground, officials have allegedly stored surplus cheese to keep the industry afloat amid ebbs and flows in demand.

What ancient goat teeth reveal about ancient human-animal relationships

About 4,000 years ago, several goats with terrible teeth managed to outlive their better-teethed brethren. With such intense dental damage, the goats were likely fed higher-quality feed than the more dentally gifted herd members, a dietary shift that would've contributed to the difference in life span. These goat teeth underscore the hard truth that humans may inflict harm on the animals they care about most, regardless of intention.

How synthetic meat is made

The future of meat is cheaper, faster, and more environmentally friendly—it will also be grown in a lab. This three-minute video breaks down how exactly lab-grown meat is made.

Ancient Rome had an early version of macaroni and cheese

Called placenta (with a hard "c"), the holiday dish consisted of sheets of rolled-out dough layered with cheese. It is the first recipe documenting the combination of the two elements. While there is debate about whether the dough can be called pasta because it's not boiled, many scholars view the dish as a proto-lasagna.

Collagen supplements typically come from animal sources like fish, pigs, or cattle

Eating collagen-rich foods won't lead to more collagen in the body because your digestive system breaks down consumed collagen into amino acids. Instead, eating a healthy diet of proteins and greens helps your body to produce collagen. Collagen supplements derived from animal skin and bones are typically sold in a prebroken-down peptide formulation called hydrolyzed collagen so they can be absorbed through the gut into the bloodstream.

Farm animals help maintain the grounds at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport

Since 2013, a herd of goats, sheep, and a donkey have grazed on the scrub vegetation at the airport. In the process, they also help keep out animals that can be dangerous for pilots, like coyotes.

CRISPR technology is removing allergens from common foods

Proteins responsible for allergies to eggs, milk, wheat, peanuts, and other foods can be genetically edited out of foods to reduce the risk of life-threatening reactions. The technique has also been used to produce caffeine-free coffee beans, spicier tomatoes, allergen-free pets, and more nutritious fish.

Peptides may have predated ribosomes—the cell's protein factory

Some scientists have hypothesized that peptides and RNA molecules may have coevolved as a single, mixed "chimeric" molecule, fueling the beginning of protein production and predating a primitive version of the ribosome. All life today uses ribosomes to make peptides. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

A breakdown of gelling agents used to modify a liquid's texture

Gelatin, agar, and other substances form a structural network that traps liquid, making it appear solid and enabling chefs to create stable layers in pastries and confectionery products. In different concentrations, they can also be used to thicken liquids into gels or encase them in gelatinous spheres.

See photos of rare spotless giraffe born at zoo

A spotless giraffe was born at a zoo in Tennessee in the summer of 2023, with experts claiming the specimen is the only solid-colored animal of the species with genes for "reticulation," or the normal patchwork look. The phenomenon is so rare many...

Premarin, the hormone medication derived from pregnant horses, is 'PREgnant MARes urINe'

Scientists in the late 1920s and early 1930s discovered estrogens could be extracted from human placenta, and then isolated it from the urine of pregnant women. But researchers discovered the urine of pregnant horses had similar substances and the horse product was much easier to collect in significant amounts—leading to Premarin.

A facility at CERN is dedicated to creating and analyzing anti-hydrogen

Dubbed the "antimatter factory," the site was built to study the properties of dark matter and identify any inconsistencies with existing particle physics models. Antimatter particles have the same mass as normal matter, but opposite charge and other quantum properties.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.