Tasting a lab-grown chicken nugget

How cultured meat is made

In recent years, a number of companies have debuted meatless alternatives to traditional burgers, chicken, and more. Some are made from soy, while others use molecular formulations to recreate the flavor profile and texture of meat. Now, actual meat...

The basics of synthetic meat

Lab-grown meat companies promise to remove animal slaughter from the production process. But they have run into a few road bumps along the way.

Biotech is trying to boost drug production efficiency—using chicken eggs

A company called Neion Bio is genetically engineering birds in a bid to produce medical compounds, a herculean task that scientists have struggled with for decades. The US FDA has approved only one chicken-derived drug in the past—an expensive treatment for a rare liver disorder. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

McDonald's releases a new adult Happy Meal

Some McDonald's restaurants in Ohio began a nostalgic campaign in late 2023, reviving chicken nugget-style doll toys famous in adult-themed Happy Meals over a quarter-century before. The company collaborated with artist Kerwin Frost to create the toys. Read more and see photos here.

Pig organ transplants are apparently kosher—you just can’t eat them

Science writer Mary Roach speaks with journalist Terry Gross about her latest book, “Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy” and discusses topics including why pig organs have become of such interest and what religious leaders have told her about pig organs and compliance with Jewish dietary law.

The new phenomenon of 15-minute lab-grown diamonds

In 2024, scientists developed a groundbreaking method to create diamonds at normal room temperature and pressure. This efficient and simple process contrasts with the traditional high-pressure, high-temperature method. While limitations still exist, such as minuscule sizes, this discovery moves us toward an exciting new era in diamond synthesis. Check out the article for further information about how diamonds are made.

Play food science trivia along with a former state trivia champion

From limitations in panda taste receptors and a surprising food that has been forged into diamonds to the origins of chili pepper heat and the Maillard reaction, test your knowledge during a game of Super Food Science Excellence Trivia Blowout.

GMOs sound scary, but you eat them every day

Why are GMOs bad? They aren’t. We’ve been eating them for decades with no ill effects, which makes sense, because a genetically modified organism is simply an organism, like every other organism, produces hundreds of thousands of proteins, but one or two of them are proteins that were chosen specifically by humans. Watch this 11-minute video for more.

How to cook food with lasers

Creative Machines Lab at Columbia Engineering have developed a system of software-controlled lasers to cook food with precision, retain moisture with the final-cooked product, brown food within its original packaging, and create an entirely new meal creation process for a consumer. Watch this three-minute video to see for yourself.

Finding the way home through flavor

In the fall of 1996, 9-year-old Alvin Chang rushed into his family's kitchen to find his grandmother making his absolute favorite dish: kimchi. This interactive story follows Chang's yearslong attempt to recreate the flavor from his childhood home.

Health food broke into the mainstream by the 1980s

A 1984 New York Times story noted that Americans were eating less red meat than a decade prior, and that, in general, the country was “talking, thinking and worrying about what they eat to a degree unique in the nation's history.” The feature then details foods that were then considered bizarre: whole-grain muffins, hummus, and a variety of vegetarian dishes. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

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.

The best restaurant tasting experiences in every state

Looking for the best tasting experiences that are a must-try in your home state or anywhere you may be traveling? Here are your options.

Watch the iterative process of successfully printing a slice of vegan cheesecake

3D printing food requires integrating ingredients with a variety of properties, which may not all resist the physical stress of stacking. This means successful 3D printing of food may require rethinking how ingredients are layered and modifying ratios of each, potentially sacrificing taste for structural integrity.

Silicon Valley startups Orchid, Nucleus, and Genomic Prediction are selling so-called polygenic tests for prospective parents

These tests claim to show how at-risk a hypothetical baby would be for genetic syndromes. The newfound industry has prompted ethical and medical debates, with critics questioning their accuracy and highlighting the potential problems behind pursuing the perfect baby.

What it's like to stage in an award-winning kitchen

This video goes behind the scenes with chef Geoff Kie's stage (essentially a short internship) with nominee Crystal Wahpepah at her restaurant in Oakland. Kie learns practical skills from Wahpepah, but also discusses how the stage helped him understand the restaurant's role in the community—and how he might bring those lessons back to his own kitchen.

Read a firsthand account of a participant in the first Biosphere 2 mission

The first crew of “Biospherians” spent four months growing their own wheat and awaiting the ripening of tomatoes, onions, and peppers to make their own pizza. They also raised their own livestock, including chickens, pigs, and two goats named Milky Way and Stardust.

The world's first commercial biological computer combines neurons with silicon

Australian start-up Cortical Labs unveiled CL1, a hybrid chip designed to help scientists study brain function in real-time. The 800,000 lab-grown neurons on the chip are kept viable for six months via a built-in life support system.

A comic book-style review of attending a biohacking conference

When Andrew Greenstone attended a biohacking conference in Austin, Texas, he didn't expect to walk away a newly implanted member of the techy cadre. Partway through the event, he paid $150 to have an NFC chip inserted into his right hand.

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

How spoiled meat helped uncover a bacterium that can survive the vacuum of space

When a can of ground beef and pork spoiled despite attempts to sterilize it with gamma radiation, researcher Arthur Anderson isolated the bacteria in the food and discovered Deinococcus radiodurans. The polyextremophile has since been found on the walls of nuclear reactors and overcomes radiation damage through highly optimized DNA repair mechanisms.

Meet the man whose 100-patty In-N-Out order permanently changed their menu

In 2004, Will Young and a group of friends, including Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, talked an In-N-Out in Las Vegas into making a 100-patty burger. The stunt prompted the chain to cap orders at 4 patties, a policy that remains in place today.

How our sense of taste evolves as we age

Kids are hardwired to prefer sweets over greens, with sweetness a shorthand for calorie-rich and bitter flavor warning of potentially noxious plants. This holds true even in the womb, where fetuses have been seen via ultrasound scans grimacing as their hosts consume kale capsules. As they age into double digits and beyond, their taste cells and sense of smell diminish, leading to broader and less sensitive palates.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

The amount of plastic chemicals in 300 everyday Bay Area foods

Food production is more complicated than it appears, and manufacturing, packaging, and shipping processes can add significant substances to your food. This massive project compiled data on 300 samples of foods delivered to the San Francisco area, testing for the presence of 18 different kind of plastic. Learn how to read the data here with its helpful guides and then explore the table yourself.

Watch experts blindly taste test Champagne and other sparkling wines

Champagne’s prestige typically comes with a high price. So is it worth it? Professional wine judge Dr. Matthew Horkey invites a Champagne expert and a producer to a blind taste test to find out. The individuals try sparkling wines from across the world and do their best to sniff out (sip out?) which is the real-deal Champagne.

How the methods of catching fish for food affects their taste

Commercially caught fish are often killed through suffocation, allowing the causing the fish extreme stress and flooding their bodies with stress hormones and lactic acid. These chemicals cause the fish's flesh to become bitter where it was once rich and quickens the rotting process.

Kansas City barbecue makes use of 'burnt ends'

The Midwest city has its own delicious tradition, serving the double-smoked chunks of fatty brisket slathered in the region’s signature thick, sweet-and-spicy sauce.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

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.

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

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.