Peter Smith

Would You Infect Yourself With Worms For Better Health?

The death of important gut-dwelling parasites that we co-evolved with may be causing the rise in food allergies and other diseases. Now scientists are working on finding ways to have us and our worms live in harmony again.

Would You Infect Yourself With Worms For Better Health?

These New Transgenic Goats Are Filled With Human Breast Milk

The nutrients in human breast milk are incredibly important for a young baby’s immune system. But when that’s unavailable, perhaps a little genetically modified goat’s milk could help.

These New Transgenic Goats Are Filled With Human Breast Milk

A New Way To Make Food Safe, From Tech That Makes Diamonds

High pressure processing–placing foods under insanely high pressure to kill bacteria–means that you don’t have to treat foods with chemicals or heat. You might have already eaten this pressurized food, because Starbucks is on board.

A New Way To Make Food Safe, From Tech That Makes Diamonds

The Future Of Drinking Is Drinking Water That’s Been In A Toilet

Here’s a secret: You probably already are. But as we need to find ways to conserve water, treated wastewater may become a more obvious part of what we drink. The trick to making that work isn’t technological, it’s psychological.

The Future Of Drinking Is Drinking Water That’s Been In A Toilet

A Gentler Fish Farm, Powered By A Geodesic Dome

We’re farming more and more fish, though it’s often an inhumane and dirty process. Steve Page’s Buckminster Fuller-inspired free-floating fish farms may be the solution to those problems, and where your future sushi grew up.

A Gentler Fish Farm, Powered By A Geodesic Dome

A Laser To Test Whether Or Not You’ve Eaten Your Peas

By scanning the skin, doctors can now determine if you’ve actually eaten the vegetables you’ve said you’ve eaten.

A Laser To Test Whether Or Not You’ve Eaten Your Peas

Dial A Diagnosis: Your Phone Can Now Tell You If You’re Getting E.Coli

A new application for phones might rapidly expand the ability to test foods for pathogens, which could do amazing things for our fairly lax food safety protocols.

Dial A Diagnosis: Your Phone Can Now Tell You If You’re Getting E.Coli

A Nano-Nose To Keep Our Fruit Fresh Longer

Detecting ripening fruit–and then slowing the process–could prevent incredible amounts of wasted food. A new super-sensitive device might be able to pick up telltale signs earlier than ever.

A Nano-Nose To Keep Our Fruit Fresh Longer

Food Sleuths: Sniffing Out Where Our Meals Are Really From

As we begin to care more and more about the origins of our food, it also gives shady food purveyors the opportunity to try to take advantage. New science that can smell the exact origin of food is our first defense.

Food Sleuths: Sniffing Out Where Our Meals Are Really From

Plankton: The Most Sustainable Seafood

The bright green goop is the very bottom of the ocean food chain. It’s also the latest delicacy.

Plankton: The Most Sustainable Seafood

A Package You Can Eat, To Prevent Plastic Pollution

Imagine drinking orange juice out of an orange-flavored container that you can chew after. Or ice cream in a non-melting chocolate envelope. WikiCells, unveiled last week, could change how we store our food.

A Package You Can Eat, To Prevent Plastic Pollution

Impact

Global Climate Strike: everything you need to know

Google just made the largest ever corporate purchase of renewable energy

Ikea has invested in enough clean energy to power all of its operations (plus extra)

Creativity

Jim Gaffigan goes dark in his new movie, but the darkness was already there

Patagonia enlists teen activists to speak out for Global Climate Strike campaign

Burger King is melting down plastic toys to recycle them into something actually useful

Co.Design

The story behind the viral graphic that electrified the climate movement

Inside the nonalcoholic brewery making the year’s most exciting beer

This house design is completely free, and it could help save the world

Work Life

Go ahead and tell your most embarrassing story. It will boost your creativity

What to do if your child is worried about the absurdly high cost of college

3 times when procrastination can be a good thing