fruit

Researchers at the ever-prolific Fraunhofer Institute have developed a system based around metal oxide sensors to detect whether a fruit is ripe, green, or rotten.

The system is meant to be used primarily by food suppliers, so that they can automatically detect the best moment to deliver pieces of fruit to a store. By using the sensor to detect levels of gasses emitted from fruits (in the test case, a pineapple), they know exactly what condition the fruit is in. And the equipment is as sensitive as the stuff used in food laboratories.

Coastal gardeners may have a new ally in the salty soup of the ocean, according to Italian researchers. While investigating creative solutions to potential water shortages, scientists from the University of Pisa
ran an experiment to see if different varieties of cherry tomatoes could be grown with seawater. They grew plants watered with normal irrigation water alongside plants which received a dilution of 10-12 percent seawater. Seawater generally has a salinity of 3.5 percent, so the dilution would be at most a half of one percent salt.

Geneticist Amita Sehgal of the University of Pennsylvania was recently studying fruit flies in her lab when she noticed something peculiar. The insects slept normally when bathed in light for 24 hours a day but tossed and turned when shifted from one day/night cycle, or â€time zone,†to another. It turns out they were suffering from something akin to serious jet lag.