Don’t be a square?

Square_watermelonMany of us have heard the expression, ‘don’t be a square’. Usually this term has a negative connotation but as another saying goes ‘it’s all relative’, and indeed it is so. To make the point we introduce you to the ‘Square Watermelon‘.

Now, before you go and think it’s some joke or a freak GMO project, we’d like to inform you that it is all done naturally, and quite easily too! The square-shaped watermelon is an experiment project of the Japanese who were actually trying to make a heart-shaped watermelon. To do that they placed a transparent square box around a small watermelon still growing on the vine. It is important to put something transparent so that the sun light can still reach the fruit and allow it to grow.

This technique is very useful, both for saving needed space in the fridge, as well as perfect for shipping the fruit to other countries, especially since all the square watermelons will be snuggly packed without rolling back and forth to cause damage to their neighbour. Now imagine if it was possible to do this with all the other fruits and veggies that grow. To naturally control their shape without changing their genetic code. To try growing a square watermelon of your own, check out this website. I guess in the end it does pay off to be a square…but only sometimes.

60 day bread

 American scientists have brought us a new technological breakthrough- 60 day bread! Imagine that, having bread that lies around in the house for almost 2 months without going bad. Today, regular breads start going mouldy by day 10, so how is this possible?

Scientists at Texas Tech University are using a microwave like machine to zap out the “Rhizopus stolonifer,” a fungus that leads to mould.  And since this fungus feeds off the evaporating water that is produced by bread sitting in plastic, having no fungus, means having no mould. This breakthrough was created by an American company called Microzap.

While the idea of this bread is very innovative, the taste and habit changing of consumers might be harder to innovate. As far as we know, the technology works only on bread.