Scientists Have Done The Unthinkable And Made Tomatoes Smell Like Popcorn (Major Diseases Still Uncured)
Science might be running low on ideas...
Like a lot of people, I find science fascinating.
However, what might fascinate me even more than the big, fancy brands of science are the ones that make you go, "Why did anyone spend time on this?"
It's not all space travel, flying cars, and splitting atoms; sometimes you just want to crack the tomato odor matrix to make those bright red fruits (and they are fruits, we're not getting into that right now) smell like popcorn.
Do… do they realize we still have some pretty serious diseases that need to be worked out?
Oh well, I guess tomato smell it is.
According to Dexerto, scientists in China have used gene-editing technology to improve the smell of tomatoes, which they say declines as one is picked and then transported to the store.
This was news to me. I know what tomatoes smell like when you cut one open, but I've never noticed the smell when they're just sitting there, chilling in the produce section.
But now, thanks to this technology, the researchers have whipped up "extraordinary aromatic tomato plants." These plants had an increased level of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which creates a popcorn-like smell.
I didn't realize that was something that people were looking for. If you want tomatoes that smell like other things, then why not make them smell like cupcakes or beef jerky?
It almost reminds me of The Simpsons episode ‘E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)’ in which the Simpsons move to a farm and produce tomacco, a tomato-tobacco hybrid.
I didn't realize this was such a big issue that a bunch of eggheads needed to look into this instead of… well, anything else.
I mean, if we couldn't walk into grocery stores because the tomatoes were making the entire strip mall smell like a thousand rats had crawled under radiators and died, then, yeah, I'd say we should probably put someone on the case.
But now, this just seems like science's version of a neat party trick.
Imagine someone coming up to you and being like, "Hey, check this out: this tomato smells like popcorn! Here; take a whiff…" You'd be like, "Cool, I guess," and then you'd move your attention on to anything else.
Seriously. A plastic bag blowing in the breeze, a folded-over Dorito that looks kind of like Richard Nixon.
Anything.