The Science And History Of Refrigeration
Science Friday1 Aug 2024

The Science And History Of Refrigeration

You know that disappointing feeling when you’re ready to make a delicious meal, but you crack open the refrigerator only to find mushy tomatoes, dried-out bread, or oozing strawberries?

Refrigeration fundamentally changes the chemistry of our food, but at this point, most of the United States’ food system relies on the use of refrigerators. Almost three-quarters of the food on an average American’s plate has been refrigerated during production, shipping, and storage. So how did we end up relying so heavily on the fridge? And on a warming planet, can refrigeration keep its cool?

A new book called Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves challenges the definition of “freshness” and our relationship with the fridge. SciFri’s John Dankosky talks with author Nicola Twilley, co-host of the podcast “Gastropod.”

Read an excerpt from Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet.

Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(1383)

Making a case for physicists to join climate research

Making a case for physicists to join climate research

When you think of physics, your mind might go to forces—like gravity, friction, and magnetism—or to astrophysics, like galaxies and exoplanets. But many of the same principles used to understand how t...

20 Aug 12min

Creating 'world models' for robots + An AI math shakeup

Creating 'world models' for robots + An AI math shakeup

When you ask an LLM like ChatGPT or Claude a question, the model goes through its massive amount of training data and guesses the answer by mathematically predicting the word most likely to appear nex...

19 Aug 17min

What can moments of lucidity teach us about Alzheimer’s?

What can moments of lucidity teach us about Alzheimer’s?

Watching a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia slowly lose their cognitive abilities can be heartbreaking. While the person you once knew seems to be slipping away, sometimes people with Alzheimer'...

18 Aug 17min

Colorado’s snow drought deals a major blow to recreation

Colorado’s snow drought deals a major blow to recreation

Winter in Colorado looked very different this year. Many parts of the state experienced record-high temperatures and record-low snowpack, which had downstream effects on farming, sports, tourism, and ...

17 Aug 11min

How do you find a ‘lost’ species?

How do you find a ‘lost’ species?

The earth is facing a biodiversity crisis, and there’s a lot of attention on species that are threatened, or at risk of dying out completely. But, there’s another critter category that’s a little more...

14 Aug 18min

What we get wrong about vaccine hesitancy

What we get wrong about vaccine hesitancy

President Trump has signed an executive order calling for a change to the childhood vaccination schedule. Specifically, he wants to separate the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps, and...

13 Aug 12min

Why this lab studies the speed of bug pee and other curiosities

Why this lab studies the speed of bug pee and other curiosities

In a lab in the Rocky Mountains, a group of scientists is hard at work trying to find answers across biology, physics, and engineering: They’re looking into things like the hydrodynamics of insect pee...

12 Aug 18min

Some primates undergo even more extreme childbirth than humans

Some primates undergo even more extreme childbirth than humans

Human childbirth is often difficult and incredibly painful—just ask anyone who’s been through it. And for a long time, childbirth seemed to be uniquely difficult for humans. But a new study suggests t...

11 Aug 11min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
p3-dystopia
allt-du-velat-veta
hacka-livet
rss-vetenskapsradion
ufo-sverige
svd-nyhetsartiklar
bildningspodden
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
halsorevolutionen
rss-spraket
medicinvetarna
sexet
barnpsykologerna
vetenskapsradion
det-morka-psyket
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
rss-ufobortom-rimligt-tvivel
ufo-sverige-2
rss-kriminologerna