December 2015
Issue 5: Food
Happy holidays! We'd be remiss if we didn't celebrate this time of year with a focus on what it's really all about: food. And drink too, of course. This issue is stuffed with juicy morsels about genetically-modified food, how to make beer, why cannibalism is bad, the origin of our individual tastes, and the science of cocktails — and there's more where that came from. Enjoy Lateral responsibly!
Cover illustration by Amoeba.
Editorial
Features
Cheers to beer! A pinch of physics, a dash of biology and a spoonful of chemistry all go into the brewing process.
Cannibalism is commonplace in nature; there aren't many animals that won't eat their own kind under the right conditions. But humans have a very good reason to stay hungry.
Genetic engineering is finding new ways to combat pests and feed the world. But unsubstantiated fears about GMOs are hindering science’s best efforts to help.
Science is rapidly becoming an integral part of the modern mixologist’s handbook, with cocktail making gaining recognition as both an art and a science in recent years.
Depending on whom you ask, anchovies are either a salty delight or a waste of good pizza. So why do our tastes differ so wildly?
Articles
Obesity is a major public health crisis in this country. But with many factors to blame, what can be done about it?
The biology of carrying a pregnancy isn't altered by state or country borders, so why do health guidelines vary so broadly?
Researchers are scrambling to save the native fauna on Christmas Island, a remote paradise with one of the worst extinction records in the world.
A luminous cloud of neon blue expelled by a deep-sea shrimp has rematerialised as a new form of paint to label tumours.
Columns
Although warfarin is a commonly prescribed drug for reducing blood clots, predicting its individual effects can be a tricky business.
While science may seem like an arbiter of hard, certain facts, it's actually much more of a balancing act between evidence and doubt.
Food choices matter, but a poor understanding of the role food should play in our lives is leading many people astray.