A drop in US births due to smartphone use? These researchers say so
Researchers argue that smartphone use is contributing to the decline in U.S. births. The available text provides no details about their evidence or methods. (detroitnews.com)
Just Noting That Your Candy Corn Is Made of Bug Secretions
theatlantic.com30 points60 comments
Many shiny Halloween candies, including candy corn, jelly beans, Junior Mints, and Raisinets, use confectioner’s glaze: shellac, a resin secreted by female lac bugs as they feed and shelter on tree branches. Harvesters scrape the hardened resin from bark, melt it, remove debris, and form it into flakes. Producing a pound takes about 100,000 insects, though shellac makes up only roughly a quarter of one percent of a coated candy. Its unusual value is practical: it is food-safe, tasteless, glossy, and effective at keeping moisture out. A corn-based vegan alternative exists, but food scientist Michelle Frame says it provides a weaker coating and smells unpleasant during production.
The broader point is that foods routinely depend on animal products and insect-derived ingredients, even in highly industrialized societies. Cochineal insects provide red coloring in some sweets, while gelatin in gummy candies and marshmallows comes from animal collagen. Shellac also coats fruit and medicines and is used in products such as furniture polish and hair spray; these varied uses reflect its versatility, not a scheme to put polish in candy. Whether such ingredients seem disgusting is a matter of personal taste, and avoiding every trace of insects is difficult: agricultural foods can contain legally permitted fragments or other residue. The piece invites readers to see candy as one more example of humans relying on other species, rather than treating bug-derived ingredients as uniquely shocking.
Summary generated by AI from the linked article. hn.today is not affiliated with Hacker News or Y Combinator.
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