"invention" news and stories

A University of Arizona professor is turning the process of selecting a price of fruit from "an art [to] a science." He has come up with a new way to help let people know when fruit is ripe and ready for eating, eliminating all that sniffing, poking and prodding of fruits in the market. His creation is a sticker called RediRipe that changes from white to blue as ethylene gas, a natural ripeness indicator, is released from the fruit or vegetable.

The first batch of the stickers will go straight to growers, who will be able to use them to monitor their crops and prevent spoilage of over-ripe fruits by shipping out the fruits ripening the fastest, first. It is worth mentioning that the stickers do not change to indicate overripe fruit themselves, so something that is "ripe" according to the sticker, may actually be too soft on the inside.

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After getting stuck under a lawnmower, Des Moines radio personality Van Harden says that he lost his taste for bread completely. Harden said "Doctor's can't explain it," but it could be the case that he experienced a side effect as doctors revived him from anesthesia after his surgery. With no appetite for bread, Harding was essentially living an Atkins-style life, but he did miss the taste pizza even though he didn't actually want to eat the wheat-based crusts.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so Harden came up with a 100% cheese crust pizza, complete with toppings. Think of it as being a stuffed-crust pizza, without the actual crust. Over the weekend, in what appears to be the first release of the product, over 200 were sold at two Des Moines Hy-Vee stores. More store are scheduled to offer the Atkins-friendly, gluten-free pie soon.

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