The way plants evolve is kind of a big mystery.  For example, a big question on the mind of Joshua Tewksbury, a professor of ecology at the University of Washington, is one I’ve kind of wondered about myself:  Why are chili peppers hot?  What purpose does it serve for a plant to be so spicy, yet still deliciously edible?

In case you can’t tell, I love chiles in all their edible varieties, though I don’t go much hotter than habaneros routinely.  I have eaten the hottest flavors of sauce at BW3, and the hottest sauce you can get at Hooters.  I’ve put crushed red pepper on everything from canned vegetable soup to popcorn.  When I was in college, a guy who slept on our couch a few nights a week brought us a restaurant-sized jug of hot sauce as rent.  It was the hottest sauce I’ve ever poured on my food, and if I knew the name of it I’d hunt it down and buy a tub.

If I’m not sweating, then it’s not spicy.  If I don’t have to blow my nose at least three times during the meal, then it might as well be baby food to me.  Maybe one day I’ll completely burn out my taste buds, but if it hasn’t happened by now, it won’t happen.  There’s nothing a little fire won’t improve, even cookies.  Chili peppers burn my gut, in the best way possible.

Tags: chili peppers, Joshua Tewksbury, chiles, hot peppers, food, nature, unusual plants

Tomorrow is the second Sunday in March, and you know what that means.  It’s time for everyone to be grumpy and miserable by missing an hour of much-needed sleep in the wee hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning (unless you live near the equator or in Arizona, where there is no daylight savings plan).  […]

The Hump is one of many trendy foodie outposts in environmentally-conscious Santa Monica, California.  However, a sting operation conducted by the producers of the Oscar-winning short “The Cove,” about the annual dolphin kill in Japan, revealed that The Hump’s airport location has been serving meat from an endangered animal in its sushi.  The Hump’s head […]

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On the remote island of Svalbard, Norway, is the most genetically-diverse spot on planet Earth.  The island itself isn’t the most pleasant place; in fact, it’s a miserable, frozen rock above the Arctic Circle where the only wandering life is polar bears.  However, dug into the side of Platåberget Mountain is the Doomsday Vault.  Better […]

I’m not sure what to blame for this one.  The recession?  The fact that nobody uses cash anymore?  The fact that she robbed what sounds to me like a little bodega?  Take your pick.  Either way, a woman in Thermal, California went to a lot of effort for very little reward.  She used a semiautomatic […]

After one too many close calls with a screeching, honking car, Peter Smith had officially had enough.  Tired of eating dust and getting cursed at by angry drivers, the dedicated bicycle rider from Austin, Texas, started circulating a petition.  Over 2 years and 50,000 signatures later, and he finally achieved his dream:  Google Maps has […]