Fermented chocolate, noxious bubbles, estrogen, and making m(ore) of ore

Three cocoa pods. The first has a ripe orange yellow pod. The top third has been cut and sits like a cap on top of white pulp that surrounds the unfermented beans inside. The second green pod in the middle has been split lengthwise displaying white pulp-shrouded beans before yeast and bacteria ferment the beans to produce fine chocolate flavors. The third appears to be the empty half of the second pod filled with shiny, dark squares of chocolate.

Chocolate’s flavor comes not just from the plant, but from yeast and bacterial fermentation that converts sugars and other molecules in the beans and pulp (white surrounding beans inside the pod, middle and left) into fine flavors.

Mimi Chu Leung

By Susanna Camp and Elana Spivack

🎶 Tiny Bubbles … in the Air

Are fast-moving rivers self-cleaning? Not necessarily, according to new research. The very motion of flowing water, once thought to disperse pollutants and lessen their threat, can actually send them airborne in tiny, polluted aerosols, scientists say. As Science News’s Erin Garcia de Jesús reports, this discovery adds a new wrinkle to the complex challenge of environmental cleanup.

🔬 The Dirty Details

By combining mobile air quality labs with input from community members about foul-smelling stenches near a major river, scientists have shown how poor water quality can contribute to air pollution. This process, a miniature version of how ocean spray creates sea salt aerosols, means that pollution isn’t just a downstream problem—it’s an airborne one. The implications are significant, suggesting that we may need to protect the air spaces near bodies of contaminated water.

💧 A Clearer Vision

This new understanding underscores the importance of advanced environmental monitoring.

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