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Christmas is approaching, and that means so are the overcooked, bitter, totally unnecessarily mountains of Brussels sprouts that your family insists on serving. Every, damn, time. Well, that’s how some people might see it, anyway. The fact is, love them or hate them, Brussels sprouts are always going to be controversial – a little like that awkward uncle who rocks up every Christmas and starts a big family row. But it turns out that sprout-haters have actually got a very sound, scientific excuse for their picky eating on Christmas day – and it's all to do with genetics. Stacey Lockyer, nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation, told Huffpost: “Brussels sprouts are one of a group of vegetables known as cruciferous vegetables or Brassica which also includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and kale. “Brassica contain high amounts of compounds called glucosinolates which, when metabolised in the body, give them their characteristic sharp or bitter taste.” An area covering 3,240 football pitches is dedicated to growing Brussels sprouts in the UK. If you were to line them up individually, they'd stretch from London to Sydney. Despite this, some people are just genetically predisposed to hate that bitter taste. Lockyer added: “Whether we like or dislike certain foods is determined by different factors (such as previous experiences with a food and number of exposures), but some studies have demonstrated that the perception of bitterness of cruciferous vegetables is linked to genetic differences in taste receptors on the tongue.” In fact, a 2011 study by Cornwall College found sprouts contain a chemical which only tastes bitter to people who have a variation of a certain gene. The research found that around 50 percent of the world’s population have a mutation on this gene. About half of us just don’t taste the bitterness usually associated with sprouts, and therefore actually like them. (Imagine!) Nonetheless, hope is not lost. A University of Warwick study found that as we get older, we’re more likely to like sprouts. Research fellow Lauren Chappell said in a blog post: "Sulphur is responsible for the bitter sprout taste. As we age, we lose tastebuds, which can make them more palatable—potentially why adults who hated sprouts as children now embrace them in seasonal dishes.” Which means, regrettably, that your grandparents were probably right all along. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Scientists have invented a brain implant that allows wearers to communicate using thoughts alone. The speech prosthetic – developed by neuroscientists, neurosurgeons and engineers at Duke University in the US – is able to translate brain signals into words. The researchers claim it is faster and less cumbersome than other brain computer interface and mind reading technologies, and could transform the lives of people suffering from neurological disorders. “There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,” said Gregory Cogan, a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine. “But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.” The team was able to pack 256 specially designed microscopic brain sensors onto a postage stamp-sized piece of medical-grade plastic, which was tested on patients undergoing brain surgery for unrelated conditions like having a tumour removed. Participants were asked to listen to a series of nonsensical words like ‘kug’ and ‘vip’ and then speak them aloud. With just 90 seconds of spoken data, an AI algorithm was then used to decode the neural activity into words. The researchers now plan to develop the technology to improve its speed and make it wireless, and have received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue. “You’d be able to move around, and you wouldn’t have to be tied to an electrical outlet, which is really exciting,” Professor Cogan said. Duke Institute for Brain Sciences faculty member Jonathan Viventi added: “We’re at the point where it’s still much slower than natural speech, but you can see the trajectory where you might be able to get there.” The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘High-resolution neural recordings improve the accuracy of speech decoding’, published in the journal Nature Communications. Read More ChatGPT goes offline Urgent warning for Gmail users as millions of accounts set to be deleted Political ads on Instagram and Facebook can be deepfakes, Meta says

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