Josie Ford
Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com
Know your onions
Feedback could never be a professional chef. That’s partly because there is no way we could stand the pressure of such a frantic work environment, to say nothing of the stress of potentially running into Gordon Ramsay. But mostly it’s because we would tear up every time we had to chop an onion.
The reason some of us cry when we chop onions is a chemical called syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which gets sprayed into the air. It triggers the trigeminal nerve, which, in turn, activates the tear ducts to wash away the irritating chemical.
