Hot (Pepper) Science

The April 2009 issue of Smithsonian magazine has a wonderful article about a young scientist named Joshua Tewksbury this month. He studies capsicums, the pepper plants ranging from tame bell peppers to cayennes to naga jalokias. He explores the forests of Bolivia looking for wild capsicums, to see how they evolved in hotness and how the capsaicin benefits the plants in the wild. This one is worth the price of the magazine, if you're into peppers at all. Cool stuff.