You've heard that joke about the discovery of milk. A guy says, "You see that animal over there? I'm going to squeeze it and drink whatever comes out." It never made much sense, because we see all kinds of mammals feeding their babies with milk, including humans. But you have to wonder about less obvious foods, like popcorn.
Popcorn was already popular in the Americas when Europeans began colonizing them in 1492. But the corn it was made from didn't exist in nature. Farmers had developed maize from its smaller natural ancestor around 9,000 years ago. The species that explodes was deliberately bred. Since there are no written records, we don't know when its tendency to pop when cooked was discovered. But we can assume the practical reasons they tried it and why they decided to cultivate that feature in some kinds of corn, which you can read up on at Conversation. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Deavmi)
