Science

Turns out there's another thing you can blame your parents for: your need for a Starbucks fix.

Yes, like receding hairlines and pendulous earlobes, it seems your daily 3 o'clock caffeine craving can also be traced back to your genes, according to new research released this week.

As USA Today reports, scientists have identified two genes that decide whether you're a double-shot-of-espresso sort of gal or a "one-cup-gives-me-the-jitters" kind of guy. Essentially, depending on whether you carry a "high-consumption" variant or "low-consumption" variant of either gene determines just how fast or slow you metabolize caffeine, and thus, just how much java juice it takes to get your motor running in the morning.

(We imagine that if you carry the "high-consumption" variant of both genes then you're probably something of a pit bull before 8 a.m.)

The U.S. has outsourced a lot in the past couple decades, but could breast milk one day carry a "Made in China" label?

This news comes not from the pages of the supermarket tabloids but from the online academic journal Public Library of Science ONE, where Chinese researchers have reported that they've produced human-like milk from genetically modified dairy cows.

"Our study describes transgenic cattle whose milk offers similar nutritional benefits as human milk," lead researcher Ning Li told the London Daily Telegraph. "The modified bovine milk is a possible substitute for human milk."

For generations, kids (and plenty of adults) have been asking the same question: "Why do so many things that are good for you have to taste so bad?"

Well, scientists haven't yet figured out how to make broccoli taste like a root beer float, but they are working on a way to at least make healthier foods more palatable. We all know that foods like spinach and broccoli are packed with nutrients like calcium, magnesium and zinc. The only problem is: those same nutrients taste nose-wrinklingly bitter on the tongue.

But what if you could take the taste of, say, spinach down a notch or two?

At the national conference of the American Chemical Society, researches have announced that they're trying to do just that. As Live Science reports, scientists as the Givaudan Flavors Corporation in Ohio have developed an enhanced "bitterness blocker" called GIV3616. Added to food, it targets certain taste buds and keeps them from recognizing bitter tastes.

Fans of organic milk now have a compelling argument for their choice: New evidence says it's better for you.

There are more unsaturated fats in organic milk than in conventional milk, according to a research team at Newcastle University in Northern England. In addition to containing omega-3 acids, organic milk's conjugated linoleic acid (also called CLA) has anti-cancer properties and is believed to have many health benefits for the heart. The results of this study were published in the January 2011 issue of The Journal of Dairy Science.

The lead author on the study, Gillian Butler, urges Americans to stand up and pay attention because our most of us don't get nearly enough essential fatty acids. Switching over to organic milk -- which is now available at most supermarkets around the country, whether it's from a local creamery or a larger dairy like Horizon Organic or Organic Valley -- could increase your average CLA intake by as much as 40 percent.

Scientists have given you another reason to ramp up your berry consumption.

Strawberries, blueberries and berries of pretty much any stripe have long been credited with a host of health benefits, from reducing the risk for certain types of cancer to sharpening our vision. Now, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say that eating more berries can also lower your chances of developing Parkinson's disease.

The recent study tracked nearly fifty thousand men and eighty thousand women for more than 20 years, and examined participants' intake of flavonoids, which are found in higher concentrations in berries, as well as in tea, red wine and citrus fruits. The results opened a new door to preventing Parkinson's.

Get the whole story at AOL Health.

You've heard about solar panels, wind turbines and hybrid cars as ways to deal with global warming. What about test-tube meat?

A scientist in South Carolina says that it's possible to produce the equivalent of ground chuck in a lab -- that is, sans the cow. Dr. Vladimir Mironov at the Medical University of South Carolina has taken embryonic cells from animals and grown what he calls cultured or "in-vitro" meat. The news of this advancement broke last year, but now Mironov is trying to get funding to bring his project to the people.

The technology, he tells Reuters, not only could significantly address world hunger, it could reduce the amount of carbon and other gases that cause global warming. (A study published in 2009 claimed that more than half of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the production of meat.)

But if you didn't hear President Obama championing such Frankenstein frankfurters in his State of the Union address, don't be surprised. The government seems a little queasy about funding further research into the ultimate mystery meat.

There's a new Nestle formula in the works, and it's quite a trick: Design food that will make us feel fuller quicker and stay feeling full longer. Given the high obesity rates in America, this might sound like a good thing, but listen to how it works.

Scientists of the Swiss chocolate company are trying to understand how your "gut brain" works by learning the language of digestion, reports the Wall Street Journal. To figure this out, they've designed a million-dollar see-through model of the human stomach. Then they fed it foods like regular olive oil and olive oil with monoglycerides, and found that the latter, while making you feel more full could also prove more difficult for the stomach to digest. So they're tinkering with this knowledge to come up with what they hope will be the best of both worlds -- foods that tell your brain you're full and your stomach to feel healthy and satisfied.

New products could hit shelves within the next five years, in many forms other than chocolate. Nestle also produces drinks, bottled water, cereal, coffee, frozen foods and pet food. While we have to admit it's interesting to be able to track how our bodies respond to food at every stage, tricking it might be a slippery slope we're not prepared to handle. Candy bar, anyone?

A chilled Martini is truly a work of art. But the chemist/photographers behind the company BevShots have taken that idea to the microscopic level. Research scientist Michael Davis, of Florida State University, crystallizes cocktails on a lab slide, then photographs them using a camera attached to a light microscope. According to Davis, the light is polarized, resulting in these wild images of, say, a Tequila Sunrise or a Margarita. Oh, and you can buy the photos to memorialize cocktail hour 24-7. (Davis also made the images into ties, in case you want to sport your Guinness at the office.)

Think you really know your drink of choice? Take our quiz after the jump and find out.

Kellogg's, why did you try to fool us again? Yes, those blueberry bits in cereals and infamously lackluster packaged muffins from the gas station? Not real. Real sugar and food dye; but not berries from the berry bush. We can't say we're surprised, just officially disgusted.

It turns out, some of our biggest industry bakers are only good as colorists. A new video released by the Consumer Wellness Center last week shows that this is actually no secret. As we've seen before, the front of packages always sound better than the back. If you turn over a Frosted Mini Wheats Blueberry Muffin box, touting fresh blueberries on the front, you'll find an ingredients list with an item called "blueberry flavored crunchlets." Crunchlets -- a word we hope never becomes official -- is defined as a mix of sugars, soybean oil, red #40 and blue #2. Voilà, blueberry! Minus, of course, those real-deal elements: antioxidants, manganese, vitamins C and E, and dietary fiber.

You can also expect similar frauds in cereals, breads and muffins from Betty Crocker, Target and General Mills, whose Total Blueberry Pomegranate cereal contains neither blueberry nor pomegranate. Who to trust? A real baker. Or the makers of products like Natures' Path Organic Optimum Blueberry-Cinnamon Breakfast Cereal, which actually contains real blueberries and cinnamon.

There's a new eco label coming out this spring to address products -- like water bottles and grocery bags -- made with bio-based ingredients (primarily corn), which decompose instead of requiring recycling: "USDA Certified Biobased Product."

Totally Green, for example, produces a corn-based water bottle that can be composted along with other food waste, and plans to use the label as soon as it is released, reports the Des Moines Register. Unfortunately, compostable chip bags never caught on thanks to their insanely loud crinkling, but these water bottles have no noise issues, so perhaps they'll have better luck.

Cotton and wool products won't apply because the program is intended to support the agricultural commodity market. That being corn, of course. Look for the label on anything from dish soap bottles to skin-care products. Will you make the switch?