Tim Whitehead links to this story from yesterday's New York Times in which two high school students found that 25% of the fish sold as sushi in New York are misidentified.
[O]ne-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled. A piece of sushi sold as the luxury treat white tuna turned out to be Mozambique tilapia, a much cheaper fish that is often raised by farming. Roe supposedly from flying fish was actually from smelt. Seven of nine samples that were called red snapper were mislabeled, and they turned out to be anything from Atlantic cod to Acadian redfish, an endangered species.Tim headlines his entry "More fake fish", which is true, but it's not what interests me.
Although the students did not present the project for a grade at school, they made sure to mention it on their college applications. Both will enroll at Johns Hopkins University this fall.I find that last statement very encouraging. Science should be fun and interesting, whether or not you're a scientist. An art history major or a writer can enjoy science every bit as much as as a biologist or a physicist can enjoy music or literature. As Brian Greene put it a couple of months ago,
Neither, however, expects to major in the sciences. "I've always been into art history," [Louisa] Strauss said, "which is really different from this." [Kate] Stoeckle, who is the granddaughter of the entertainer and arts patron Kitty Carlisle Hart, is thinking about studying writing or psychology. But that, they said, is the point. "If we found it interesting -- which we did -- I think lots of people like us can do it, too," Ms. Stoeckle said. (emphasis mine).
Like a life without music, art or literature, a life without science is bereft of something that gives experience a rich and otherwise inaccessible dimension.Louisa and Kate know that. I hope my students know it, too.
On October the 12th of 1997, six thousand japanese in Yoshii made the world's longest sushi roll. It was 1km long!
Thanks, fuser
http://comohacersushi.blogspot.com/
selling fake fish is ridiculous. I can't believe restaurants actually do this!