Reference Number: 576
Year: 2006
Link: Link to original paper
Summary
As soon as people realized that the grain they gathered could be ground into flour, they devised means to separate the elemental components of the plant. But getting to the endosperm, the starchy heart of the wheat berry, isn’t easy. First you have to get through the tough bran, which adheres stubbornly to the outside of the kernel, and remove the oily germ, the part that develops into another stalk of wheat when the seed is planted. Centuries of technological advancement and individual ingenuity have made the milling process more efficient, but it is still, even after all this time, far from perfect. This is the story of its evolution.