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O U R 10th A N N U A L

10 Celebrities Who Spied on the Side

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- • • 10 Shocking Secrets from the Wonderful World of Disney

10 Awful Ideas from the World's Craziest Dictators

RED STATES

Answers to Your Shadiest Questions BY BRIAN McMAHON

O: WHY DO TOMATOES CHANGE COLOR AS THEY RIPEN?

Tomatoes contain two pigments for • photosynthesis—chlorophyll, which is

green, and lycopene, which is red. When toma­toes start to grow, they contain much less lyco­pene than chlorophyll, which gives them their green color. But when harvest season arrives, the days shorten and temperatures drop, caus­ing chlorophyll to dissolve and lycopene to take over the shade of the fruit. During this time, sugar levels rise, acid levels drop and the tomato softens. It becomes ready to eat.

The trick is that this final stage of a tomato's life takes place in a relatively short period of time—and that poses a big prob­lem for farmers trying to get ripe produce to grocery stores before it rots. Most farmers begin picking tomatoes while they're still green on the vine, and then they treat them with a ripening agent called ethylene gas to induce the red color. Far from being a syn­thetic compound, ethylene gas is produced naturally by other fruits and vegetables as they ripen. In fact, bananas release ethylene gas directly into the air. If you place a ripe banana next to a green tomato, the tomato will ripen,too.

THE BOTTOM U N E From 2000 to 2003, the starring pooch in PBS' animated series Clifford the Big Red Dog was voiced by John Ritter. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his role four years in a row.

22 meirtaljloss MAY-JUNE201:

THE ALGAE THAT CAUSE RED TIDES GROW AT DEPTHS THAT ABSORB

GREEN AND BLUE FREOUENCIES OF LIGHT AND REFLECT RE-D ONES.

0: WHY IS THE RED CARPET RED? There's a simple black-and-white

• explanation: Celebrities want to be treated like royaltyl The earliest mention of the red carpet dates back to 458 BCE, when Creek playwright Aeschylus wrote about the mythological king Agamemnon, In the play, Agamemnon's wife tricks him into walking across a red carpet fit only for the "feet of the gods." Early Greek and Roman societies admired red-tinted colors—especially deep, purplish reds—because they were both expensive and scarce. And throughout recorded history, royals and officials of

high rank have used red and purple to sym­bolize how important and wealthy they are.

As for the red carpet at the Academy Awards, the actual shade is a big secret. The color was specifically designed for the Academy to be slightly purple, so that it appears the perfect color red on IV. The com­pany that provides the carpet is pretty para­noid about leaks. When crewmembers unrol

the rugs before the event, they metic­ulously trim the carpet to make

sure the edges are exact. One person even follows behind the

other workers and scoops up stray shreds, just to make

surethe pieces aren't stolen for color copying or eBay sales.

H o w Do Hurricanes Get Their Names? j W h y Do Fireflies Glow? +MORE answers at mentalfloss.coni/more

MAY-JUNE 2011 mentalfloss.com 23