Word: pericarp
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Sure, if you are a popcorn nut, you know that some types of corn are great poppers and others aren't. But do you know why? Have you assessed the thermal diffusivity of the pericarp, the kernel's tough outer layer? Have you analyzed the starch content of the endosperm, the inner, meaty layer? Have you compared the ratios of expanded to original volumes of various kernels? If so, you would know that the pericarp in popcorn has more densely packed fiber than that of ordinary corn. You'd know that starch content is less important. You needn't bother...
...that the sick Javanese subsisted mainly on polished rice. He observed too that fowls suffered from an analogous polyneuritis and were feeding largely on polished rice. Putting many two's together he concluded that milling and polishing rice must remove some diet essential. He took some "silverskin" (rice pericarp) chaff, soaked it in water and fed the mash to sick fowls. They speedily recovered. Humans also recovered. Thus he showed that eating whole rice was a preventive against beriberi. As preliminary reward his colleagues made him professor of hygiene and legal medicine at the University of Utrecht...
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