Curio Cabinet

There’s a fine line between getting a tan and cooking yourself in the summer sun. Sunburns can happen even when precautions like sunscreen are taken, especially if one forgets to reapply. Luckily, there’s a widely-accepted sunburn remedy: aloe. But does aloe gel (or cuttings directly from the plant itself) actually help soothe or heal sunburns? The answer isn’t as straightforward as it seems.
 
Using aloe for minor burns seems like a sensible thing to do. After all, aloe is used in a variety of cosmetic products and is touted to be good for the skin. Aloe is also chock full of antioxidants and has anti-inflammatory properties, so it stands to reason that it would help. Yet, in controlled studies, aloe products have actually been found to be no better than a placebo when it comes to treating sunburns. The only thing that aloe has been proven to do is provide temporary relief by acting as a cooling agent—and only for a short while. That might be the best anyone can hope for, though. Burns of all kinds are notoriously difficult to heal via medical interventions. When it comes to sunburns, the two best remedies are time and preventing further damage. Aloe does act as a gentle moisturizer when heavier products based on petroleum should be avoided, and moisture can help protect the skin’s surface.
 
If a sunburn is severe and aloe just isn’t cutting it, experts recommend the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like ibuprofen to help with the pain and inflammation, while hydrocortisone cream might be called for in more extreme cases. Ultimately though, preventative measures like strong sunscreen (reapplied every two hours) and protective clothing is everything when it comes to sunburns. There’s no remedy under the sun that can completely fix it once the damage is done.

 
[Image description: Several aloe plants, Aloe castanea growing outdoors in a botanical garden.] Credit & copyright: Tangopaso, Wikimedia Commons, Jardin Exotique de Monaco. The copyright holder of this work has released it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

A camel can take you on all sorts of desert adventures, including the culinary kind. Somalia is currently embracing camel milk on a massive scale, and while they’re taking the lead in modernizing the dairy camel industry, they’re not the only ones who are interested.
 
Few countries in the world rely on camels as much as Somalia does. Agriculture makes up the lion’s share of their economy, and the beast that bears much of that burden is the camel. However, the nutritional and economic potential of camel milk was mostly overlooked until 2006, when the first commercial camel dairy operation was established in the country. Since then, camel milk has been rising in popularity. One of the main benefits of camel milk is that it’s much lower in lactose than cow milk, making it ideal for those with lactose intolerance. Camel milk also lacks β-lactoglobulin, an allergen present in cow milk that makes it unsuitable for many allergy sufferers. It also contains more vitamin C, iron, and zinc than cow milk, and yogurt made from camel milk still has plenty of probiotics.
 
Perhaps the most surprising benefit of camel milk is that it might help manage type-1 diabetes. Communities that consume milk from dromedary camels (camels with one hump) apparently have fewer cases of diabetes, and dromedary milk has been shown to lower blood sugar levels in diabetic lab rats. In humans with type-1 diabetes, camel milk has been shown to promote endogenous insulin secretion, though it’s far from a cure. The only downside? Those who are used to the taste of cow’s milk might have a little trouble with its slightly salty taste, which results from higher sodium levels. Sounds like a small hump to get over for so many benefits.

 
[Image description: A camel walking in a desert with mountains in the background.] Credit & copyright: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Isn’t it amazing how fast babies grow? Nash Keen, who set the world record for the most premature baby ever born, recently turned one. Nicknamed “Nash Potato” by parents Mollie and Randall Keen, Nash was born in Iowa on July 5, 2024, 19 weeks early, or about 133 days short of the typical full term of 280 days. At birth, he weighed just 10 ounces and measured 9.5 inches long. To put that into perspective, deliveries are considered premature if they occur before 37 weeks, and around one out of every 10 births in the U.S. are premature. They’re more likely to occur if the mother is 35 or older or has chronic health issues like diabetes or heart disease, but many premature births occur for no known medical reason. Although there have been previous cases with similarly short gestational periods (the previous record was 132 days premature), there was no guarantee that Nash would survive even with the best care.
 
Although premature births are still inherently dangerous, they are much more survivable now than they were before the invention of the first baby incubators in the late 1800s. The incubators were created by French doctor Stéphane Tarnier, who was inspired by egg incubators he had seen at a zoo in Paris. Later, German-American doctor Martin A. Couney popularized the incubators by displaying them to the public at Coney Island. The machines help regulate babies’ body temperature and keep them in a germ-free environment as their organs and immune systems continue to develop. Even so, premature babies require constant care and monitoring in the hospital, and are at greater risk of complications like respiratory distress, apnea of prematurity (paused breathing), anemia, and other issues that arise from not getting the chance to develop longer in the womb. While most premature babies go on to live healthy lives, the risk of chronic health complications goes up the shorter a gestational period is. People who were born prematurely are more likely to suffer from delayed development, depression, anxiety, ADHD, neurological disorders, dental problems, asthma, and hearing loss. While Nash currently requires supplemental oxygen and hearing aids, he seems to be a fairly healthy one-year-old otherwise. Not too bad for this remarkably small bundle of joy.

 
[Image description: A white figurine of a baby in a cradle.] Credit & copyright: Figure of a Baby in a Cradle Holding a Kitten, c.1830–70. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. Charles W. Green, 1947. Public Domain.

It’s a sauce, it’s a dip, it’s a spread, and most importantly, it’s delicious. There’s not a whole lot that pesto can’t do, and it’s been doing it for a long, long time. In fact, some form of this Italian staple has been delighting palettes since the rise of ancient Rome.
 
Pesto is a green paste traditionally made by mixing and grinding seven ingredients together with a mortar and pestle: basil leaves, parmesan cheese, pecorino cheese, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, pine nuts, and salt. It has a light, vegetable-y flavor and can be used as a pasta or pizza sauce, a dip for bread, or a spread on sandwiches.
 
There is little doubt that pesto originated in what is now Italy. The ancient Roman version of pesto didn’t call for basil and didn’t always include nuts, but it had most of modern pesto's other ingredients, plus vinegar. The paste, which was also made with a mortar and pestle, was called moretum, and a detailed description of it appears in the Appendix Vergiliana by Virgil, a collection of poems published between 70 and 19 B.C.E.
 
In the Italian region of Liguria, in the city of Genoa, moretum developed into a similar sauce called agliata in the Middle Ages. This version called for walnuts, solidifying nuts as a core component of pesto. Agliata became a staple of Genoan cuisine, and over time herbs like parsley or sage were added to variations of it. Surprisingly, basil didn’t surface as pesto’s main ingredient until the mid-19th century. Once it did, though, basil outperformed the other green herbs and stuck around. Genoa has been celebrated as the birthplace of modern pesto ever since. You could say that their pesto is the best-o.

 
[Image description: A plate of pasta with spaghetti noodles and pesto sauce.] Credit & copyright: Benoît Prieur (1975–), Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.