Image by: Robert Llewelyn

The Hair Detective

From: With Good Reason
Length: 29:34

Your hair collects evidence that you really are what you eat! Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: The Hair Detective
From: With Good Reason

Hairdetective_handsandhair_small Your hair collects evidence that you really are what you eat! Environmental scientist Stephen Macko has analyzed hair to determine the dietary intake of the likes of George Washington, journalist Diane Sawyer, poet Edgar Allan Poe and even 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummies. His scientific method tells if you’ve been ingesting an unusual amount of ice cream or cocaine. Also: any gardener knows that nitrogen is a good thing for plants. But environmental scientist James Galloway says a ‘cascade’ of accumulated nitrogen molecules from fertilizers and car emissions are now upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem all the way from rivers and streams up to the stratosphere.

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Piece Description

Your hair collects evidence that you really are what you eat! Environmental scientist Stephen Macko has analyzed hair to determine the dietary intake of the likes of George Washington, journalist Diane Sawyer, poet Edgar Allan Poe and even 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummies. His scientific method tells if you’ve been ingesting an unusual amount of ice cream or cocaine. Also: any gardener knows that nitrogen is a good thing for plants. But environmental scientist James Galloway says a ‘cascade’ of accumulated nitrogen molecules from fertilizers and car emissions are now upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem all the way from rivers and streams up to the stratosphere.