Reading archive 2024-05-05

How ancient Amazonians transformed a toxic crop into a diet staple Indigenous people devised a complex, multistep process of detoxification.

DEI is getting a new name. Can it dump the political baggage?: Under mounting legal and political pressure, companies’ DEI tactics are evolving.

Opinion  U.S. productivity is popping. And it’s not because of AI.: The country is seeing a surge in small business creation.

Opinion  The ideal number of kids in a family: Four (at a minimum) [ed. note: yikes]

Opinion  The surprising reason few Americans are getting chips jobs now - "Already, the companies have struggled to hire enough construction workers, especially welders and pipe fitters. Factory openings are being delayed until 2025 or later. And the industry needs up to 70,000 new workers to run the fabrication plants, known as 'fabs.' These are not your grandparents’ manufacturing jobs. Many will be engineers and computer scientists. About 28,000 will be technicians who don’t need a four-year degree but do need specialized skills. Think of them as digital tool belt jobs: Technicians program the machines that churn out the tiny chips that are so critical to smartphones, cars and missiles."

How Pope Francis opened the Vatican to transgender sex workers: The outreach, reflecting the most radical stage of his papacy, has prompted backlash while also altering the lives of the nearly 100 people he has met.