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The Vegetable That Won the War: Carrots and Night Vision

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" Eat your carrots, they'll help you see better in the dark."  "Eat your carrots or you'll soon need glasses." If you were born somewhere after the second world war (which I am assuming is the case for most, if not all of you, dear readers), chances are that you've heard this line from your mother, gran or guardian at least a few times. Carrots have long been linked with enhanced vision: scientific studies have proven that carrots are indeed a bountiful source of beta carotene , the precursor to vitamin A, and that treatment with vitamin A supplements was effective at reversing impaired vision.  Mighty as this vitamin is though, over time its' beneficial effects have been exaggerated to mythic proportions. "Night Vision" or the ability to see in the dark, is often attributed to vitamin A, or rather to the primary source of vitamin A in the layman's diet, i.e., carrots. While most modern myths start out as rumors that spread among the un...
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Behind the Attic Wall

 Grandfather had always liked his puzzles and riddles. Wordplay, vocabulary games, puns; basically anything that involved toying around with words was his domain. Every evening he would spend half an hour with me so that he could impress upon me the fun and practical applications of being able to utilize the English language to suit my thoughts rather than to struggle with expression. Unlike stereotypical countryside attics, the only ghosts that prowled around that well maintained room were my grandfather and I. The room was like a chamber of his heart, he had told me. It was where he first came across a book of riddles as a child and where he first tested out a camera as an adult. As I grew older and began displaying a keen interest in photography, grandfather bought me my first camera. He did however, have one condition. Every day he would click one picture that I was not allowed to see. It struck me as an odd request to make, but I went along with it. In the eight years since,...
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