Meet the Italian ‘Fruit Detective’ Who Investigates Centuries-Old Paintings for Clues About Produce That Has Disappeared From the Kitchen Table

This recent piece from Smithsonian Magazine explores the loveliest intersection between science and art. Dalla Ragione is an Italian scientist who earned a PhD in biodiversity from the University of Perugia. Specifically, she’s a tree fruit expert who puts 15th and 16th paintings in at the center of her research.

Her nonprofit, Archeologia Arborea, is helping farmers and governments around the world preserve and even bring back into cultivation all manner of forgotten fruits. In the process, Dalla Ragione has become a globally renowned fruit detective, by recognizing in her country’s Renaissance artworks not only exceptional examples of cultural patrimony but also hidden messages from a bygone era of genetic abundance that can offer clues about how to recover what was seemingly lost.

Read the full piece here.

And for more fruit-forward content, check out these guides from our Learn System:

• FruitBox Sequencer: Musically Delicious Step Pattern Generator
• Circuit Playground Express: Piano in the Key of Lime
• Circuit Playground Fruit Drums