Spicy Evolutionary Arms Race

Spicy Evolutionary Arms Race
capsaicin-memes, peppers-memes, spicy-memes, biochemistry-memes, evolution-memes | ScienceHumor.io

The chemical warfare between peppers and humans is deliciously ironic! Peppers evolved capsaicin as a defense mechanism to discourage mammals from eating them (while birds, who don't feel the burn and can spread seeds far, get a free pass). But humans? We're the weird masochists of the animal kingdom who turned this defense chemical into a culinary challenge. It's evolution's greatest plot twist - the peppers scream "this will hurt you!" and we respond "that's the point!" The Skeletor reaction perfectly captures our bizarre relationship with spicy food - we're literally in pain but coming back for more. Nature designed a perfect defense system only for humans to completely miss the memo.

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