{"id":4159,"date":"2026-03-04T15:06:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/scientists-create-onion-that-doesnt-make-your-eyes-water\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T15:06:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T15:06:58","slug":"scientists-create-onion-that-doesnt-make-your-eyes-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/scientists-create-onion-that-doesnt-make-your-eyes-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists create onion that doesn&#039;t make your eyes water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>2026-03-04 15:06:56<\/b><br \/>\n<BR>Japanese researchers have developed a special variety of onion that doesn\u2019t make your eyes water.<BR><br \/>\nThe tear-free vegetable, called the Smile Ball, is grown on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and is quickly gaining popularity. Around 180 tonnes of the onions are expected to be sold this year.<BR><br \/>\nUnlike regular onions, the Smile Ball has been bred to remove the chemical reaction responsible for watery eyes \u2013 while still keeping the same taste and nutritional value.<BR><br \/>\nNoriya Masamura, from House Foods Group, which has spent two decades researching non-pungent onions, believes the vegetable could even become a star ingredient in its own right.<BR><br \/>\nHe said: &#8220;Roughly chop them into pieces about five to seven millimetres thick, toss with a little salt, dried herbs and olive oil, and you\u2019ll taste their sweetness and they\u2019ll pair perfectly with white wine.&#8221;<BR><br \/>\nNormally, cutting onions releases enzymes that create a gas which reacts with moisture in the eyes to form a mild sulphuric acid. The irritation triggers tears as the body tries to flush the chemical away.<BR><br \/>\nFor years, cooks have tried everything from freezing onions to chopping them underwater or even holding bread in their mouths in an attempt to stop the tears.<BR><br \/>\nBut scientists discovered the real culprit in 2002.<BR><br \/>\nA Japanese research team led by Dr Shinsuke Imai identified the enzyme responsible for the reaction \u2013 called lachrymatory-factor synthase.<BR><br \/>\nBy breeding onions that suppress the enzyme, researchers created a vegetable that behaves like a normal onion but doesn\u2019t produce the tear-inducing gas.<BR><br \/>\nThe unusual breakthrough even earned Dr Imai an Ig Nobel Prize in 2013 \u2013 an award celebrating scientific discoveries that first make people laugh and then make them think.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Visit Bang Bizarre (main website) <\/a><br \/>\n<br \/><script src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player\/xtbac.js\" data-video=\"\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2026-03-04 15:06:56 Japanese researchers have developed a special variety of onion that doesn\u2019t make your eyes water. The tear-free vegetable, called the Smile Ball, is grown on the northern Japanese&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bizarre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4161,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4159\/revisions\/4161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bangbizarre.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}