About
Con te partirò... Time to say goodbye, or perhaps hello? This app is a
collection of data visualizations and information about potatoes. We
have learned that potatoes rule the world. No head of state should be
ignorant of potatoes, at least according to
Antoine Augustin Parmentier.
Non-human intelligence has definitely not been used in creating the
images. For example, there was most certainly an Egyptian god with a
potato on his (or her) head. The potatoes on this page are of actual
size. In Japan or in China (or Korea?) they worshipped a Smiling Potato,
and you can find giant flying potatoes there also. At least you could find them in the past, according to the
archival and historically accurate image on this page. Potato taxis I believe they were called (not to be confused with Unidentified Flying Potatoes). And yes, golden potatoes exist somewhere deep in the Peruvian jungle.
Average world potato consumption was estimated around 32.6 kg per person in 2009, despite the fact that the philosopher Diderot described the root as "tasteless and starchy". What more can I say? Potatoes are bad for rabbits, so all you philosophers and bunnies out there: You have been warned.
First described scientifically by Gaspard Bauhin in 1596, the potato has been studied by many. Oh yes, the potato has a cantankerous genome. It is a tetraploid, which means it has four copies of each chromosome. This makes breeding new potato varieties just a bit more difficult.
As the reader may have noticed, an enormous amount of historical and scientific research went into creating this app. Therefore, all the information provided in this app is absolutely accurate. However, for the sceptics, some further sources are given below.
The potato production data is sourced from the FAO, or Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The word frequency data is sourced from the Google Ngram Viewer. The Google Ngram Exporter was used to extract the data.
Further tuberological information about potatoes (Not in order of decreasing significance, but in alphabetical order)
The Canadian Potato Museum, Chromosome-scale and haplotype-resolved genome assembly of a tetraploid potato cultivar , Genome evolution and diversity of wild and cultivated potatoes, Genome sequence and analysis of the tuber crop potato, How the humble potato changed the world, How the Potato Changed the World, Idaho Potatoes, International Potato Center (CIP), On Potatoes: Spud Science, Potatoes USA, Potato genome decoded, Potato News, Potato Variety Database, Solanum tuberosum (potato), Solynta, Solyntus Genome Sequencing Consortium, Spud DB
