Avocado

As most fans of the leathery fruit can attest, telling when an avocado is of perfect ripeness can be a guessing game, but a new testing technique could eliminate the margin for error by measuring the firmness of individual specimens using lasers.

Scientists have closely examined the contents of avocado seed husks and discovered these flaky coatings to be incredibly rich in useful chemical compounds, including some that could be used to improve treatments for cancers, heart disease and other conditions further down the track.​

A Canadian scientist has discovered a lipid in avocado that could prove key to battling leukemia by attacking the highly resilient stem cells that drive the disease and make treating it such a difficult task.