What has been the most remarkable civilisation-enhancing breakthrough in your own lifetime? Smallpox was eradicated a few years after I was born, so it’s tempting to name that, along with all the other incredible medical advancements that have ensured that child mortality rates have plummeted. The internet and the democratisation of information are fairly mind-blowing, too.
Yet the one I always return to is milk. When I was a child in the 1970s, a daily ritual was sniffing the milk at breakfast because there was always a strong possibility that it had gone off. When was the last time you smelt rancid milk? I haven’t for years. That is because of the incremental but substantial improvements made in processing this highly volatile product.
You may
