1. Chocolate is everywhere, but science is still sorting out this adored product of the domesticated Theobroma cacao tree’s beans.
2. For centuries, based on linguistic and archaeological evidence, researchers thought chocolate originated in Mexico or Central America about 4,000 years ago.
3. In October, however, a Nature Ecology & Evolution study of organic residues on artifacts concluded that the Mayo-Chinchipe culture was making the stuff nearly 5,500 years ago, in what’s now Ecuador.
