The Enslaved 12-Year-Old Who Unlocked Vanilla

For centuries almost every vanilla pod came from Mexico: elsewhere the orchid flowered and never fruited. In 1841 on Réunion, Edmond, an enslaved boy of 12, found how to hand-pollinate the flower in seconds by lifting the rostellum and pressing the pollen onto the stigma. Farmers still use his gesture on almost every vanilla vine on Earth; he died poor in 1880. Read the story first, or test yourself straight away.