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Alcohol linked to greater risk of cancer in women: What to know

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — From sayings like “mommy juice” and “rosé all day” to happy hours, drinking is part of American culture, particularly for women.

One thing that is less discussed though is alcohol’s link to cancer, and how that impacts women.

“We’re finding that probably anywhere between 5% and 10% of all cancers worldwide are due to alcohol use,” Dr. Suneel Kamath, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center in Ohio, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “It’s something that we need to talk a lot more about.”

In addition to potentially facing depression, liver disease and obesity, women who consume about one alcoholic drink per day have a 5% to 9% higher chance of developing breast cancer than women who do not drink at all, and that risk increases for every additional drink a woman has per day, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

One study published in 2019 found that women who were not at high risk for breast cancer based on family history increased their risk of breast cancer from moderate drinking.

For women, a moderate alcohol intake per week is defined as seven servings of alcohol or less, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advise women to have no more than one drink per day.

Heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming eight drinks or more per week, according to the CDC.

One serving of alcohol is just five ounces for wine and just one-and-a-half ounces for hard alcohol, far less than what is typically served in bars, restaurants and at home.

The data shows that even casual drinkers face a greater risk of cancer, most commonly liver and throat cancers but also colon and head and neck cancers, in addition to breast cancer.

“Over 100,000 cases of cancer a year were attributed to that type of drinking,” said Kamath. “I think that’s most surprising, that many of us really are comfortable with doing that and consider that to be very safe.”

Drinking alcohol is listed by the Department of Health and Human Services as a known human carcinogen.

Research shows that just as women metabolize alcohol differently than men, they also face more serious health consequences.

Women are more susceptible to alcohol-related heart disease than men; alcohol misuse produces brain damage more quickly in women than in men; women may be more susceptible than men to alcohol-related blackouts, or gaps in memory; and women who regularly misuse alcohol are more likely than men who drink the same amount to develop alcoholic hepatitis, a potentially deadly condition, according to the NIAAA.

“This is a perfect example of gender-specific medical differences,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN and ABC News chief medical correspondent, explaining the difference lies primarily in enzymes that women lack to metabolize alcohol. “This is significant and we can’t look at this, like so many other things in medicine, like it’s one size fits all.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, data showed that heavy drinking among women especially soared, while alcohol-related liver disease also rose among young women amid increased pandemic drinking.

Liz Piscatello, 37, describes herself as a moderate, social drinker and said she is willing to put the reward of alcohol over the risk.

“I’m a firm believer that everything causes something, and you cannot live your life being scared,” she said. “Live your life because you only live once. Tomorrow’s not promised, so have fun while you can.”

Kamath is among the medical experts warning though that the less alcohol intake the better for your health.

“What I recommend to people really is to limit alcohol intake as much as you can,” he said. “The less you can do, the better.”

According to Ashton, it is important that women be aware of the risks of alcohol and make a “deliberate choice” if they choose to consume.

“It’s not the only thing that we do that can have negative effects,” she said of alcohol. “It has to be a deliberate choice and we have to go into it with the awareness that we know, unfortunately, it’s just not good for us.”

Adele, Ed Sheeran nominated for prestigious UK songwriting awards

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Adele and Ed Sheeran are both nominated for this year’s Ivor Novello Awards, a prestigious U.K. honor that recognizes exceptional songwriting and composing by British or Irish songwriters.

Both Adele and Ed are nominated for Songwriter of the Year, which recognizes songwriters who wrote “an outstanding body of successful songs commercially released in the UK in 2021.” Coldplay is also nominated in that category.

Adele’s “Easy On Me” is nominated for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

In addition, two of Ed’s songs are nominated in the category of Most Performed Work, which recognizes songs that got the most airplay across radio, TV, movies, video games and other platforms in the past year. “Shivers” and “Bad Habits” are both nominated. Elton John and Dua Lipa‘s song “Cold Heart” is also nominated in that category.

The Ivor Novello Awards — named after a popular Welsh composer, singer and actor — were first given out in 1956 and are judged by songwriters and composers, except for the Most Performed Work category, which is based on data. This year’s ceremony will take place May 19 in London.

Bruce Willis and family feel “sense of relief” after revealing aphasia diagnosis

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Bruce Willis and his family are “so honored” by the public response to his aphasia diagnosis, a source tells Us Weekly.

The Die Hard star, 67, and his family are “deeply touched at the sheer outpouring of love and support they’ve received ever since they shared the news,” adds the insider.

Bruce’s wife, Emma Heming Willis, and his ex-wife, Demi Moore, were among those informed about his health condition before it going public with the news a week ago.

The actor’s five children — daughters Rumer, 33, Scout, 30, and Tallulah Willis, 28, whom he shares with Moore, and daughters Mabel, 10, and Evelyn, seven, with his current wife, Heming Willis — “were also aware for some time,” notes the source, adding that the family’s March 30 social media statement “was about breaking the news to the wider community after it became clear that Bruce needed to step back from his career.”

Going public has provided “a sense of relief in many ways,” the insider tells people, adding Bruce feels like he’s “got that monkey off his back.”

Now, adds the source, he can can proceed with a practical and stress-free routine moving forward.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, aphasia can rob a person of their ability to speak, read, and understand language, both spoken and written. The condition, which varies in type and severity, can result from numerous conditions, illnesses or injuries, all of which affect the brain.

Russian forces executed civilians in Ukraine, Amnesty International says

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — Russian forces have executed civilians in Ukraine in apparent war crimes, Amnesty International said Thursday.

The London-based international human rights group published new testimony after conducting on-the-ground research in areas around Ukraine’s capital amid Russia’s invasion. Its report adds to a growing body of evidence that Russian troops have committed war crimes amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — a charge that U.S. and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly made, but that the Kremlin vehemently denies.

Amnesty International said its crisis response investigators interviewed more than 20 people from villages and towns near Kyiv, many of whom claimed to have witnessed or have had direct knowledge of Russian soldiers committing horrific acts of violence against unarmed civilians across the region.

“In recent weeks, we have gathered evidence that Russian forces have committed extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, which must be investigated as likely war crimes,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement Thursday. “Testimonies show that unarmed civilians in Ukraine are being killed in their homes and streets in acts of unspeakable cruelty and shocking brutality.”

The organization noted that deliberate killings of civilians, rape and torture, as well as inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, are human rights violations and war crimes, and that those who commit them should be held criminally responsible along with any superiors who knew or had reason to know about such atrocities but did not attempt to stop or punish the perpetrators.

The International Criminal Court, a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry and Ukraine’s prosecutor general have all opened investigations into possible war crimes by Russian forces. But the interviews conducted by Amnesty International and published Thursday provide a harrowing window into these kinds of attacks with grisly detail.

According to the report, one of the interviewees, 18-year-old Kateryna Tkachova, told Amnesty International that she was at home with her parents in the village of Vorzel, northwest of Kyiv, on March 3 when several tanks painted with the letter “Z,” which Russian forces have used to mark their vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine, rolled down their street. Tkachova said her mother and father, who were unarmed and dressed in civilian clothing, left the basement where they were hiding to go into the street, after telling her to stay put. Tkachova said she then heard gunshots.

“Once the tanks had passed by, I jumped over the fence to the neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if they’re alive,” Tkachova told Amnesty International. “I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road, and my father was face down on the other side of the street. I saw large holes in his coat. The next day I went to them. My father had six large holes in his back, my mother had a smaller hole in her chest.”

Seven days later, an unnamed volunteer assisting with evacuations from the areas around Kyiv helped Tkachova leave Vorzel. The volunteer told Amnesty International that he had seen the bodies of Tkachova’s parents lying in the street near her house, according to the report. Amnesty International said it has also verified video showing the volunteer and Tkachova writing her parents’ names, dates of birth and dates of death on a piece of cardboard before placing it beside their bodies, which were covered with blankets.

An unnamed 46-year-old woman told Amnesty International that Russian troops entered her village of Bohdanivka, southeast of Kyiv, on March 7 or 8. On the night of March 9, the woman said she heard gunshots through the downstairs windows of her home, where she lived with her husband, 10-year-old daughter and 81-year-old mother-in-law. She told Amnesty International that she and her husband shouted that they were civilians and that they were unarmed. When they came downstairs, two Russian soldiers pushed them and their daughter into the boiler room.

“They forced us in and slammed the door,” she told Amnesty International. “After just a minute they opened the door, they asked my husband if he had cigarettes. He said no, he hadn’t smoked for a couple of weeks. They shot him in his right arm. The other said, ‘Finish him,’ and they shot him in the head.”

“He didn’t die right away. From 9.30 p.m. to 4 a.m. he was still breathing, though he wasn’t conscious,” she added, according to Amnesty International. “Blood was flowing out of him. When he took his last breath, I turned to my daughter and said, ‘It seems daddy has died.'”

A neighbor told Amnesty International that they witnessed Russian soldiers breaking into the woman’s house that night and also confirmed seeing her husband’s body slumped in the corner of the boiler room. The woman and her child escaped from Bohdanivka later that day. The woman’s mother-in-law, who has limited mobility, was left behind, according to Amnesty International.

Another woman, from an unidentified village east of Kyiv, told Amnesty International that two Russian soldiers entered her house on March 9, killed her husband and then repeatedly raped her at gunpoint while her young son hid nearby in the boiler room, according to the report. The unnamed woman managed to escape from the village with her son and they fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

“The intentional killing of civilians is a human rights violation and a war crime,” Callamard said. “These deaths must be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible must be prosecuted, including up the chain of command.”

Interviewees also told Amnesty International they had lost access to electricity, water and gas in the early days of the Russian invasion and that there was very limited access to food. There was poor cellphone service in the region, and some interviewees said Russian soldiers had confiscated or destroyed mobile phones whenever they saw residents carrying them, or threatened them with violence for having one.

Amnesty International found that threats of violence and intimidation were also widespread. One man in Hostomel, a town northwest of Kyiv, reported seeing an entire dormitory of people who were sheltering from shelling and were forced to go outside, where Russian military officers immediately fired gunshots over their heads, forcing them to drop to the ground. Two men from Bucha, another town northwest of Kyiv, also said snipers regularly shot at them when they went to salvage food from a destroyed grocery store near their home, according to Amnesty International.

Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, seizing territory and shelling cities seemingly indiscriminately. But they have faced strong resistance from Ukrainian troops, who have retaken some territory in recent days as Russian forces retreated.

According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, at least 410 civilians have been found dead in recently recaptured towns near Kyiv, particularly in Bucha, which has galvanized global outrage. While graphic evidence of the atrocities has emerged, including eyewitness testimony along with videos and images, Russia has claimed the scenes were “staged.”

Amnesty International said it has obtained evidence that civilians were also killed in indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts, documented an airstrike that killed civilians queueing for food in the northern city of Chernihiv, and gathered evidence from civilians living under siege in the battered cities of Kharkiv, Izium and Mariupol.

“As these horrendous accounts of life under Russian occupation continue to emerge,” Callamard said, “the victims in Ukraine must know that the international community is determined to secure accountability for their suffering.”

In Brief: ‘The Real World: New Orleans reunion set; Emmys date shifting, and more

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The reunions of MTV’s Real World casts will continue with a fresh look at the gang from Real World: New Orleans. The Real World Homecoming: New Orleans will premiere exclusively on Paramount+ service in the U.S. and Canada Wednesday, April 20. To get yourself ready, there’s a new, drama-filled trailer. The streamer announced all 23 episodes of The Real World: New Orleans will be available to stream Wednesday, April 13… (Trailer contains censored profanity.)

The Emmys are moving from Sunday to Monday this year, thanks to the show’s move from CBS to NBC, which also airs Sunday Night Football. The 74th Annual Emmy Awards will take place Monday, September 12, live coast to coast at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT., the The Television Academy and NBC announced on Wednesday. A week prior to the network’s Emmys telecast, the 2022 Creative Arts Emmy Awards will be handed out over two consecutive nights on Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4, with an edited presentation to be broadcast on Saturday, September 10, at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on FXX. Nominations for the 74th Emmy Awards will be announced Tuesday, July 12…

AMC Networks has greenlit the Orphan Black spinoff, Orphan Black: Echoes, scheduled to air on AMC+ and the company’s linear networks in 2023. Per AMC, the spinoff, set in the near future, “takes a deep dive into the exploration of the scientific manipulation of human existence” and “follows a group of women as they weave their way into each other’s lives and embark on a thrilling journey, unravelling the mystery of their identity and uncovering a wrenching story of love and betrayal”…

AMC is also developing a series adaptation of Richard Russo’s novel Straight Man with Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk set to star as William Henry Devereaux, Jr., “the unlikely chairman of the English department in a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt,” according to the network. If greenlit, it would mark Odenkirk’s third series for AMC, following Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad. Straight Man is eyeing a 2023 launch…

Severance has been renewed for season two at Apple TV+. The workplace thriller, executive-produced by Ben Stiller, centers on Lumen Industries, a company that’s looking “to take work-life balance to a new level,” per Apple. Severence stars Adam Scott, Patricia Arquette, John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Dichen Lachman, Jen Tullock, Tramell Tillman, Michael Chernus and Christopher Walken…

George Michael’s “greatest moment” coming as a deluxe limited-edition box set

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Of all the music he made both with Wham! and as a solo artist, George Michael thought most highly of his 1996 album Older, which he called “the best, most healing piece of music I’ve written in my life,” as well as “my greatest moment.” Now, the album is being reissued as a deluxe limited-edition box set, due out July 8.

The set includes five CDs and three vinyl LPs, comprising the original album Older, and a six-track collection called Upper that was released in 1997, made up of B-sides from the album’s singles. There are also three CDs of dance mixes, radio edits, instrumentals and live versions of previous hits “Freedom” and “One More Try.”

The whole thing comes packaged with a 48-page book, The Story of Older, and three art prints of George.

Upon its release, Older — George’s first album in more than five years — was a massive hit in his native U.K., and also reached the top 10 in the U.S. The singles “Jesus to a Child” and “Fastlove” were both top 10 U.S. hits; in the U.K., Older spun off six top three singles.

After Older, George released one more studio album of original material, 2004’s Patience, as well as an album of covers, a live orchestral album and two best-of collections. He died on Christmas Day, 2016.

Alicia Keys releases new single “City of Gods (Part II)”

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

After teasing fans all week, Alicia Keys has finally dropped “City of Gods (Part II).”

The new track is a reimagined, slowed down, more R&B version of the epic collaboration that featured Five Foreign and Kanye West that debuted nearly two months ago. In fact, Keys is all by herself on the single, marking her first release as in independent artist on AKW Records.

Fans are also treated to newly penned verses from the New York native, who stripped down the song for a more soulful vibe.

“City of gods, city of dreams / City where nothing is ever what it seems / They’ll never take it all away from me / ‘Cause I see nothing but infinity,” Alicia sings in the first verse.

Not only did the 15-time Grammy Award-winning artist release a new song, she dropped a music video as well that served simple yet eye-catching visuals, including Keys draped gold and diamond chains in front of the futuristic-looking Mercedes-Benz EQ.

“City of Gods (Part II)” is available to stream now.

Russia-Ukraine live updates: Ukraine urges NATO to supply more weapons

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.

Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Apr 07, 5:21 am
Ukraine’s NATO agenda: ‘Weapons, weapons and weapons’

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country had a “simple” agenda for Thursday’s NATO meeting.

“It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.

NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, including whether to implement new sanctions and supply additional weapons, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Kuleba.

“So we are providing support, but, at the same time, working hard to prevent the escalation of the conflict,” Stoltenberg said.

Kuleba called on “all allies to put aside their hesitations” in aiding Ukraine.

“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further,” Kuleba said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Kuleba on Thursday, according to his office.

“The G7 is committed to holding President Putin to account for his unprovoked war of choice and ensuring he endures a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday.

Senate poised to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court in historic vote

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Senate is poised to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, paving the way for Jackson to become the first Black woman in history to sit on the nation’s highest court.

“It will be a joyous day. Joyous for the Senate, joyous for the Supreme Court, joyous for America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday evening. “America tomorrow will take a giant step to becoming a perfect nation.”

It’s still unclear whether President Joe Biden will make an appearance following the afternoon vote, which is expected to be called around 1:45 p.m., or whether Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, will preside over the chamber for the historic occasion.

While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s nominee on their own, three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — will break ranks from the GOP to join them, marking a solid, bipartisan win for the Biden White House in a hyper-partisan Washington. Former President Donald Trump’s last nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, received no votes from Democrats.

If confirmed, Jackson is not expected to be fully sworn in for duty until summer, once retiring Justice Stephen Breyer steps down.

In marathon hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Jackson was given the opportunity to tell the panel — and the American people — what it would mean to her to serve on the nation’s highest court.

“I stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before me, including Judge Constance Baker Motley, who was the first African American woman to be appointed to the federal bench and with whom I share a birthday,” Jackson said. “And, like Judge Motley, I have dedicated my career to ensuring that the words engraved on the front of the Supreme Court building — ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ — are a reality and not just an ideal.”

Jackson endured nearly 24 hours of questioning from senators in the, at times, contentious and emotional hearings.

“Not a single justice has been a Black woman. You, Judge Jackson, can be the first,” said chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “It’s not easy being the first. You have to be the best and in some ways the brightest. Your presence here today and your willingness to brave this process will give inspiration to millions of women who see themselves in you.”

Meanwhile, several Republicans assailed Jackson with accusations that she’s a liberal activist and “soft on crime”– taking issue with nine child pornography sentences she handed down, criticizing her legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and questioning support she received from progressive groups.

“In your nomination, did you notice that people from the left were pretty much cheering you on?” asked Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

“A lot of people were cheering me on, senator,” she replied.

Notably, Graham voted to confirm Jackson to a lifetime judicial appointment last year but said he’ll vote no this time — and warned that if Republicans had control of the Senate, Jackson wouldn’t have received hearings to begin with.

Others in the GOP pressed Jackson to explain critical race theory, say whether babies are racist, and to define “woman” — questions which Democrats repeatedly criticized as they took to defending her record and applauding her character.

“You did not get there because of some left wing agenda,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told her in a dramatic soliloquy, moving Jackson to tears. “You didn’t get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who has gotten anywhere has done. You are worthy. You are a great American.”

While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Jackson’s performance, at times, “evasive and unclear,” scrutinizing her judicial philosophy, Jackson insisted “there is not a label” for her judiciary philosophy — because she says she doesn’t have one. She told the committee, “I am acutely aware that, as a judge in our system, I have limited power, and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane.”

At age 51, Jackson currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to which she was named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year in a bipartisan vote. She has also been Senate-confirmed on two other occasions.

She will replace Justice Breyer, whom she once clerked for, when he retires at the end of the term. Jackson said last month, “It is extremely humbling to be considered for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed, I would hope to carry on his spirit.”

When Biden formally announced Jackson’s nomination at the White House, he fulfilled a promise made on the 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters.

“For too long our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” he said on Feb. 25. “And I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications.”

Jackson’s parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, Miami natives who grew up under segregation in the South, were on hand at the historic hearings to support their daughter — who they say was once told by a school guidance counselor to lower her sights.

Jackson, instead, soared.

Growing up, her mother was a public high school principal in Miami-Dade County, where Jackson attended public schools and was a “star student,” while her father was a teacher and, later on, county school board attorney. Jackson has fondly recalled memories of drawing in her coloring books next to her father studying his law school textbooks. Her younger brother, her only sibling, served in the U.S. military and did tours in combat. Two of her uncles have been law enforcement officers.

After graduating from Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Jackson went on to attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School. There she met her husband, Patrick, a general surgeon, and the couple share two daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.

Asked about her message to young Americans, Jackson recalled to the Senate Judiciary Committee of feeling out of place at Harvard in her first semester — and provided a remarkable lesson in resilience.

“I was really questioning: Do I belong here? Can I, can I make it in this environment?” she said. “And I was walking through the yard in the evening and a black woman I did not know was passing me on the sidewalk, and she looked at me, and I guess she knew how I was feeling. And she leaned over as we crossed and said ‘persevere.'”

“I would tell them to persevere,” Jackson said.

As pizza popularity soars, chef and scientist share secrets from 12,000 pies

April 7, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BELLEVUE, Wash.) — Inside a nondescript commercial office complex east of Seattle, an acclaimed professional chef and an ex-Microsoft tech executive have been quietly perfecting the art of pizza making and redefining possibilities for the perfect pie.

Over the last three years, the chef, Francisco Migoya, and ex-exec, Nathan Myhrvold, have baked more than 12,000 pizzas and run 500 scientific experiments to produce what they call the definitive guide to one of the world’s most popular foods.

“We didn’t eat 12,000 pizzas, but believe me, there was a lot of pizza eaten during that time,” said Migoya in an interview. “There is no such thing as too much pizza.”

Their book, Modernist Pizza, is a 1,700-page tome whose three volumes weigh in at more than 35 pounds. The history and secrets of pizza perfection also carry a hefty price tag of nearly $300.

“The most important objective is for people who love pizza to have a deeper understanding of it, to learn ways of making it better, to — I guess you could say — perfecting it,” Migoya said.

Myhrvold, who founded the franchise Modernist Cuisine out of a passion for food, said the pizza project is also about culinary evolution.

“Continuous improvement is what brings you things that are just fantastically delicious,” he said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, pizza sales have soared at popular U.S. delivery chains and many struggling non-pizza restaurants pivoted to get in on the take-out game. The crisis also fueled an interest in pizza making at home, data show.

“It’s a food that is very close to our heart and not just Americans but the world over,” Migoya said.

ABC News Live was given an inside look at the kitchen laboratory at Modernist Cuisine where a team of chefs and scientists were studying pizza techniques, from the making of dough to developing sauce and pioneering new methods.

A dehydrated whole Neapolitan pizza is pulverized into a spice powder to intensify the pizza flavor in dough. A gyrating distiller turns ordinary winter grocery store tomatoes into a flavor-packed fresh sauce. Industrial centrifuges churn out experimental pizza toppings, like pea butter extracted from frozen green peas.

“We are unapologetic about loving pizza, and part of that says, hey, you can make a very traditional one. But if you want to step out a little bit on the wild side and try some stuff that might seem crazy, you might find you like it,” Myhrvold said.

A 3D scanner analyzes freshly baked pies to measure volume accurately and discern how ingredients interact with each other on top of the sauce.

The data have been used to produce more than 1,000 pizza recipes as well as tips and tricks for home cooks and professional chefs.

The team examined whether the type of water you use matters (it doesn’t, they say); differences between sliced and shredded cheese; why pepperoni curls and how much topping you should put on; and strategies for enhancing leftover pizza at home.

The team also drew from pizza intelligence it gathered from trips to more than 250 pizzerias around the globe.

While the truly perfect pizza may be in the eye of the beholder, Portland, Oregon, has the best pizza scene in the country, Migoya said. The worst pizza he tried was from Argentina: “Bananas, pizza cheese and tomato sauce. It’s as bad as you think it is, maybe worse,” he said.

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