You can get them roasted and salted. Soon you may want them irradiated, too.

Food scientists at the University of Florida report that exposing peanuts to pulses of ultraviolet light removes roughly 80 percent of allergens. They say that this reduction makes the legumes safe to eat for 95 percent of people with current peanut allergies.

The process appears to inactivate allergenic proteins in peanuts. Completely eradicating the proteins is problematic, however, because it would affect texture, color, flavor and nutrition. An estimated 1.9 million Americans are allergic to peanuts, with reactions ranging from skin rashes to anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.

But don't look for a bag of the UV peanuts any time soon. Scientists must still conduct clinical trials on animals and humans.

Body of Knowledge

After age 30, the brain begins to lose neurons at a rate of about 50,000 per day, shrinking 0.25 percent in mass each year.

Get Me That, Stat!

Praise the lard! A 2011 Northwestern University study found that young adults who frequently attended religious activities were significantly likelier to become obese than those who didn't.

Doc Talk

DOE: a medical notation that means dyspnea on exertion. Dyspnea means shortness of breath. In this case, it could be a symptom of a wide variety of conditions or ailments, including asthma, pneumonia, heart disease or panic disorder.

Phobia of the Week

Automatonophobia: fear of ventriloquist dummies, wax statues or anything else designed to be humanlike.

Never Say Diet

The speed-eating record for onion rings is 6.73 pounds in eight minutes, held by Jamie McDonald. Warning: Most of these records are held by professional eaters; the rest are held by people who really should find something better to do.

Best Medicine

A professional bagpipe player was asked by a funeral director to perform at a graveside service for a man who had no family or friends but who reportedly had been a huge aficionado of Scottish music.

Unfortunately, on the day of the funeral, the bagpiper got lost and arrived late. He saw no one at the cemetery but a group of workers around a hole in the ground. They were eating lunch. The bagpiper peered into the ground and saw the metal top of the burial vault. He felt great remorse for missing the service and for his failure to honor the deceased. Pulling out his pipes, he began to play, better than he had ever played before.

Soon the workers gathered around him. They wept. The bagpiper wept. It was a beautiful moment, and the bagpiper felt both joy and redemption as he packed away his instrument and headed back to his car.

"I've never seen anything like that before," said one worker, "and I've been putting in septic tanks for 20 years."

Medical History

This week in 1947, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established the first U.S. air pollution control program by creating the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District. On July 26, 1943, the city had experienced a blanket of smog so thick that visibility was reduced to less than three blocks. A study was ordered to identify the causes, which proved to be multiple: locomotive smoke, diesel truck fumes and backyard rubbish burning, plus mountain topography, stagnant winds and atmospheric temperature inversions. The district was created to begin the challenge of reducing these problems and clearing the air.

Curtain Calls

In A.D. 258, Lawrence of Rome, one of seven deacons in the ancient city under Pope Sixtus II, was roasted alive on a giant grill during the persecution instituted by emperor Valerian. A century or so later, the Roman poet Prudentius wrote that Lawrence, who was later sainted, had joked with his tormentors: "Turn me over. I'm done on this side." Lawrence is now considered the patron saint of cooks and firefighters.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.