Researchers from the universities of Durham, Cambridge, and Aston, together with France’s DOCC Laboratory, did something that seems straight out of science fiction: they gave capsules of carrot or cauliflower powder to pregnant women during weeks 32 and 36 of gestation and filmed the fetuses’ expressions in ultrasound scans. They then repeated the experiment when the babies were three weeks old. And once again at three years old. The pattern was the same at all three stages: the children showed expressions of pleasure toward the vegetable they had been exposed to in the womb, and grimaces of rejection toward the one they did not know. The mechanism is amniotic fluid, which carries the flavors of the mother’s diet to the fetus, forming what scientists call lasting chemosensory memories. The daily battle of convincing a child to eat their vegetables, it seems, is won or lost long before that child reaches the table.