According to a team of physicists at Cornell University, it’s all about the sharpness of your weapon of choice and your speed of approach. But no word of if that could match the current Guinness World Record for most onions peeled and sliced in a minute–21.69 ounces. The duller the blade, the more it was liable to bend the onion’s skin before cutting. Meanwhile, faster cutting speeds generated four times as many particles as slower rates. Yet from this research it seems pretty clear that a sharp knife and a slow approach will most consistently minimize the undesirable effects of onions.