and if that makes me the grinch, so be it, let me just share three four interesting science things that made my week better. Call them treats if you have to.
1. Chronic chocolate consumption is related to the presence of a different type of bacteria in one’s stomach. It’s unclear what the cause-and-effect relationship might be… but you can now officially blame your cravings on your gut. Does it feel a little weird to be controlled by a micro-organism?
2. From the Best American Science & Nature Writing of 2006 (but you can read it here at Discover where it was originally published), an essay called “Cooking for Eggheads” describes experiments into the best way to cook an egg. Molecular gastronomists have found the exact temperatures at which the various proteins in eggs begin to “cook,” and by carefully controlling cooking temperature, can create eggs with a soft yolk and delicately-gelled white, and many other variations. 212 Fahrenheit is much hotter than necessary to cook all the proteins in the egg, hence our rubbery hard-boiled eggs. The time is coming when we will toss our eggs into the oven for an hour and pull out a true delicacy.
3. If you’re a robotics coach like I am, you might want to show this short but fun video to your team to give them a sense of what the future may hold in household robots.
4. Fine, FINE. One quick nod to the date, but only because I’m having so much fun exploring Discover magazine. What does climate change have to do with real-life zombies (well, sort of)?
ms. frizzle 