Quizzical Cuisine

A graphic I decided to make in order to compile some of the most important chemicals responsible for the natural smell and taste of some fruits (among others such as butter, lavender, etc.). Feel free to share :)

Followers of the site on Twitter or Facebook might have already spotted this graphic. If you’re unaware of the Food Babe, or her latest crusade of misinformation regarding chemicals in Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte, then this post might not make much sense, but you can at least be thankful you’ve had a facepalm-free day. If you have spotted some of the fallout of her ‘revelations’, here’s a quick image I threw together for you to show to anyone who’s unsure about the claims being bandied around. Now, I don’t even like Starbucks all that much (and confess to never having had a Pumpkin Spice Latte). I’m also all for transparency about the various substances added to food and drinks. However, spreading wilful misinformation about chemicals added to food isn’t helping matters at all in that regard - if anything, it’s only going to make manufacturers more reticent to make publicly available the ingredients in their products, for fear of the scientifically illiterate coming at them with pitchforks. References:

Why is the Sea Salty?

When you are swimming in the ocean or sea, the last thing you want is a big mouth full of water. Its horrible because it is really salty. But why is it salty? This video looks into why the sea is salty and how it gets there. 

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIDSMzXXzLM Sources www.palomar.edu/oceanography/salty_ocean.htm www.utdallas.edu/~pujana/oceans/why.html www.bbc.com/future/story/20140411-why-is-the-sea-so-salty

Video made by Luke Thomas

EsEinsteinium

Albert Szent-Györgyi

(via scienceisbeauty)

"I had a patient come in for an STD check. She was very upset and continued to tell me that she only had one partner. Progressing through my assessment, she further divulged that even if he was sleeping with other people it shouldn’t matter ‘because he uses a condom every time and he makes sure to wash it thoroughly after every use’.”

"Had a lady who measured her baby’s temperature by pre-heating the oven and putting one hand in front of it while the other hand was on the baby’s forehead. She told the nurse her baby’s fever was about 250 degrees.”

"Lady has to have foot amputated and is given waiver forms to sign pre-op. Buddy asks if she needs time to think about it. She’s very nonchalant and doesn’t seem to care much what they do. He gets suspicious and probes a bit as to why she’s not more concerned. She says she gets that they have to operate and it’s OK because the foot will grow back.”

"I had a couple who had been trying to conceive for over two years. I asked all the usual questions, how often do you have sex, any previous pregnancy, etc etc. Something seemed off to me during the consult, so I continued to ask questions. Finally I asked if he ejaculated while inserted into the vagina. Both parties looked confused.Turns out the couple was not having insertional sex at all. I had to awkwardly explain to them how insertional sex works. Diagrams were required.”

"Patient comes in, she’s upset. She’s pregnant, and she doesn’t understand why. She’s on the pill. Upon talking to her at great length, I find out that she only takes the pills on the days that she is sexually active – no other time.”

"Patient comes in with her bf. They are indignant, as if somehow I could’ve prevented [the pregnancy]. The problem? Well, the pills were bothering the girl’s stomach, so, being a gallant bf, he decided to start taking them instead.”

“I was explaining the treatment to the husband of a patient about to be discharged. He kept nodding and agreeing with me, but I knew it was flying over his head. Turned out a fundamental problem was that I was describing the drugs as ‘tablets’ and he had no clue what those were.”

This literally

astounds.

But we totally don’t need sexual education in this country. 

Nope, abstinence is working just fine.

​This is why we need comprehensive sexual education people. - Paige

This is frightening…

Happy International Beer Day everyone! Here’s a reminder of the chemistry behind a pint. As always, more info & download here: http://wp.me/p4aPLT-mE

This isn’t really chemistry related, but it’s something I felt I had to share after coming across it whilst doing research for the book earlier today. Guacamole is literally ‘testicle sauce’ in Aztec. Nice.

my favorite thing about england is that the word pulp doesnt exist 

This sounds disgusting lmfao

attn science side of tumblr we are doing an extremely important study on who actually says orgo

I say orgo and that is what I heard in my undergrad institution in Boston. (But I am a physicist so maybe the chem students said ochem?). Math person in my office who is from Mexico said he has hear ochem or carbonchem. Other physics person in my office has heard both ochem and orgo but she said that ochem is more common where she went to school (Chicago).

carbonchem? now we have to make a whole new addition to the survey this is getting out of hand

new england says orgo

Uni of Illinois says orgo, which wrecked me coming from California.

I say ochem (I took it at Western Washington University) but my girlfriend calls it orgo. She’s from Kentucky.

Said girlfriend from Kentucky (baby, is this a thing now or), and I don’t really remember my picking up saying orgo, haha, but it’s a thing.

Ochem all the way! Although the former lab tech at the local community college liked to abbreviate it “org”. It was strange.

My undergrad was Rutgers in New Jersey...we called it orgo.

This Too Shall Pass (2012) by Tomorrow Machine

Independent packaging project for perishable goods:

Great graphic from James Kennedy (@VCEasy) comparing natural & artificial peaches.

Interesting infographical look at how a few thousand years of human intervention can result in a deliciously juicy summer treat. Most interesting? The percentage of sugar a peach holds has not gone up that much, only the edible flesh ratio and percent water have.

I should add that in this graphic, “artificial” just means that the modern peach was artificially selected by farmers who chose which variants to propagate, as opposed to being subject to the unguided processes of natural selection. I worry about the misconception that “artificial” here might be misconstrued into meaning “inferior” or “dangerous” or “fake”. It is none of those things.

Don’t fear the fruits of science. Especially the juicy ones. 

Very good point - the ‘artificial’ in this graphic should maybe be something more along the lines of ‘selectively bred’ in order to avoid misconceptions.

I think it was made off the back of a video the creator saw on ‘natural’ bananas, which was seemingly ignorant of the fact that modern bananas were also very selectively bred from the original fruit. If you want to stick a ‘natural’ label on things, then it’s still natural, but quite removed from its original natural form, which is a small, dry pod, stuffed with seeds and rather hard flesh. A little less appetising. Additionally, the banana in the form you know and love can’t reproduce by itself. It very much depends on human cultivation in order to survive. This cultivation prevents genetic diversity, so cultivated bananas are very vulnerable to diseases that can wipe out entire crops.

Lipids

Lipids are not technically macromolecules, because they’re not built in the same way—though they are formed through dehydration reactions, they’re not polymers made up of individual subunits called monomers. But they are sometimes considered as part of that family, and they are pretty...

It’s been a little while since the last entry in the ‘Everyday Compounds’ series; today’s entry looks at sodium hypochlorite, found in household bleach, and used to chlorinate swimming pools.

The accompanying article also details why, aside from the obvious reasons, getting three million people to urinate in a swimming pool would be a bad idea: http://wp.me/p4aPLT-ml

When digital tv info glitches are more accurate than the actual show info

IM CHOKING ON TERIYAKI CHICKEN IN PUBLIC JESUS CHRIST

Edible Art by Jerry James Stone in DARK RYE’s Art Issue

Anyone who’s ever been caught playing with their food can appreciate the fantastic—and perishable—works created by Klaus Enrique. The New York–based photographer takes items common to any grocery store and transforms them into life, or so it would appear. This is food photography redefined!

His series titled Arcimboldo is loosely inspired by the 16th-century Italian painter of the same name, Giuseppe Arcimboldo. A man referred to as “The Father of Surrealism” by Salvador Dali, Giuseppe created anthropomorphic portraits using fruits, vegetables, meats and flowers. And while Klaus has recreated some of Giuseppe’s more popular works, like his painting of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II as Vertumnus, he’s also given the series a modern spin.

See more at Dark Rye.

Following on from yesterday’s post on gunpowder, here’s an updated version of one of the earliest posts on the site, looking at the cause of the colours in fireworks: http://wp.me/p4aPLT-1t

Yay. I was just wondering about this.