You Want Hot Sauce On That Fish?
Image Source: Pixabay
If you've watched chef Gordon Ramsay squirm on YouTube's Hot Ones show, you know that humans can't always handle hot chile peppers. How about dolphins? Seems they can take the heat. Fisheries around the world have been desperate to stop dolphins from pilfering fish from their nets. We know that other mammals like deer, squirrels, and rabbits (and some humans) can't stand hot chiles. So Greek researchers coated fishing nets with resin containing capsaicin, the hot compound in chiles, and waited for the dolphins to swim away. Results? Fail. Dolphins still chewed through the nets and ate the fish. Maybe it even tasted better to them.
Image Source: Courtesy of Bompas & Parr
Do you play with your food? In the TikTok era, some people make a career out of it. And some start a creative studio dedicated to playing with jelly. Sam Bompas and Harry Parr are those people. In 2007, these Brits pivoted from architecture and real estate to jelly art. Since then, they've recorded the sound of jelly wobbling, created gelatin portraits and glow-in-the-dark alcoholic jelly, and recreated the entire sprawl of Buckingham Palace in jiggly gelatin. That all pales in comparison to the 66,000 gallons of jelly they set below the SS Great Britain, enveloping the giant Victorian steamship in a wiggling, illuminated green sea. At the end of the installation, viewers ate the art. See? Food can still be fun. You just have to keep playing with it.
A Guide to Lay’s Chinese Potato Chips
Image Source: Michelle Min
Most folks have their faves...BBQ, Sour Cream & Onion, or Salt & Vinegar. But Lay's makes more than 200 other potato chip flavors, including Pickled Fish and Mexican Chicken Tomato, mostly for customers in China. Curious? Carolyn Phillips profiles 11 of the more out-there flavors from Lay's. Check your local Asian market if you want to taste them.
Materials Scientist Recycles Wind Turbine Blades Into Perfectly Edible Gummy Bears
Image Source: Massimo Colombo/Michael Bodmann/Getty Images
Wait...we're eating turbine blades now?? Let me explain... The blades on wind turbines usually wear out first, and while 85% of turbine components can be recycled or reused, the fiberglass blades cannot. Until now. John Dorgan at Michigan State University developed a new material combining glass fibers with both synthetic and plant-derived polymers. The resulting thermoplastic resin is strong enough to use in wind turbine blades, and it can be dissolved and distilled to make food-grade potassium lactate, the stuff found in Gatorade and gummy bears. Of course Dorgan had to make gummy bears from his recycled blades. He ate them, too. "A carbon atom derived from a plant...is no different from a carbon atom that came from a fossil fuel," says Dorgan. "It's all part of the global carbon cycle, and we've shown that we can go from biomass in the field to durable plastic materials and back to foodstuffs." Gotta love science!
Inside the Tour de France’s Fast and Furious Feed Zone
Image Source: Universal/Getty Images
The 109th Tour de France just ended, and you might wonder how bike racers eat while pedaling furiously up and down mountains. Fueling while racing is a balancing act, and feeding a cyclist mid-race involves a careful handoff in a long-handled cloth satchel called a musette. During World War I, French soldiers carried similar satchels, suggesting a possible origin of the cycling musette. Back then, sandwiches, cake, and flasks of port wine or other alcohol were common in cyclists musettes. Today, cyclists feast on a variety of foods according to their particular dietary needs and nutritional preferences. Yet, the simple, century-old cloth musette is still the preferred food delivery system.
VIDEO: Cheese Rolling Returns To British Sporting Calendar
Image Source: Reuters/Steven Paston
After a two-year hiatus, a bizarre British sporting tradition has triumphantly returned. Cheese rolling is a literal race to the bottom, as a large wheel of Double Gloucester is released from a hilltop, followed by ill-equipped competitors in hot pursuit down the treacherous incline. The 2022 competition featured a fair amount of mud, resulting in several injuries. Yet one look at the besmirched and smiling winners' faces reveals the joy of beholding the prized Double Gloucester - even if it means losing a tooth. Such is the power of cheese.
Engineering Students Invent Edible Burrito Tape
Image Source: Johns Hopkins University
Things fall apart. Especially burritos. But it doesn't have to be that way, according to a team of engineering students at Johns Hopkins University. The budding inventors created an edible tape that keeps wrapped food wrapped. The tape is clear but is dyed blue in the photo here to show its use. Before long, you may be unwrapping a Taco Bell Burrito Supreme and find it held together by edible tape. Maybe it will even be Flamin' Hot flavored.
Do Mushrooms Communicate? British Scientist Says Yes
Image Source: Minden Pictures/Alamy
Mushrooms are connected underground by a network of hyphae called mycelium. Research has already revealed that fungi emit electrical impulses through this "mycelial network," similar to how humans transmit information through nerve cells. The firing rate of the electrical impulses also increases and decreases in patterns similar to human language, according to new research by Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England. Adamatzky theorizes that fungi "communicate" information about food or injury with other fungi, plants, and trees connected to the mycelial network. But it's just a theory. The patterns of electrical impulses could be random. Food for thought!
In a Starving World, Is Eating Well Unethical?
Image Source: Anthony Cotsifas
It's an interesting question. One might ask, "Is eating well ever an ethical choice?" After all, gluttony is considered a sin, even in a world overflowing with edibles. Flipping the question, we might ask if eating "well" requires any indulgence at all. To some, eating "well" means making healthy, sustainable choices and avoiding gluttony. For those folks, eating well may very well be the most ethical of food decisions. However, when faced with others going hungry, there is but one simple choice. To share.
Did Eating Meat Really Make Us Human?
Image Source: Magone /Getty Images
Two million years ago, Homo erectus emerged with a larger brain, smaller gut, and longer limbs than our ancestors. According to conventional wisdom, these evolutionary changes were made possible by eating meat. Not so fast, says new research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In this controversial report, scientists reveal evidence that Neanderthals consumed hefty portions of starchy carbohydrates as they expanded across eastern Africa and into Europe, casting doubt on the theory that meat-eating is what made us human.
