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Ramen and Race Relations
Immigration in any society is a complex and controversial subject. It’s something that is likely to get tempers flaring and people marching on the streets. I don’t normally have much to say on the topic, it’s normally a dead end. Like pineapple on pizza, people tend to do a lot of talking about immigration and… Continue reading
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The Science of Egg White Foams: How Denaturation, Bowl Choice and Ingredients Impact Whipping
Discover the science behind egg white foams. Learn how denaturation, whisking mechanics, sugar, copper bowls, and acidity impact meringue stability. Continue reading
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Mad honey or how the Poison King and some bees outwitted the Romans
Mithridates VI, King of Pontus, was one of the young Roman empire’s most feared and formidable enemies in the eastern Mediterranean. Respected by the Romans as a strong, intelligent and, most of all, cunning ruler, he also possessed a ruthlessness and a cruelty so well developed that, at various times during his reign, he put… Continue reading
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Aphrodisiacs: Can food make you sexy?
Sex has always been something of a problem for human societies. Love, marriage, children and the passage of assets from one generation to the next has always been a primary human preoccupation. Yet in all these endeavours sex and sexual attraction lurks like the drunk uncle at a wedding; unpredictable, inconvenient but impossible to ignore.… Continue reading
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Hunger games: Why we get hungry and why we overeat
Imagine you are driving down a long and lonely highway. You are late but also conscientious, so you want to stick as closely to the speed limit of 100 km/h as you can. For the purposes of this story your cruise control is broken or you don’t don’t trust Tesla’s self driving function so you… Continue reading
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Quick Bite: Ultra-processed foods give you lung cancer? Maybe not
In the past I’ve been critical of both observational studies and the reporting of these studies in the media and yesterday the Independent published an article called “Food that makes up more than half of western diets linked to lung cancer” which really pushed my buttons. The title is clearly link-bait and it had me… Continue reading
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Saffron: The duplicitous golden spice
Humans have always displayed enormous ingenuity when it comes to short-changing their fellow man. Modern tech companies, with their opaque terms of service and relentless data farming, are a great recent example of this but to capture the eternal nature of man’s duplicity we need look no further than our daily repast. Since antiquity we… Continue reading
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Vitamin D and human individuality
In a world that seems hell bent on pigeon-holing us into convenient advertising demographics it is worth remembering that almost every single one of us is completely unique. Thanks to sexual reproduction and genetic recombination each of us is an experiment in what can be achieved with the raw clay of the human gene pool.… Continue reading
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Bacterial growth or how not to kill your dinner guests
There is an old Indian parable of a king who wanted to reward a wise man who had invented chess. The wise old man asked for rice but had an unusual stipulation when was asked how much rice he wanted. He requested a single grain of rice to be put on the first square of… Continue reading