A research study about lights, food, a rotating chair, and earmuffs is featured the “May We Recommend” column in the special Rotation and Spinning issue (volume 28, number 5) of the magazine. You can read that article free online. Better still, buy a copy of the issue (it’s in PDF form). Or better better still, subscribe […]
Cold, wet, and wobbly though it may be, the blancmange has not been ignored by academia. Many of its aspects – culinary, historical, technical, sensory, and mathematical – have been the subject of scholarly explorations. Here are some example studies : ● From Fast to Feast: Analyzing the Ubiquitous “White Dish” Called Blancmange by Erin Sunshine […]
“Breatharianism is a type of belief system started by Jasmuheen… that hypothesizes and claims to prove that humans can live without consuming solid foods…. She even received the Ig Nobel prize, a satirical parody of the true Nobel Prize, which means she joined the likes of L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology and the […]
The original meaning of the word ‘corporation’ strongly hints at the idea that a firm can be regarded, in some ways (including, on occasion, legally) as a ‘person’. Could the idea of corporality be expanded to include ‘organizations’? If so, what if they eat too much – or too little? Professor Miguel Pina e Cunha […]
“It all started in 2008, when Professor Charles Spence received the Ig Nobel Prize for his “sonic chip” experiment. Nothing to do with the Nobel Prize, but a recognition for the strangest and most absurd researches, which first make you laugh and then make you think. And in fact the study on the Pringles made […]
People eat sandwiches to give themselves energy. A new study explains how to get electricity from those sandwiches without going to the bother of eating them. The study is: “Sandwich as a Triboelectric Nanogenerator,” Jingyi Jiao, Qixin Lu, Zhonglin Wang, Yong Qin, and Xia Cao, Nano Energy, vol. 79, no. 105411, September 2020. The authors, […]
Add another study to the collection that focuses on a question of consumer acceptance of pork pâté enriched with cricket powder. This one is: “Nutritional Analysis and Evaluation of the Consumer Acceptance of Pork Pâté Enriched with Cricket Powder – Preliminary Study,” Krzysztof Smarzyński, Paulina Sarbak, Szymon Musiał, Paweł Jeżowski, Michał Piątek, and Przemysław, and […]
This US government video, called “Quick-Cooking Foods by Explosion Puffing,” shows “the ‘explosion puffing‘ food dehydration process. This process yields a porous dehydrated vegetable or fruit product that rehydrates more rapidly than heat-dried or freeze-dried foods, and has better retention of quality (color, texture, flavor)”.
Words for Food in Your Mouth, an Apple a Day, Eating the Shrew, an Epidemic of Penile Amputations, Reactions to Chicken Nuggets, Ig and Beyond, What Matters in NBA Games, Why Spaghetti, and What Your Gut Says Psychoanalytically. In episode #209, Marc Abrahams shows some unfamiliar research studies to Jean Berko Gleason, Chris Cotsapas, Kishore […]
Is it a good idea to eat gold (in the form of gold leaf)? Prof. Koichi Imai, D.D.S., Ph.D of the Dept. of Biomaterials, Osaka Dental University, Japan (and other places), is of the opinion that the answer might well be ‘no’. Pointing out that although : “Gold leaf flakes are considered to pass through the […]