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Month: December 2017

Merry Blogmas for December 6: Bread is Not the Same

Merry Blogmas for December 6: Bread is Not the Same

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We continue  today with our daily “Merry Blogmas” posts on fun bite-sized science topics, which will run until Christmas. THE TASTE OF BREAD HAS CHANGED WITH TIME We no longer know what bread used to taste like but we do know that it had to taste different from the modern equivalent. How do we know this? From research done in research-funded “living history” projects and from archaeology on the remains of Medieval and Renaissance buildings. Here’s the evidence; In the…

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Merry Blogmas for December 5: Collagen-Based Glue

Merry Blogmas for December 5: Collagen-Based Glue

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Today continues our daily Merry Blogmas 2017 posts of short science-lite articles for Dec. 1 through Christmas. Hide Glue and Other Collagen-Based Glues Collagen is the principle protein in the bone, muscle and skin tissues of mammals and certain fish. It is made up of fibrous strands of polypeptides, which is the same as saying that collagen is made up of long mostly-straight chains of linked amino acids. Collagen-based glues include those made from: animal hides animal hooves of animals fish skin…

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crystalline sulfur
Merry Blogmas for December 4: Sulfur

Merry Blogmas for December 4: Sulfur

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We continue  today with our daily “Merry Blogmas” posts on fun bite-sized science topics, which will run until Christmas. SULFUR Sulfur is one of the coolest elements going. It’s also on the smelliest things on the planet. It stinks enough that I included it in the article I wrote for listverse.com on 10 rocks that stink. Sulfur has some really cool properties. It’s a soft yellow mineral that can be set on fire. It burns with a blue flame. While…

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The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part II

The Food Science of Hard-Boiled Eggs – Part II

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This is the second of three parts on the eggcellent topic of hard-boiled eggs. To state the obvious, this discussion is about the unfertilized eggs of chickens, ducks, and geese. THE BIOCHEMISTRY OF EGGS The problem with making the perfect hard-boiled egg is that everyone has their own favorite recipe or gimmick that works for them; however, few people understand why their own method works or why someone else’s doesn’t. To understand how to properly hard boil an egg, we first…

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Merry Blogmas for December 2: Diatomaceous Earth

Merry Blogmas for December 2: Diatomaceous Earth

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What’s a Diatom? Diatoms are microscopic algae creatures that live in oceans, seas and deep lakes. When they die, their hard shell-like skeletal remains fall to the lake or sea bottom. Their fossilized remains are made of amorphous silica with the approximate chemical composition of opal, SiO2·nH2O. The “n” in that chemical formula means that the amount of water mixed in with the silica dioxide is not really known. Layers of pure fossilized diatom remains are called diatomite. What’s Diatomaceous Earth?…

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Merry Blogmas for December 1: Cinnabar

Merry Blogmas for December 1: Cinnabar

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Merry Blogmas! I have decided to join the blogmas insanity and post a short blog post everyday until Christmas. Other than the regular weekly blog posts, the blogmas post will all be off-the-top-of-my-head brain dumps without citations. CINNABAR It’s one of the coolest minerals going: It’s mercuric sulfide. Its mineral form is called cinnabar. It has a mineral formula of HgS. It’s the main ore mineral for mercury. The mercury mines of Almaden, Spain are the largest in the world…

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