Introduction

Have you ever wondered how exactly baking turns a soupy batter or a thick paste into a beautiful cake or cookie? Think no further, this article will soon explain what goes into the magic that is baking and some other cool facts.

How does science play its part?

Baking does a great job of showcasing just how prevalent science is to everyday activities. It combines chemistry, biology, and physics to create the decadent end product. The laws of physics apply to everything, but for baking, those laws are compounded with chemical reactions within ingredients and the processes of biology. The incorporation of many different edible chemicals like baking soda and baking powder to create a cake batter or dough causes reactions like tiny air bubbles forming that are trapped and cause rising. This is where biology also comes in with the culture of yeast as a leavening agent that provides carbon dioxide for bread to rise.

Role of Ingredients in Bake

Every single ingredient that goes into a baked good is there for a reason. Many people know from experience that forgetting to include even a single item on a baking recipe can end in total disaster. But what exactly is each basic baking ingredient doing?

Sugar and Fat

Many recipes will tell you to add the sugar and fat component, whether it be butter or ghee or oil, and there is a very specific reason for that. When sugar is added to butter, the sharp crystalline structure of the sugar slice the butter molecules and introduce air into the mixture. This is why creaming the sugar and butter before adding it to the other dry ingredients causes a lighter and fluffier outcome! Fat also adds that rich flavor by coating the gluten molecules so they do not combine as easily which also makes the product more tender.

Flour

Flour is made up by grinding raw grains or wheats or nuts to form a powder. The protein in the flour, gluten, works to form a web that traps air bubbles and allows the pastry to set in place. Basically, flour makes up the entire structure of the baked good and without it, the pastry would collapse! While the baked good heats in the oven, the starch in the flour sets in order to add and support the structure of the dish.

Salt

Salt has many functions in normal cooking, but it does in baking as well! It enhances and strengthens the flavors in other ingredients to form the perfect balance. Salt also allows the gluten provided by the flour to form better as well.

Baking Soda

Baking soda, has a very special role in baking as well. It’s scientific name is sodium bicarbonate, and it is a crystalline salt. For the sodium bicarbonate to work it’s leavening magic, it can either be combined with an acidic component like buttermilk to cause an acid-base reaction or can be left to perform with just thermal decomposition in the oven.

More to come…

As we can see, there is a lot of science that goes into perfecting a pastry. Without the chemistry, biology, and physics, it would be impossible to create any pastries or bread goodies. In the next article, we play with an at-home experiment of varying the type of fat used in one type of pastry and comparing the two different end products!

Sources

Babincáková, Mária. “Leavening Agents: The Chemistry of Baking Discovered with a Computer-Based Learning.” Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 97, no. 4, Apr. 2020, pp. 1190–1194. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=eric&AN=EJ1250850&site=eds-live&scope=site.

2021’s Partial Lunar Eclipse:

A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth’s shadow block the sun’s light, that reflects off the moon. Lunar eclipses are categorized into three types: 

1) partial – When the Earth moves between the Full Moon and the Sun, but they are not perfectly aligned. Instead, only part of the Moon’s surface moves into the Earth’s shadow.

2) penumbral – When the Earth, Sun, and Moon are imperfectly aligned in such a way that the Earth’s outer shadow falls on the Moon’s surface. 

3) total – When the Earth, Moon, and Sun are in complete alignment to where Earth’s shadow completely falls on the Full Moon. This causes the Moon’s surface to completely darken or redden.   

This year’s partial lunar eclipse was considered the longest one in a millennium (one thousand years)! It took about 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 23 seconds for the partial ellipse to occur. The last long partial eclipse happened on February 18th, 1440 – which clocked to about 3 hours, 28 minutes, and 46 seconds. This partial lunar eclipse will remain the longest one for 648 years until February 8th, 2669 – which is predicted to clock to about 3 hours, 30 minutes, and 2 seconds!

So why what the eclipse of 2021 so long? Well, the eclipse was long for two main causes: (1) the Moon’s orbital speed and (2) the near-totality of the eclipse (even though it is still considered a partial eclipse). The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle. In actuality, the Earth is not in the center within the orbit, so sometimes the Moon is closer to the Earth, and other times it is farther. This variation in distance effects the Moon’s orbital speed (father = slower; closer = faster). Thus, the Moon is at a farther point in its orbit around the Earth, and as a result, it moves slowly through Earth’s shadow (which is indicated by the darkening or reddening of the Moon’s surface). Since the eclipse is almost-total, the Moon takes a longer time in the Earth’s shadow than a typical “partial” eclipse.

Are you curious of when the next lunar eclipse will happen? Well, the next total lunar eclipse (A.K.A.: “blood moon”) will happen May 15-16, 2022. It will be visible from North and South America, Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia. Stay tuned to space news to stay updated!

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Below are pictures that I took with my iPhone of the raw partial lunar eclipse that occurred on Friday, November 19th. I stayed up until 4am to watch it happen! I was able to take these pictures while standing on Howey’s Physics Observatory! One of my friends even got to take a picture through the telescope of the moon during the eclipse. Here are the pictures below.

 

 

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Sources: 

https://moon.nasa.gov/news/168/an-almost-total-lunar-eclipse/ 

https://www.space.com/15689-lunar-eclipses.html 

STRESS TAPPING

Are you looking for a new method to coping with stress, pain, and anxiety? Well, “stress tapping” is one of many ways that can be added to your techniques for maintaining your mental health and wellness. Stress “tapping” is also known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and is a combination of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.

People who use stress tapping believe that it can create a balance in your energy system in your body and treat pain, whether physical or emotional. Although EFT tapping is still being researched, it has been used to treat people with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

EFT is compared to acupuncture in how they both focus on using “meridian points” (or energy hot spots) around the body. Based on Chinese medicine, meridian points are areas of the body that energy flows through and any imbalance can influence disease or sickness. Unlike acupuncture that uses needles to apply pressure to these meridian points, EFT tapping uses simply your fingertips to apply pressure.

Although there are 12 major meridians that mirror each side of the body and correspond to an organ in your body, EFT focuses mainly on the following nine:

• beginning of the collarbone: kidney meridian
• under the arm: spleen meridian
• karate chop (outermost side of hand): small intestine meridian
• top of head: governing vessel
• eyebrow: bladder meridian
• side of the eye: gallbladder meridian
• under the eye: stomach meridian
• under the nose: governing vessel
• chin: central vessel

Below is an easy guide for how to navigate stress-tapping for beginners:

 

 

 

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Source(s)

Anthony, K. (2018, September 18). EFT Tapping. Healthline. Retrieved November 4, 2021, from https://www.healthline.com/health/eft-tapping#treatment

Ortner, N. (2021). The Tapping Solution: A Revolutionary System for Stress-Free Living by Nick Ortner (2-Apr-2013) Paperback. Hay House UK (2 April 2013).

Unusual Units of Measurement

As early as kindergarten, we are taught to measure things here in the U.S. using inches, feet, and centimeters. Later we are taught that volume is measured in cubic meters (m^3), and that time is measured in hours or minutes in a day.

Have you heard that there’s such thing as a measurement of “cow’s grass”? Or how about a “shake” of time? Discover some unusual measurements of length, area, volume, and time below!

 

LENGTH:

 

Siriometer

The siriometer is a rarely used astronomical measurement. It is equivalent to 1 million astronomical units — which is equivalent to 1 million times the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. This distance measures to about 15.8 light years, or 4.8 parsecs, and is roughly twice the distance from Earth to the star Sirius.

 

Horse

Horses are used to measure distances in horse racing. A “horse” length is equivalent to 8 feet (or 2.4 meters). When measuring shorter distancing, they are measured in fractions of “horses”, and other common measurements are that of a full or fraction of a “head”, “neck”, or a “nose”.

 

AREA:

Cow’s grass

Before the 19th century in Ireland, a “cow’s grass” was a measurement used by farmers to specify the size of their fields. It was equivalent to the amount of land that contains enough grass for a cow to sustainably munch on.

 

Barn

No, not that kind of barn! One barn is equivalent to 10−28 square meters, which is roughly the size of the cross-sectional area of a uranium nucleus; definitely much smaller than a barn pictured above. The name “barn” for this measurement likely comes from early neutron-deflection experiments, when the uranium nucleus was described as being “big as a barn” and the phrase “hit a barn door” were used. Barn measurements are typically used for cross sections in particle and nuclear physics.

 

VOLUME:

Cord and rick

The cord is a unit of measurement used in the US and Canada for dry volume to measure things such as pulpwood and firewood. A cord is equivalent to such an amount of wood that when the arranged to be aligned, parallel, and touching and compact, has a volume of 128 cubic feet. Correspondingly, this yields a well-stacked woodpile that is 4 feet deep by 4 feet high by 8 feet wide. A “rick” is an even more unusual measurement for firewood, and it is stacked 16 inches deep by 4 feet high by 8 feet wide — which is typically 1/3 of a cord.

 

TIME:

Shake

Wait, not that kind of shake! In term of measurements, the shake is used in astrophysics and nuclear engineering. It is defined as 10 nanoseconds. Call that a shake in time!

 

Jiffy

Sorry, we are not talking about peanut butter in this case! The “jiffy” is used in computing, and is the duration of one tick of the system timer interrupt. This is usually equivalent to 0.01 seconds.

 

I hope you enjoyed learning about those abnormal units of measurement. There are plenty others that are used, such as dog years! Hmmm.. Which makes me wonder, is there such thing as cat years?

 

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Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_units_of_measurement

To pursue beauty, people will use makeup, creams, and even plastic surgery. But, would you spread your own blood on your face?

Wait, Your Own Blood?

Earlier this year, these treatments, known as ‘blood facials’ or ‘vampire facials’ became well known due to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian posting about their rejuvenation effect on social media. Quickly, this sparked a debate over whether these treatments were handy or horrific. And who knows if they even work?

Well, Do They Work?

These vampire facials are actually known clinically as protein-rich plasma (PRP) treatments. First, your blood is drawn, then spun through a centrifuge. The high force makes the blood separate into three layers: red blood cells at the bottom, liquid plasma at the top, and a cloudy layer called the “serum portion” in the middle that contains the protein-rich plasma. After processing the PRP, it is ready for treatment. Treatment can include injecting it under the skin the way one would inject fillers, or it can be applied like a face mask. If the PRP is applied, it can be combined with a procedure like microneedling or microabrasion, which open up little holes and cracks in the skin to help the plasma absorb into the face. The dermatologists who perform them promise effects like reversal of hair loss, increased collagen production, and glowing skin. 

Just a Selling Point?

While there aren’t many clinical studies on these effects yet, PRP treatments have actually been used for healing joint and muscle injuries. They can speed up cell regeneration for a variety of sports injuries and even alleviate chronic tendonitis pain. The process is quite similar to how vampire facials work. The platelet-rich plasma is just injected or applied onto the skin of the area that needs to grow back.

Tell Me More!

For both the cosmetic and medical treatments, the plasma is full of platelets. In the blood, they help it clot when you get a cut. They contain alpha granules that have growth factors in them. These growth factors act as chemical messengers to promote cell division and growth. This also includes producing more proteins such as collagen, which provides structure to the body. So, they can help a torn ACL reform or cause cheek cells to multiply and plump up a face. Since PRP is minimally invasive and has few risks, it can be a good option for patients who have a variety of treatment goals.

If You’re Still Wrapping Your Head Around It All, You’re Not Alone!

Many people can get put off by this bloody procedure. On the surface, it sounds like yet another one of those beauty gimmicks that seems to exist only to trick the wealthy out of their money. But astonishingly, protein-rich plasma treatments have a basis in regenerative medicine. In reality, the worlds of beauty, science, and medicine can be very intertwined. When these disciplines learn from one another, interesting and helpful things can happen. What other examples of this other than vampire facials can you think of?

In any case, happy (belated) Halloween. Remember, your blood is very, very precious.

 

Citations

Abelman, D. (2021, August 5). What Exactly Is a Vampire Facial? . Allure. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.allure.com/story/vampire-facial-prp-treatment-guide.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection: How it works: HSS. Hospital for Special Surgery. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.hss.edu/condition-list_prp-injections.asp.

Setayesh, K., Villarreal, A., Gottschalk, A., Tokish, J. M., & Choate, W. S. (2018, December). Treatment of muscle injuries with platelet-rich plasma: A review of the literature. Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6220013/.