The Beauty Of Webb Telescope’s Mirrors

5 Cookie Pro Tips from TED-Ed (and Science)

1. Cookies are for everyone. But everyone has cookie preferences. When you slide that cookie tray into the oven, you’re setting off a series of chemical reactions that transform one substance - dough - into another - cookies! The better you understand ‘Cookie Chemistry’, the better equipped you will be to create the cookies you crave.

2. Lots goes on in that oven, but one of science’s tastiest reactions occurs at 310º. Maillard reactions result when proteins and sugars breakdown and rearrange themselves into ring like structures which reflect light in a way that gives foods their distinctive, rich brown color. As this reaction occurs, it produces a range of flavor and aroma compounds, which also react with each other forming even more complex tastes and smells.

3. The final reaction to take place inside your cookie is caramelization and it occurs at 356º. Caramelization is what happens when sugar molecules breakdown under high heat, forming the sweet, nutty and slightly bitter flavor compounds that define…caramel! So if your recipe calls for a 350º oven - caramelization will never happen. 

So, if your ideal cookie is barely browned - 310º will do. But if you want a tanned, caramelized cookie, crank up the heat! Caramelization continues up to 390º degrees.

4. No need to check that oven like a fiend. You don’t even really need a kitchen timer - when you smell the nutty, toasty aromas of the Maillard reaction and caramelization, your cookies are ready! 

5. Baking is chemistry, friends! That’s right - PURE. SCIENCE. Check carefully before altering those recipes - chances are some of those ingredients and quantities are there for a reason.

Curious what else happens in that oven? Check out the TED-Ed Lesson  The chemistry of cookies - Stephanie Warren

Animation by Augenblick Studios

“Before a scene, she would be muttering deprecations under her breath and making small moans. According to Vivien, the situation was stupid, the dialogue was silly, nobody could possibly believe the whole scene. And then…she would walk into the scene and do such a magnificent job that everybody on the set would be cheering.” -David O. Selznick

Rabies Viruses Reveal Wiring in Transparent Brains

Scientists under the leadership of the University of Bonn have harnessed rabies viruses for assessing the connectivity of nerve cell transplants. Coupled with a green fluorescent protein, the viruses show where replacement cells engrafted into mouse brains have connected to the host neural network.

The research is in Nature Communications. (full open access)

The Landscapes and Skylines of Howl’s Moving Castle ハウルの動く城 

Failing to find a single functioning stapler, the grad student struggles to keep things together.

A research group at MIT has created a new class of fast-acting, soft robots from hydrogels. The robots are activated by pumping water in or out of hollow, interlocking chambers; depending on the configuration, this can curl or stretch parts of the robot. The hydrogel bots can move quickly enough to catch and release a live fish without harming it. (Which is a feat of speed I can’t even manage.) Because hydrogels are polymer gels consisting primarily of water, the robots could be especially helpful in biomedical applications, where their components may be less likely to be rejected by the body. For more, see MIT News or the original paper. (Image credit: H. Yuk/MIT News, source; research credit: H. Yuk et al.)

Dead Poets Society (1989)

Sainte-Geneviève Library. Paris, France.  

David Silverman ‏@tubatron

1st appearance of Milhouse in 1st Butterfinger storyboard 11/18/1988 (missed the anni thing by a few weeks – )

Hold a buoyant sphere like a ping pong ball underwater and let it go, and you’ll find that the ball pops up out of the water. Intuitively, you would think that letting the ball go from a lower depth would make it pop up higher – after all, it has a greater distance to accelerate over, right? But it turns out that the highest jumps comes from balls that rise the shortest distance. When released at greater depths, the buoyant sphere follows a path that swerves from side to side. This oscillating path is the result of vortices being shed off the ball, first on one side and then the other. (Image and research credit: T. Truscott et al.)