Bite-Sized Biology

Reinventing the Egg Even if you’re not watching your cholesterol, there are plenty of reasons to...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:56:02 -0700

Even if you’re not watching your cholesterol, there are plenty of reasons to avoid eating eggs. Ethical issues aside, industrial eggs provide only about 20% of the energy it takes to produce them. And while some egg substitutes do exist, they often pale in comparison to the real thing. Josh Tetrick, the CEO of Hampton Creek Foods, thinks we can do better. Read more…

Video still courtesy of TechCrunch.

Baking Without Eggs With the Science of Pie coming up in just a few weeks, we’ve been spending a...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:03:03 -0700

Baking Without Eggs

With the Science of Pie coming up in just a few weeks, we’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about baked goods. And one ingredient in particular has really captured our imagination—the egg! In the realm of baked goods, eggs are highly revered for their binding and leavening abilities. The fats and proteins within an egg can also contribute to important properties like moisture, texture, and mouthfeel. But what if you don’t eat eggs? Read more…

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Tropical Fruit Inspires Innovative Research Two weeks from now, renowned Brazilian chef Alex Atala...

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:09:33 -0700

Tropical Fruit Inspires Innovative Research

Two weeks from now, renowned Brazilian chef Alex Atala will be joining Science & Food for the first 2013 public lecture at UCLA. Chef Atala has generated a lot of buzz in the food world by discovering and classifying new ingredients from the Amazon basin. But Atala isn’t the only one looking to the South American rain forest for inspiration. By studying the fruit of the tropical plant Margaritaria nobilis (commonly known as the bastard hogberry), a team of researchers led by Dr. Mathias Kolle has created an amazing new material that changes color as it stretches. Read more…

kitchen programming 101

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:00:00 -0700

For a long time, I wasn’t a big fan of rice. It just seemed so… boring. Sure, it was a great base for curry or stir fry, but I never caught myself thinking, “Hey, I’d really like to chow down on some rice right now.” Then I met my ~~boyfriend~~ husband*. He LOVES rice. Give him a big bowl of plain white rice and he’s good to go. Give him some rice with a little soy sauce or a fried egg on top and he’s in heaven. And don’t even get him started on fried rice…

My husband also introduced me to rice cookers. I know, I know… who doesn’t know about rice cookers? Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I grew up cooking rice in a pot. On the stove. Crazy.

Seriously, though, rice cookers are pretty awesome. Before we got married, we had an old dinosaur of a rice cooker (circa 1980) that had just one button to turn the whole thing on. The rice cooker “knew” when the rice was done cooking by keeping track of its temperature; when the temperature of the rice rose above 212 degrees, the rice cooker automatically turned itself off.

This old rice cooker is a perfect example of “binary logic” in action. It chose one of two possible actions by asking itself a simple “yes or no” question:

Binary logic is also often referred to as “Boolean logic,” named after George Boole. His work became the basis for the modern digital computer, which often “thinks” about problems in terms of “yes or no” questions and uses 1’s (for yes) and 0’s (for no) in its computations.

Binary logic goes pretty far in computing systems, but sometimes this simple logic isn’t quite good enough. Consider the following example:

Suppose a highway has a speed limit of 65 mph. Those who drive faster than 65 mph belong to the set of “law-breakers” who are violating the speed limit, while those who drive slower belong to a different set of “law-abiding citizens.” Is the sharp transition between law-breakers and law abiding citizens realistic? Should a speeding ticket be issued to all drivers who are caught at 65.5 mph? Or at 65.9 mph? In practical situations, there is always a natural “fuzzification” where there is some overlap between two seemingly opposite sets.

Adapted from Introduction to Fuzzy Control

This “fuzzification” is the basis for “fuzzy logic” — a more advanced form of computer reasoning that helps computers mimic human experience and intuition. Instead of making decisions based on simple “yes or no” answers, fuzzy logic uses “truth values” between zero and one to deal with gray areas like the 65.5 and 65.9 mph drivers in the example above. Today, fuzzy logic controls everything from big wind turbines to home appliances like washing machines and air conditioners.

In the eighties and nineties, Japanese engineers decided to use fuzzy logic to build a better rice cooker. They hoped that a rice cooker controlled by “neuro-fuzzy” reasoning would mimic the experience and intuition of human cooks and ultimately produce tastier cooked rice:

The cooking process of experienced housewives should be reproduced. The process consists of a slow heat application, quick heating, intense heating at the middle and a long simmering period. Moreover, the heating process and the amount of water should be finely controlled according to the preferred stiffness of rice, type of rice, amount of rice and the amount of water, etc.

Applications of neural networks to home appliances (1993)

My husband and I got one of these fancy new rice cookers as a wedding gift. I’m not so sure how I feel about the old-fashioned view of housewives cooking rice, but the rice cooker certainly cooks rice better than I do. And now I finally understand why it has “neuro fuzzy” written all over it. Now, if only I could figure out why it sings Amaryllis to let you know your rice is done…

P.S. If all this programming stuff sounds interesting, go check out Code Academy. You can learn more about programming and even learn a few programming languages, no prior experience necessary.

*Who also helped write this post!

The Flavor Network Physicist Albert-László Barabási likes making connections. By studying...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:10:00 -0800

The Flavor Network

Physicist Albert-László Barabási likes making connections. By studying networks, Barabási and his Northeastern University research group improve our understanding of everything from the internet to human disease.

Now Barabási and colleagues are using networks to learn more about the way we eat. Read more…

Remember that time I told you about an amazing food science lecture series at UCLA? Well, Science...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:44:00 -0800

Remember that time I told you about an amazing food science lecture series at UCLA? Well, Science & Food is back and better than ever. Not only will they be presenting three new public lectures this spring, but they’ve also been hard at work creating awesome new internet content. Oh, and yours truly will be helping out! It’ll be like Bite-Sized Biology on food science steroids.

But wait! There’s more…Science & Food UCLA is now on Tumblr!

So if you’ve been craving more food science in your life, check out the Science & Food website, visit the blog, and follow @scienceandfood on Twitter for all the latest updates. And if you’re an LA local, stay tuned for more information about the public lectures.

It’s been said that to make a truly great discovery, a...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:16:00 -0800

It’s been said that to make a truly great discovery, a researcher needs two of three things: an outstanding work ethic, a touch of genius, and really good luck.

Hard work and a strong intellect make sense, but… Luck?

It’s astonishing how many breakthrough scientific discoveries can be attributed to chance. Sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time. And sometimes straight-up “mistakes” lead to big payoffs.

Like using Post-It notes? Their not-so-sticky glue was a failed attempt to create a super-strong adhesive. Can’t fry an egg without a non-stick pan? A scientist discovered Teflon when a chemical stock went bad. Ever take Penicillin? The fungus Penicillium rubens contaminated Alexander Flemming’s experiments.

If you’re still not convinced, check out this fun video from NSF about the discovery of the artificial sweeteners saccharin, cyclamate, and aspartame. Three scientists got a sweet surprise when they all made one silly mistake…

"sweet, sweet nutmeg"

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:12:00 -0800

This time of year, I look forward to two things: pigging out on holiday cookies and watching cheesy holiday specials. Somehow the holidays don’t seem complete without a rousing chorus of “Christmas Time is Here” or a trip to the Island of Misfit Toys. And don’t forget about all the great food-related scenes! The Grinch carving the “roast beast” in Whoville; Swedish Chef preparing Christmas dinner for all the Muppets; and, more recently, John Legend serenading his favorite holiday spice.

John Legend is totally right about this one. Nutmeg gives eggnog (and pie and cookies and cider) that extra Mmmmmmm. But what is it about this time of year that encourages us to put spices like nutmeg in just about everything?

Back in the day, people believed nutmeg had medicinal properties.

Nutmeges be good for them the whiche haue colde in theyr hed, and dothe comforte the syght and the brayne, & the mouthe of the stomacke, & is good for the splene.

Andrew Boorde, Dyetary of 1542

This may sound crazy to us now, but sixteenth century doctors were on to something. Nutmeg and other holiday spices contain chemicals very similar to mood-elevating drugs called amphetamines. Two amphetamine-like compounds called myristicin and elemecin are thought to give nutmeg its hallucinogenic and toxic properties.

But how do these compounds go from only being “amphetamine-like” to being the real deal? Some scientists have suggested the conversion occurs as the chemicals are metabolized by our bodies. And here’s my favorite hypothesis:

The typical spices used in winter include nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and anise. It was suggested 40 years ago by Alexander Shulgin that these substances [certain chemicals in the spices] act as metabolic precursors of amphetamines… Humans may be exposed to amphetamines derived from these precursors in furno, the formation during baking and cooking, for example in the preparation of Lebkuchen, or Christmas gingerbread… This may be responsible, in part, for uplifting our mood in winter.

Idle JR (2005) Prague Medical Report

Assuming you’re baking traditional Swiss Style Lebkuchen using old school baker’s ammonia instead of baking soda, the chemical reaction in your oven might look something like this:

Of course, this is all purely speculative. But if spices like nutmeg do provide super small doses of mood-lifting amphetamines, our historical preference for these spices during the cold, dark winter months sure makes a lot of sense.

Looking to mix things up this holiday season? Want your cookies to stand out in a crowd? Maybe you...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:45:00 -0800

Looking to mix things up this holiday season? Want your cookies to stand out in a crowd? Maybe you just like super awesome things? If you answered yes to any of these questions, be sure to check out this epic gallery of science cookies from Not So Humble Pie.

There you’ll find everything from edible circuit boards to surprisingly appetizing petri dishes. You’ll even see my favorite model organism rendered in cookie form. I’m pretty sure my gingerbread people will need lab coats from now on…

Bite-Sized Biology is now on Twitter!

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 11:15:28 -0800

Come chill with me (@bitesizedbio) in the Twittersphere — we can swap food science links, tweet at our food science heroes (I’m looking at you @altonbrown and @Harold_McGee), and make up crazy new hashtags like #thesugarcode.

Let’s do this!

"Are you there Brain? It's me, Stomach."

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 20:40:00 -0800

Quick! What’s your favorite thing about Thanksgiving?

     a. Spending time with friends and family
     b. The long weekend
     c. That crazy parade with all the floats
     d. Eating more food than you thought was humanly possible

Since you’re reading a food blog, I’m just going to assume you picked “d” and that, like me, you spend the ~~weeks~~ months before Thanksgiving mentally preparing to eat your weight in pumpkin pie.

I’m also going to assume that, despite your best efforts, you never quite reach that goal. But what exactly is going on when you get to that very last bite of pie? How does your brain know when your stomach is ready to throw in the towel?

Your brain communicates with your stomach through sensory neurons embedded in the stomach wall. As you eat, some of these neurons will sense how much your stomach has expanded to accommodate all that turkey and pie. Through a process called mechanotransduction, the neurons detect mechanical forces — the tension in the walls of a full stomach — and convert them into chemical signals that the brain can understand.

This transformation from mechanical inputs to chemical outputs involves special ion channels (so-called “mechanosensitive” ion channels) that allow charged particles to enter or exit a neuron in response to a mechanical force.

When your stomach expands, it physically deforms the many neurons embedded within its wall. The mechanosensitive ion channels in these neurons respond by opening, which allows specific ions to flow in or out of the neurons. This flow of ions triggers the release of chemical signals (neurotransmitters) that relay information to neighboring neurons and, ultimately, your brain. As your brain translates these chemical signals, you feel full and eventually stop eating.

When you loosen your belt and dig into that last piece of pie this Thursday, remember to give thanks for mechanotransduction!

I WISH YOU WOULD POST EVERYDAY. Your posts are awesome!

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:43:00 -0800

Why thank you! I wish I could post everyday, too, but this whole grad school thing keeps me pretty busy…

Hi there. I'm a Nutrition student and absolutely love you blog. I'm a California resident and with the elections going on tomorrow, I was wondering your stance on California's Prop 37: the labeling initiative of GMOs. Considering your background, I would love to hear your thoughts on this increasingly controversial topic. Thanks! Sara

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 01:32:00 -0800

Hi Sara! I’ve written a few posts about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that you can check out.

A tale of two salmon

Beyond the novelty of “humanized” milk

A bit of science for the summer

As before, I’d like to stress that not all GMOs are created equal. At the molecular level, the basic structure of DNA in all living things is the same. In this sense, there isn’t anything inherently dangerous about putting the DNA from one organism into another. So the question shouldn’t simply be whether or not something is a GMO, but rather who a particular GMO benefits and what environmental or health risks are associated with that particular GMO. I’ve already quoted UC Davis professor Pam Ronald on this, but it bears repeating:

“It’s not the method of introducing genes that’s critical, but it’s the product. What is the variety that’s being developed, and who do those varieties benefit?… All new crops must be considered on a case by case basis. We cannot simply say that genetic engineering is all beneficial or all harmful; we really need to look at the crops developed through this technique.”

What bothers me most about Prop 37 is the anti-science mentality adopted by many (though surely not all) of its supporters. I don’t understand how some Prop 37 supporters can so confidently claim that GMO food is not “real” food. And why is it that some Prop 37 supporters seem to equate all biotechnology with big agribusinesses like Monsanto and DuPont?

As much as I might complain about Prop 37, I’m not a big fan of Monsanto either. And I do agree that consumers should have full disclosure about what they are buying and eating. From this perspective, maybe Prop 37 could at least be a step in the right direction.

However, I still question how much information Prop 37’s catch-all GMO labeling will really give consumers. And with all the labeling exemptions, even many of Prop37’s supporters seem confused about what will actually get labeled. For example, products from animals fed or injected with GMOs or GMO products are exempt from labeling. If you don’t want to dive into the text of the proposition itself, ucbiotech.org has a handy chart of what would be labeled and what would be exempt.

If you still want to read more, UC Berkeley professor Michael Eisen has made a very thoughtful and eloquent argument against Prop 37:

Michael Eisen - Prop 37 and the right to know nothing

However you ultimately vote on this issue, I would urge you not to base your decision on some anti-GMO paranoia that all GMOs are inherently scary or dangerous. Whether Prop 37 passes or fails, dispelling this paranoia will be critical for having a thoughtful and productive discussion about the place of GMOs in our society.

Remember last year when the internet was freaking out over...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 12:41:00 -0700

Remember last year when the internet was freaking out over things like breast milk ice cream and humanized cow milk? Well now some pretty awesome scientists are putting their own spin on things by making human cheese. And it’s not what you’re probably thinking. There’s no human or human-like milk products in this cheese. Instead, the scientists are experimenting with human bacteria samples collected from South By Southwest attendees. To learn more, listen to Lindsay Patterson’s fantastic story, and visit bacterially.org to follow the progress of the human cheese project.

lindsaypatterson:

It’s finally here! The human cheese is here!

For the past six months, when people ask “What are you working on?” I have to explain what “human cheese” is. Hearing the reaction to that phrase never got old.

The short version is that Christina Agapakis, a brilliant and hip biologist (and a childhood friend of my best friend), has made cheese using human bacteria. It’s a pretty simple project actually. Most cheeses start with bacteria. Christina has just replaced the pure strains with a potpourri of bacterial communities taken from the dirtiest places on the body.

I did most of the recording at South By Southwest, where I (and a few other Austin science communicators) helped Christina set up an event called South By South Swab. It was at a popular bar called Cheer Up Charlie’s. The human cheese project started as an art/science collaboration, but Christina is now interpreting it more as a science outreach project. You can see the project at bacterially.org.

I got some awesome tape, most of which was not appropriate to put on an educational podcast (see “I’m Gonna Make Cheese Outta You”).

I also got to talk with Austin’s most famous cheesemonger, John Antonelli. The man knows a heck of a lot about cheese. If you want to know more about the science of cheese making, he recommends Harold McGee’s book, On Food and Cooking.

This was a very fun story. Many thanks to my amazing and patient editor, Mia Lobel, as well as Christina Agapakis, John Antonelli, and Joe Hanson.

does this triglyceride make me look fat?

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 08:31:00 -0700

While cooking, I usually make an effort to cut down the fat in my favorite recipes. If I can get away with it, I’ll swap out butter for vegetable oils or use low fat cheeses and milk in place of their heavier counterparts. But sometimes, I just have to give in. Sometimes, there’s nothing better than a giant serving of ooey-gooey full-fat goodness. I mean, how could anyone say no to a bowl full of clam chowder or a heaping side of spinach gratin? And don’t even get me started on this amazing coconut milk bread pudding. With a buttery brioche base, creamy coconut milk, and a generous topping of pistachios and candied ginger, this bread pudding is decadence at its finest.

But what’s the deal with fat, anyway? Why do different fats like olive oil and butter look and behave so differently? And what do terms like “saturated” and “unsaturated” really mean?

Meet the “triglyceride”, aka a fat molecule:

Each fat molecule is made up of three long chains of carbon atoms, called fatty acids, all attached to one glycerol molecule. The fatty acids are really the business end of the fat molecule, while the glycerol just acts as a kind of glue holding the whole thing together.

The triglyceride here shows just three examples of the many different types of fatty acids found in nature. Different fatty acids are characterized by two primary molecular properties: their length (how many total carbon atoms there are in the chain) and their double bonds (how many there are and where they appear in the chain). A “saturated” fatty acid like stearate has zero double bonds and every carbon atom in the chain is completely decorated, or saturated, with hydrogen atoms. An “unsaturated” fatty acid like oleate or linoleate has at least one double bond within its carbon chain. Formation of each double bond releases two hydrogen atoms from the chain, resulting in a fatty acid that’s no longer fully saturated by hydrogen atoms.

Now here’s my favorite thing about fats: the molecular details of fatty acids directly affect the more practical properties of the fats we cook with. Saturated fatty acids can pack together tightly. Because of this, fats that are high in saturated fatty acids (like butter and palm oil) tend to be solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fatty acids, on the other hand, don’t pack as efficiently. Their double bonds almost always* produce kinks in the fatty acid that make packing harder. It’s sort of like trying to fill a box full of bendy straws — no matter how hard you try, they’ll never pack as well as straight straws. As such, fats that are high in unsaturated fatty acids (like olive oil and canola oil) are generally liquid at room temperature. So the next time you slice into a stick of butter or drizzle olive oil on your salad, remember just what a big difference some teeny tiny double bonds can make.

*Fats with double bonds that don’t form a kink in the fatty acid chain are commonly known as trans fats. Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about them soon!

...and we're back!

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:30:00 -0700

First things first: a BIG welcome to all you new followers and an even bigger thank you to all of you for sticking around while I was away. I promise there will be plenty of new posts here at Bite-Sized Biology!

Here’s something awesome you might have missed these last few months: a series of food science lectures at UCLA. Check out some of the highlights…

The Exploration of Deliciousness
René Rezdepi (noma) and Lars Williams (Nordic Food Lab)
Two daring Nordic chefs question our conception of what is “delicious” or even “edible.” Tasting samples included seaweed ice cream and cricket sauce. Yup… cricket sauce. With fermented barley, no less. And it was GOOD. Learn more about this lecture here and here.

Microbes in My Ramen?
David Chang (Momofuku) and Peter Meehan (Lucky Peach)
David Chang explains how fermentation by microbes creates umami — aka EPIC deliciousness — and shows off a recent food lab invention: pistachio miso paste. Read more about this lecture here and here. (We’ll save Chef Chang’s thoughts on MSG for another day…)

The Science of Sweetness
Sherry Yard (Spago), Jimmy Shaw (Loteria Grill), Bill Yosses (White House)
Jimmy Shaw discusses the role of viscosity in traditional Mexican cuisine while Sherry Yard excitedly proclaims “POOF! There it is!” to explain how butter creates flaky, puffy pastries. Find more here.

Okay but that still doesn’t explain why I’ve been M.I.A. for so long. Well, at the end of July I got married! Planning the wedding took up pretty much all my free time, but it was totally worth it. And omigosh you guys… let me tell you — the food I ate on our honeymoon was absolutely phenomenal! The hubby and I must have gained at least five pounds that week.

First there was a stop at my favorite undergrad haunt, Fentons Creamery. If you’ve seen the movie Up, then this Oakland landmark might look familiar… There was also a quirky dinner at Iron Chef Morimoto’s restuarant in Napa (Calpico in my cocktail? Kimchee with my porkchop? Yes, please!) followed by a spectacular meal at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. And the highlight of the week? A to-die-for dinner at Berkeley’s own Chez Panisse, complete with a tour of the kitchen. It was definitely an unforgettable week full of equally memorable food!

Hey, I'm glad I found your blog! Seldom had insights such as these - and get to polish my biochemistry while reading about food..."Baby peppers" are a common occurence in my peppers and I always wondered about that (on of them once had twins - it was sort of sad killing a complete pepper familiy...). Thank-you!

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:04:38 -0700

You’re very welcome! My condolences to the pepper family, but I’m sure they found a happy resting place on your plate.

I am in absolute love with your blog. thank you!

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:21:08 -0700

So glad you like it!

Your blog is excellent! This kind of scientific writing about everyday things is what my blog was intended to be, but now it's only every so often. I'm a college graduate with a bachelors of science in environmental biology and a minor in writing and I absolutely love food science and cooking. I find parallels between biology, chemistry, and cooking every time I cook. I believe I'm a much better cook because of my analytic background. I love knowing that there are others out there like me!

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 00:24:40 -0700

Food science nerds unite! I’ve been following your blog and I love what you’re doing. Even if it’s intermittent, keep up the science writing - there are plenty of us who want to share your scientific curiosity and hear your analytical perspective of the world around us.

P.S. Based on your blog, it seems that we may also be kindred coffeeholics!

Man, I just came a cross your blog. I just started using tumblr after it was recommended to me by my girlfriend. I've always been fascinated by food which is why I'm graduating from culinary school this may (Johnson & Wales in Providence). The biochemistry of food fascinates me to the fullest. I love to read books by Harold Mcgee and Herve This, but I always have trouble with some of the vocabulary used in relation to chemistry. I just wanted to let you know I love what you're doing.

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:27:37 -0700

Belated congratulations on your graduation! It really means a lot to get such positive feedback from someone in the culinary world. I agree that the food science literature can be tough to read sometimes, so I’m glad to hear that Bite-Sized Biology is helping make some of that science more accessible. The biochemistry of food IS fascinating and everyone should be able to share in all the science fun!