Posts

May 08, 2013

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6:30 PM | What Chefs David Chang And Traci Des Jardins Think Of Space Food

Verdict: "Some very questionable flavor profiles" Two of the nation's finest chefs were invited to NASA's Space Food Systems Laboratory by Tested.com to sample the meals served on the International Space Station. Apparently, the space dishes, which are retorted for long-term storage -- always an obstacle to flavor -- don't taste so great. David Chang, empire-builder of Momofuku, compares the crawfish etouffée to prison food, and Traci Des Jardins, whose San Francisco restaurant Jardinière is […]

April 17, 2013

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3:00 PM | The Chemistry of Nitrous-Powered, Pot-Infused Liquor

Green Dragon Paul AdamsHow one New York bartender fused alcohol and marijuana forever Behind the bars of some of the nation's finest cocktail joints, there are secrets: secret recipes, secret bottles for friends only. One of these is the Green Dragon, a liquor potently infused with marijuana. There've been alcohol-based tinctures of cannabis before, of course -- usually seen in turbid brown jars on windowsills, But one prominent New York bartender (I'll call him Jon) has been responsible for […]

April 05, 2013

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5:31 PM | Watch Raspberries Shatter In Slow Motion

A dramatic way to garnish PopSci is pleased to present videos created by ChefSteps, the free-to-learn culinary school started by alumni of the creative team behind Modernist Cuisine. These original videos explore the art and science of cooking, as well as provide a glimpse into unseen or unnoticed phenomena that occur in our kitchens. The magnificent, intense-flavored raspberry is an aggregate fruit, composed of 100 or so drupelets. You can pull these apart with your fingers or teeth, […]

March 15, 2013

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9:30 PM | An Inhalable Tornado Of Whisky

Whisky Tornado Bompas & ParrTickets are available now. Sam Bompas and Harry Parr are a breed unto themselves; young British purveyors of culinary spectacle whose most recent book, Feasting, includes recipes for simple dishes like ham covered in glitter, as well as elaborations entailing octopus tentacles, diethyl ether, and explosives. In the past, they've constructed events like a lake of alcoholic punch you can row across (indoors) and a room full of vaporized gin and tonic. Now, in a new […]

February 21, 2013

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10:31 PM | It Is Unlikely That You Have Really Eaten Snapper Sashimi

What Is That Snapper Really? OceanaDNA testing of retail seafood finds that fish fraud is rampant around the nation. Oceana, an organization dedicated to ocean conservation, has bought over 1,200 samples of fish from restaurants and stores around the country, and submitted them to DNA testing to identify their species. The final report, released today, shows that almost all fish labeled as snapper is not snapper; "white tuna" is really escolar (which is banned in Italy and Japan for its […]

February 12, 2013

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3:22 PM | Ask The White House About Energy And The Environment

The White House via WhiteHouse.govFollowing the State of the Union, the government wants your questions. Tomorrow, February 13, the White House will be hosting an "Open For Questions" session, in which officials answer questions from the public. As part of this, I will be conducting a live-streamed panel with Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Policy. We want your questions! Submit them here, on Twitter (@popsci #WHChat or #SOTU), or on Facebook.

February 08, 2013

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5:30 PM | Alaska Brewery Uses Beer To Make More Beer

Draff JinxThe Alaskan Brewing Company burns its own spent grain for fuel. The Associated Press has the story of Juneau's Alaskan Brewing Company, which has installed a pleasingly sustainable new boiler system that takes grain that's been used in the brewing process and burns it to power the brewery. Other breweries, such as Newcastle in the UK, have been burning spent grain for fuel before, but mixed with wood or other fuels; Alaskan claims to be the first brewery with an energy system powered […]

February 07, 2013

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4:25 PM | Creating Solid Nitrogen In The Kitchen

A slow motion video from a high-tech kitchen shows the creation of a form of matter you've probably never seen before. PopSci is pleased to present videos created by ChefSteps, the free-to-learn culinary school started by alumni of the creative team behind Modernist Cuisine. These original videos explore the art and science of cooking, as well as provide a glimpse into unseen or unnoticed phenomena that occur in our kitchens. The team at ChefSteps, a brand new online cooking school, created […]

February 06, 2013

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7:43 PM | Romantic Jays Take Care To Feed Their Mates What They Particularly Crave

Jay Couple courtesy Cambridge UniversityIn advance of Valentine's Day, a new study finds sweet behavior in bird couples. Cambridge researchers took pairs of mated jaybirds and put them in adjoining compartments, so that the male could see what the female was doing through a window. They then fed the female a meal of delicious larvae of one particular kind -- either all waxmoth larvae or all mealworm larvae, while her partner looked on. The bird couple was then reunited, and the male took up its […]

February 04, 2013

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8:15 PM | FCC Proposes Free WiFi For Everyone In The U.S.

Wi-Fi Everywhere Joe MabelThe grand plan would bring universal internet access to humans and robots alike. Julius Genachowski and his Federal Communications Commission have proposed a first-of-its-kind plan: create a freely accessible wireless internet service that would be available throughout the United States. Though it might take several years to roll out, it could potentially replace the home broadband connections we pay for, as well as facilitate other wireless-data technologies like free […]

January 29, 2013

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9:28 PM | Sciency Super Bowl Snacks: Modernist Seven-Layer Dip

Seven-Layer Dip Modernist CuisineFire up the pressure cooker and emulsify the cheese: it's almost game time! Johnny Zhu from the Modernist Cuisine kitchen shares a seasonal recipe. The layers are: pressure-cooked pork carnitas; pressure-cooked refried beans; cheese emulsified with sodium citrate; and startlingly traditional top strata of salsa, avocado, sour cream, and scallions. See the recipe here. The question remains, though: why seven layers? What is the numerological significance?

December 19, 2012

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9:29 PM | BigDog Robot Learns To Obey Voice Commands, Follow, Roll Over

DARPA's menacing military machine gains some new tricks. The Legged Squad Support System, a.k.a. BigDog, which looks more like the offspring of a bull and a spider than a dog, shows off some new skills in this video. At the order "Follow tight," the stocky robot keeps pace behind its master, trekking uphill through autumnal woods with an ominous whine of servos. It also demonstrates an impressive ability to stand back up and continue marching after suffering a nasty roll into a puddle.

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3:01 PM | Unproven Stem-Cell Cosmetic Treatments Can Grow Bones In Your Eyes

Osteocyte Visual HistologyNew cosmetic creams and therapies that make use of stem cells carry bizarre, gruesome risks. A woman in Los Angeles went to her doctor with pain and clicking in her eyelid, following a cosmetic procedure a few months earlier. The doctor, Scientific American reports, surgically removed pieces of bone that were growing in the flesh around her eye. The cosmetic surgery she had had extracted adult stem cells from her belly fat, isolated them, and injected them around her […]

December 17, 2012

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8:02 PM | 8 Gifts For The Tech-Minded Cook

The Modernist Cuisine Kitchen Paul AdamsGifts that ensure you will be invited over for an elaborate dinner Do you have a friend whose kitchen aspires to be a laboratory, who weighs every ingredient to the milligram, who can name half a dozen culinary hydrocolloids and their relative merits? These are gifts for that person.

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3:00 PM | Video: Arctic Fox Cubs Practice Their Pounces

Learning skills that will be invaluable in later foxhood The BBC's new television show "Snow Babies" (premiering next week) explores the lives of baby animals in cold places -- penguins, reindeer, polar bears, and others. This preview video follows a family of Arctic foxes to see what the youngsters do when their parents aren't supervising. The answer: dramatic vertical pounce play.

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1:58 PM | To Pinpoint Audio Evidence, UK Police Record 7 Years Of Background Noise

Audio Recording Forensic Informatics Biometric RepositoryThe electrical hum in the background of a call can identify precisely when it happened. Metropolitan police in London have been recording the hum of the nation's electrical grid for the last seven years, the BBC reports. And not just for fun: fluctuations in the sound enable audio forensic experts to pinpoint the time when any digital recording--of, say, a phone call--was made. The hum varies subtly, a matter of millihertz, due to power […]

November 29, 2012

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7:24 PM | NASA Confirms Presence Of Water Ice On Mercury

A First Look at Mercury's Northern Polar Region Messenger's Wide Angle Camera imaged this never-before-seen patch of terrain near Mercury's North Pole during its first pass over the region after the camera was activated. At this point Mercury is just 280 miles above the surface. The spacecraft's elliptical orbit brings it as close as 125 miles from the surface and as far away as 9,300 miles. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington Daytime on […]

November 14, 2012

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6:58 PM | A Seasonal Sour From A Scientific Bartender

A Flavor Map of the Somerset Sour This is a highly scientific map of the aromatic journey you experience as you drink a Somerset Sour, from sweet blue sugar to green hay. See it bigger! from Drinks by Tony ConigliaroThe creations of this London bartender are among the tastiest marriages of art and science. In his new book, he reveals some secrets. At 69 Colebrooke Row, his bar in London, Tony Conigliaro serves understated, finely balanced cocktails that taste so effortless you can hardly tell […]