Continuing Education (or, cool stuff I learned last week)
1. Frugivorous Fish
The are quite a few species of fish in the Amazon (including some pirhanas) that eat fruit and seeds in flood season, and are instrumental in seed dispersal.
2. Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Rumored to be the best ice cream ever by some who have dared to create it. According to the chemists involved, the smaller the ice crystals in the ice cream, the creamier the texture (always desirable). With the following method, the mixture freezes so fast that only small ice crystals have time to form. Liquid nitrogen is poured (veerrrrry carefully) into any standard ice cream base and stirred. In a short time ... Ben and Jerry's, eat your heart out! I didn't know this, but liquid nitrogen will usually just boil away if splashed on the skin. The only way to get a really bad "cold burn" is if it's trapped in contact with the skin -- in a closed fist, for instance. I'm trying to convince Scott that we should make the experiment, come summer. He's not too enthused.
3. Here Comes The Rain ... Again
A body of water contaminated by soap, even a very thin layer not visible to the eye, has a lower surface tension than normal. Thus, when raindrops fall into such a lake, they can keep their shape for several seconds, floating around like little drops of mercury. We got caught in a downpour on the docks by Lake Washington and witnessed this, although we couldn't figure out what we were seeing. If you can describe a phenomenon accurately, you can almost always Google a good answer. I'm not one hundred percent sure this is the right explanation, but it seems to fit.
The are quite a few species of fish in the Amazon (including some pirhanas) that eat fruit and seeds in flood season, and are instrumental in seed dispersal.
2. Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream
Rumored to be the best ice cream ever by some who have dared to create it. According to the chemists involved, the smaller the ice crystals in the ice cream, the creamier the texture (always desirable). With the following method, the mixture freezes so fast that only small ice crystals have time to form. Liquid nitrogen is poured (veerrrrry carefully) into any standard ice cream base and stirred. In a short time ... Ben and Jerry's, eat your heart out! I didn't know this, but liquid nitrogen will usually just boil away if splashed on the skin. The only way to get a really bad "cold burn" is if it's trapped in contact with the skin -- in a closed fist, for instance. I'm trying to convince Scott that we should make the experiment, come summer. He's not too enthused.
3. Here Comes The Rain ... Again
A body of water contaminated by soap, even a very thin layer not visible to the eye, has a lower surface tension than normal. Thus, when raindrops fall into such a lake, they can keep their shape for several seconds, floating around like little drops of mercury. We got caught in a downpour on the docks by Lake Washington and witnessed this, although we couldn't figure out what we were seeing. If you can describe a phenomenon accurately, you can almost always Google a good answer. I'm not one hundred percent sure this is the right explanation, but it seems to fit.
posted by Jennifer at 9:47 AM
3 Comments:
Hi Jennifer:
"Frugivorous" is such a wonderful word. Now I must use it somehow, somewhere, soon.
I have access to liquid nitrogen at work. You bring the Ben & Jerry's, and we're set.
--Peter
I adore words like "frugivorous"; I've got a whole jewelry box full.
It's a date.
I just finished Sy Montgomery's Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest and she talks about flooded forests where the trees depend on fish to eat their fruit (& spread the seeds). Good book.
By the way, I didn't know how to spell or pronounce "piranha" until I studied Portuguese. Think Peer-AN-ya ... the "h" after the "n" indicates a "y" sound. Hard to believe anything shares the water with that nasty thing.
I've seen the skating raindrop effect, too, and wondered about it. And I'll have to clue in the house's ice cream maker to liquid nitrogen. Thanks for the seminar.
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