How chefs suspend liquid in edible pearls resembling caviar to introduce a new texture to fluids

A collection of molecular gastronomy techniques, from flavored air to turning oils into powder

Soy lecithin can be blended with flavored mixtures, such as herbs and Parmesan, to produce edible bubbles, which can be frozen into a solid foam. Maltodextrin can be combined with liquid fats in a food processor to create light, flavorful powders.

A breakdown of gelling agents used to modify a liquid's texture

Gelatin, agar, and other substances form a structural network that traps liquid, making it appear solid and enabling chefs to create stable layers in pastries and confectionery products. In different concentrations, they can also be used to thicken liquids into gels or encase them in gelatinous spheres.

Watch Anthony Bourdain's meal at El Bulli, which popularized molecular gastronomy

The 'drinks' included cocktails in the form of alcohol-infused sugarcanes, a cotton candy piña colada, and a dual-textured, temperature-changing gin fizz. Foods included a gorgonzola cheese sphere with the consistency of a chocolate egg and a dish of freeze-dried and foam tofu with the appearance and texture of tiramisu.

A guide to making ice cream with liquid nitrogen by flash-freezing dairy

Only existing in liquid form at extremely low temperatures, nitrogen can rapidly freeze cream, coconut milk, and other liquids into small crystals, producing smooth, creamy ice cream. As a safety precaution, liquid nitrogen should be handled in a well-ventilated area with safety goggles and protective gloves.

How to create salad dressings with oil and water solutions that don't separate into layers

Such dressings, even when whisked together, often break within a few minutes, resulting in bites that are either harsh or oily. Small amounts of emulsifiers, such as mustard or mayonnaise, can stabilize and suspend oil droplets in water for longer periods because they possess both hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-repelling) ends.

Chemistry-informed advice for cooking pasta, including how to prevent clumping noodles

On a molecular level, pasta dough consists of protein structures that hold starch molecules, and the starches absorb water during cooking, forming a gel that softens the pasta. Pasta should not be rinsed after cooking. Instead, some of the pasta water should be added to the pasta sauce, as the gelatinous starch will help the sauce stick to the pasta.

How disgorgement works while making sparkling wine

After riddling, winemakers still need to dispose of collected sediment in wines. While this was once done by hand, the modern method of freezing the bottle's neck and removing the now-solid sediment is ubiquitous. In this short video, an enologist (wine expert) from California’s Halter Ranch vineyards explains each step of the mechanical disgorgement process, complete with footage from their production line.

Japanese scientists develop an eco-friendly plastic that dissolves in saltwater

The strong and flexible plastic is made from molecules held together by saltwater-sensitive chemical bonds. The components left after the plastic breaks down within hours contain phosphorus and nitrogen, allowing them to serve as soil fertilizer.

Stereolithography uses light to fabricate objects in layers via chemical reactions

Specific locations in a tank of light-sensitive liquid resin are exposed to projected light, causing them to cure onto a build platform. The resulting cross-section of hardened plastic is moved slightly away from the light source, exposing it to resin once more, and the process repeats to produce successive layers.

The benefits of sous vide: cooking food in bags immersed in water

Through this technique, food can be prepared to precise temperatures lower than those of open flames, without the risk of overcooking, with less oil, fat, and salt, and without requiring ongoing attention. By allowing for long cooking times, tougher cuts of meat can also be prepared at lower temperatures.

When experiencing turbulence, fluid elements undergo stretching and folding

Simulations show patches of fluid particles, such as splashes of milk, bend under turbulent flow, creating curvature that grows linearly then exponentially. This accelerated deformation enhances folding and mixing faster than other methods, such as stirring or beating.

Why trying to freeze helium creates a fluid that can travel through solids and climb walls

Once cooled to temperatures just above 2 Kelvin, helium-4 atoms begin to exhibit superfluidity, a quantum property in which all atoms collectively inhabit the same low-energy state and behave in perfect unison. This coordination removes the internal friction that causes liquids to cling to surfaces, allowing them to slide through microscopic pores and scale container walls.

The extremophilic origins of watermelon snow and its impact on glacial melting

Also known as "blood snow," the red coloration is produced by snow algae that thrive in extremely cold conditions and take the shape of red spherical cysts in winter. To protect themselves from more intense summer solar radiation, these psychrophiles accumulate red, orange, and yellow pigments, intensifying their coloration and causing glaciers to reflect less sunlight than if they were white.

Sushi apprenticeships often last for at least 10 years

Sushi is often treated as a precise art form, with master chefs taking on apprentices who must slowly earn the responsibility of preparing the food. In the video below, Oona Tempest, an apprentice at Tanoshi Sushi NYC, explains what the years-long process entails.

The conditions needed for cloud iridescence, or rainbow clouds

The relatively rare phenomenon occurs when sunlight scatters off tiny water droplets or ice crystals in thin, newly-forming or semi-transparent clouds, such as altocumulus, cirrocumulus, lenticular, and cirrus varieties. This effect is similar to what is seen in soap bubbles and mother-of-pearl shells and produces pastel-like colors.

Solid-state batteries substitute the fluid electrolyte layer with a solid

The non-flammable solid greatly reduces the risk of fire and explosion, as well as the release of toxic gases via leaks in the existing sulfide-based systems. These batteries use garnet-type solid electrolytes, which provide high ionic conductivity and chemical stability but require temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) for fabrication.

One NHL team tosses salmon to its fans

Detroit Red Wings fans have thrown octopuses on the ice since 1952, and fans of other teams have tried their own hand at tossing things in the rink ever since. It's now become a calling card for the Seattle Kraken, whose fans nod to the city's Pike Place Market by tossing salmon onto the ice.

Meet siphonophores, breathtaking jellyfish-like organisms

Siphonophores are colonial jelly-like creatures made up of specialized segments that work together as one. They're fairly unknown despite being a significant sea predator. Sink into their strange beauty with this video.

Alkaline hydrolysis—dissolving the body—is one 'green' burial option

This approach, which is sometimes called flameless cremation, involves dissolving the body with water and chemicals. The remaining bone fragments can then be spread like ashes. It was reportedly incorporated into the funeral industry in 2011.

The world's longest-running science experiment aims to prove if pitch is a liquid

Having run continuously since 1927, the pitch drop experiment is designed to show that the seemingly solid derivative of tar is a liquid by watching to see it drip through a tunnel. From 1930 to 2025, the substance has only produced nine drops, such that its viscosity—resistance to flow—is about two million times more than honey.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Why caviar is still so expensive, even though it's no longer rare

An ounce of caviar can cost more than $250, even though China has flooded the market with a surge in supply over the past decade. As it turns out, the perception of caviar as a luxury good rather than a true scarcity is part of what keeps it so expensive.

It's called kosher salt because it works for curing kosher meat

Kosher foods align with Jewish religious customs based on scripture. While there is a type of salt that is kosher (most often, salts without iodine), the kosher salt you see around the US is actually big, flaky salts used in a kosher process of curing meats.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Ammonium may be the sixth basic taste

Researchers have proposed various candidates for the sixth official taste, including "fat." But research published in 2023 posits that ammonium should be considered the sixth taste since they found humans can apparently detect ammonium chloride, which the scientists describe as "bitter, salty, and a little sour." Detecting ammonia could be a survival mechanism to help detect when certain foods, including seafood, are no longer safe to eat. The work hinged on experiments with human cells exposed to ammonium chloride as well as rodent research.

The history of soap and how it forms bathtub scum and white spots in old oil paintings

Soap has been produced since at least 2,200 BCE via a chemical reaction between fats or oils and a base. This creates salts that act as molecular bridges, helping water lift dirt and grease from surfaces. The same chemistry produces scum when metals in hard water bind to soap molecules, as well as white spots in paintings when metal ions in pigments react with fatty acids in the oil binder.

Cantaloupe’s textured skin boosts the risk of food poisoning

Food safety expert Darin Wetwiler says he prefers to stay clear of this fruit altogether since it’s so hard to keep the textured skin pathogen-free. He advises trying to avoid pre-cut cantaloupe in particular, since consumers won’t know when the fruit was sliced and pathogens on the outside could have been spread to the part we consume during slicing and multiplied.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

The boiling temperature of water decreases with increasing elevation because the molecules need less energy to overcome the lower atmospheric pressure associated with thinner air.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.