Coffee is the lifeblood of most of our mornings, but do you know what’s actually inside that cup of coffee you’re drinking each day? You’d be surprised.
Tag: Science
The Periodic Table With The Country Of Discovery For Each Of The Elements
Another day, another awesome take on the Periodic Table of Elements. In this one, science communicator and PhD student Jamie Gallagher mapped out where the scientists were living when they made their discoveries.
How To Of The Day: How To Pour The Perfect Glass of Water
This is how you do it!
In his ongoing series Bryce Chartwell offers his not inconsiderable advice on how to pour the perfect glass of water. Contrary to popular opinion (something Bryce is never unduly influenced by) this is actually harder than it may first appear. Bryce walks the viewer through the left-handed “De Fluge” technique, first developed in the spas of Europe in the late 19th century.
Science-Approved Hangover Cure
You can’t argue with science!
“Old Sober” Hangover Cure is Science-Approved
Scientists say the legendary New Orleans’ noodle dish is proven to cure a hangover.
Scientists have proven the legendary New Orleans hangover remedy “Old Sober” is more than just an old wives’ tale. Yesterday at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Dr. Alyson E. Mitchell of UC Davis presented evidence on how the noodle soup dish, also known as “Yaka-mein,” can ease the morning-after symptoms brought on by heavy drinking. The dish, often sold from sidewalk vendors during New Orleans festivals, is made with a salty beef and soy-based broth, carb-rich spaghetti noodles, a protein source like beef (or chicken or shrimp), onions, chopped scallions and a sliced hard-boiled egg. The recipe is rumored to have originated in Korea, and traveled stateside after the war. “Folklore has it that American soldiers from New Orleans stationed in Korea in the 1950s learned to appreciate Yak-a-mein on the morning after, and brought a taste for it back home,” says Mitchell. “It may be a good example of intuitive science—an effective remedy, and with the scientific basis revealed only years later.”
So how does it work, exactly? The broth helps replace sodium, potassium and other salts lost through urination from alcohol’s diuretic effects. The egg contains cysteine, proven to help remove acetaldehyde, the product of ethylene metabolization thought to cause hangovers. And the noodles are rich in much-needed carbohydrates. “Old Sober” also contains at least two sources of vitamin B1, eggs and wheat-based noodles, which helps prevent the buildup of glutarate—a substance linked to headaches. Scientists have yet to verify a number of other traditional hangover cures from around the world, including:
- a lump of soot from the fireplace mixed into a glass of warm milk
- a pickled herring wrapped around an onion or pickle
- a prairie oyster—a concoction of vinegar, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, tomato juice and a raw egg
- Montreal’s poutine (fries drowned in cheese and gravy)
- buffalo milk
- rubbing lemon juice under your “drinking arm”
- voodoo
Machine That Turns Sweat Into Drinking Water
A group of Swedes have created a machine that turns sweat into drinking water.
Out with the old, in with the new!
To highlight the seriousness of potable water shortage in some parts of Africa and Asia a group of tech-savvy Swedes have created a machine that turns perspiration into drinking water. Aptly named the “Sweat Machine” was inspired by technology used by NASA to recycle everything from human sweat to urine.
Developed by a team of engineers led by Andreas Hammar, the Sweat Machine works by extracting the perspiration, which is 99% water, out of people’s clothes. Sweaty garments are tossed into a dryer, where they are spun and squeezed for every last drop of liquid. The gathered sweat then gets heated, exposed to ultra-violet light and passed through a series of high-tech filters to remove the salt and bacteria. During the final stage of the purification process, the sweat goes through a coffee filter that retains any textile fibers left over from the clothes. The result is perfectly drinkable distilled water. Although the exact capacity of the dryer is yet unknown, the inventors say it takes a full load of sweaty shirts and shorts to produce a pint of potable water. Drinking your own and other people’s sweat sounds disgusting, but according to one brave sommelier, it actually has nice sweet taste.
Load More