It’s responsible for one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies ever, but even I know not to put aluminum foul in the microwave. (For more reasons why not, physicist Dave McCowan explains in a recent Takeout Food Science article.)

When I told my mom I hadn’t purchased a microwave for the house I moved into a year ago, she balked, then offered to send me money to buy a microwave. Thoughtful coworkers have also volunteered to spearhead crowdfunding campaigns.

In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food.