Science! Smithsonian reports that archaeologists have found the oldest direct evidence of beer in some ancient clay cups. This discovery is courtesy of a new technique that can tell the difference between compounds in sunscreen and wine—a difficult challenge, apparently. Now those same scientists are trying to brew a…
Today, the New York Post directs our attention to a study commissioned by Jordan Winery, which found that Americans, on average, fall in love with wine at around age 29. Presumably that’s at least in part because Americans, on average, start feeling like we’re too damn old to throw back tequila shots and too damn…
When I lived in Phoenix where summer temperatures reached 120º Fahrenheit, in between praying for swift death I would often wonder about the cliché frying-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk bit. Could you really fry an egg on pavement? Testing it would require leaving my air-conditioned cave, so I never did it, but it sure felt…
Earlier this year, we wrote about two Aldi spirits—Highland Black Scotch Whisky and Glen Marnoch Islay Single Malt—that swiped awards at an international spirits competition. In that piece, we also bemoaned the fact that we, humble U.S.-based writers that we are, cannot enjoy said spirits, because Aldi doesn’t sell…
Science! It’s one of the best things about being alive, and when the worlds of science and food collide, it means I get use use an exclamation point with complete sincerity. Today’s nugget of emphatic exuberance comes courtesy of Popular Science—more specifically, a piece on the Chinese Northern Tree Shrew and its hot…
Science! It inspires wonder! It solves mysteries, and creates new ones! It is world-changing, mind-blowing, earth-is-definitely-round-proving stuff! And today, it has made plain what mouths have known for centuries: pizza just tastes really damn good when it comes out of a wood-fired brick oven.
There’s a part of my brain that wanted to go all “Eat The Rich” on this story, but screw it, this is just too cool to harrumph. Cheers to Wine Spectator for bringing our attention to the work of champagne house G. H. Mumm, which has, with the help of design agency Spade, created the Mumm Grand Cordon Stellar. It’s…
The Stanford marshmallow test is a psychological experiment that goes back to the ’60s. As The Atlantic described it earlier this month:
We’ve heard numerous times that eating mindfully can help us enjoy our food more and potentially curtail overeating. Of course that sounds great in theory, but when I have six minutes before I need to be out the door, and the dog still needs to be let out, and my phone’s beeping at me, mindful eating gets tossed in…
You know how people say “did you take this with a potato?” (I didn’t, but apparently they do.) Well, the people at Corridor Team, a production company, are apparently super committed to that particular phrase, because they set about finding a way to answer that question with “yes, I did in fact take that with a…
It’s possible to make whiskey taste as though it’s been aged for years without actually aging it for years, and it does not require possession of a TARDIS.
You should eat cake for breakfast, according to science. The level of insulin in the body fluctuates throughout the day, but is typically highest in the morning. That means any sugary stuffed housed in the early hours is more likely to be converted into fuel, rather than stored as fat, which is what happens when…
Hangar 1 Vodka makes a vodka called Fog Point. It is made from fog water.
What didn’t I learn? Reading through a National Geographic piece about a bald eagle snatching up a fox who himself was snatching up a rabbit, I learned that bald eagles are kleptoparasites, which means they steal food or prey from other animals. This makes the mighty bald eagle an animal kingdom equivalent to your one…
Good morning. Here is some fish news.
This is the story of a very hungry caterpillar, a very clever “zombie-maker” wasp, and a plant that makes defensive smells. It’s all real science.
Fast-food wrappers now join an expansive list of Things That Cause Cancer and/or weight gain and/or other calamities: non-stick pans, plastic bottles, coffee, artificial colorings, artificial sweeteners, consuming your body mass in Big Macs, etc. At this rate, scientists make it sound like it’s safer to step into…
Have you ever turned over a slice of roast beef and caught that glimmer? A hint of rainbow iridescence that’s a little otherworldly for what’s an otherwise run-of-the-mill cold cut? Even when fresh, some sliced meats give off a metallic sheen that can give you pause. But what you’re seeing is the common optical…
Bubbles are an essential element of the beer experience. The journey from bottling plant to your lips is a fascinating trek, one in which rough surfaces act like crags on a mountainside, bubbles congregate and grow like an advancing mob, and a foamy head makes its momentary appearance, only to disappear forever.…
