Bon Appetit{4}
This week my class will be creating models of the building blocks of cells using foods that contain those building blocks. A phospholipid bilayer made out of french fries and donuts. Glycogen made out of angel hair pasta. You get the picture. Almost every cell and molecular biologist I know likes to cook, and I am no exception. I have often wondered why. So much of our best work is microscopic or even submicroscopic. Maybe we get a thrill at coming home from the lab and making something we can actually see. And so much of our work (especially the molecular processes) has to be so precise. 1 microliter of this, 2 microliters of that. Deviate from the protocol (recipe) just a little and you’ve wasted $1500 in reagents (ingredients) and may have set your dissertation back several months. After a day like that, it can be incredibly cathartic to leave those measuring spoons in the drawer, ignore the Joy of Cooking, and start throwing things in the pan. I may be a scientist but there is an artist inside dying to crack some eggs.
Jill's triple berry pie
7 Sep ’11 @ 9:07 pm
Hey, I’m an engineer with the same facination! My students have to bake a cake and bring it to class uniced the first day of my materials processing laboratory. I have them analyze the surface texture, then flip them out of the pan (if they will come — oops, not enough “mold release agent?”) and look at the bottom texture. Finally, they split into teams of two, select one of their cakes, and figure out how to perform experiments to answer the question, “Is your cake homogeneous?”. It’s fun, and it’s just like making materials: calculate the batch, mix, cast, heat treat, characterize and test. Throughout the semester, we come back to the cakes quite a bit. Of course, they all are excited to do the “taste test!”
Whether they are good or not, homogeneous or not, the students learn an awful lot about materials processing before they ever enter the lab! Who says engineering isn’t fun?!
8 Sep ’11 @ 12:26 am
too cool, Diane. I’ll bet you engineers could give Martha Stewart, Inc. a run for their money in a creative wedding cake competition. With materials and design know-how, I can imagine some pretty amazing tiered creations.
13 Sep ’11 @ 5:40 pm
Well, I don’t know about culinary value, but we do sure cook! Almost all we do could be characterized as cooking — cooking materials!
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