Imagine a device which could replicate any taste. Millions of dishes, drinks, desserts and snacks and your fingertips or, more accurately, at the tip of your tongue. Introducing the Norimaki Synthesizer, a device which, using electricity, electrolytes and 5 different gels, can produce flavours directly onto your tongue. So how does it all work?
I recently gave an academic lecture at my school on the melting point of chocolate, a topic which came from a post I wrote earlier this year.
My academic lecture was part of my school’s “Academic Fortnight”, 2 weeks of short 15 minutes morning lectures before lessons by student volunteers and external speakers from Portsmouth University (our local university).
Below, I’ve attached my slides and my talking points, though I largely speak ad-lib so they’re not very long or detailed:
Continue reading “Academic Lecture on the melting point of chocolate”
As we go into winter, it’s time to start pulling scarves and fluffy coats out the wardrobe, and keeping hand warmers in our pockets. If, like me, you like getting value for money, you might consider getting a reusable hand warmer instead of a one-time use one. They work quickly and effectively: simply snap the metal plate and wait for the crystals to grow and your hands to warm.
But how does it work? A wonder of chemistry, clearly. But some keywords are saturated (well, actually supersaturated), instability, crystalisation and exothermic. You can probably piece together a rough idea of what happens, so below I’m going to go into more depth and detail!
Continue reading “How do reusable hand warmers work?”
Distilled Thoughts 