My first blog! ;)
Throughout my day at the UMass science event, I attended 4 very
different classes, titled: "Unveiling the Hidden Universe",
"From Capillary Origami to the Lotus Effect", "Funtastic Food
Science", and "The Singular Science of Paper, and Everything
Else."
Of these 4 classes, I particularly enjoyed the food science
workshop because I was really able to get involved and experiment. Here I
was shown how to change melted ice cream into the more common and tasteful,
creamy texture we know today. For this experiment, only two ingredients were
needed: liquid nitrogen (LN2) and (most importantly) ice cream! <& for
safety, gloves were a must> Mixing all these ingredients together in the
blender, I learned that the secret to the creamy ice cream all has to do with
the rapid freezing of the mixtures. The liquid nitrogen caused the fat and
water particles to stay extremely small, giving the ice cream its fluffy
consistency. The main goal was to avoid the ice crystals, which are similar to
what one gets when making milk.
In short, I really enjoyed my day and through this event, I was
able to—though very briefly—see the various pathways one can travel with solely
the love of science.
