It's Okay To Be Smart: A Heaping Plate of Turkey Day Science Stuff:
It’s a little cliché to do the ___________ holiday science post, grasping at Matrix-level acrobatics to tie scientific principles to the celebration du jour (“The science of why bunnies hide eggs!” or “Reindeer: Could synthetic biology give them luminous red noses?”). Thanksgiving is actually a cornucopia full of brain food, though … so here’s some gravy for those neurons:
- The biggest Thanksgiving myth deserves the most fiery death: It’s not the tryptophan that makes you sleepy. It’s the big freakin’ meal. Well, to be specific it’s a hormone and insulin cascade called postprandial somnolence, and tryptophan may even help reverse the sleepiness.
- Carl Sagan’s apple pie recipe
- How to cook a turkey using NASA equipment, including strapping it to a satellite facing the Sun.
- Turkeys are basically feathery dinosaurs. What other animals enjoyed the taste of dino drumstick? Sharks, gators, parasites, even early mammals … Brian Switek explores.
- Do you want to spend your Thanksgiving on top of the porcelain throne? Or in an easy chair? Exercise good food safety and keep the nasty microbes at bay.
- The wishbone (AKA “furcula”) is an amazing, flexibly fused collarbone that’s actually used to store mechanical energy in flight, like spring-loaded rubber band for wings. Just try breaking one before it’s cooked. Today’s birds share that bone structure with dinos like T. rex.
- From cranberry pectin to turkey collagen, the physics of Thanksgiving gel colloids.
- Not to be confused with the genetically engineered, breast-heavy Frankenbirds we eat these days, wild turkeys can run faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters and fly at 55 mph. They also make delicious bourbon.
- Turkeys share one talent with the octopus: Their featherless heads can change colors from red to white to blue thanks to bloodflow changes brought on by emotion or excitement.
- I brine my turkey (did I mention that I make a flawlessly delicious bird?). Here’s some of the chemistry behind why brining meat helps lock in flavor and moisture. It’s osmosis, but in a really interesting way!