Bill Nye is a goofball nerd to the core, and he’s built a career on making science fun and accessible for everyone. So can Bill give Dan some satisfying answers to big, and small, food science questions? Like what’s the deal with the five second rule? And how should we think about GMOs? Then, Bill and Corey S. Powell, his co-host on the podcast Science Rules!, chat with listeners to explain the science of salting pasta water, and what the deal is with lab-grown meat.
This episode originally aired on July 22, 2019, and was produced by Dan Pashman, Anne Saini, and Ngofeen Mputubwele. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Nora Ritchie, and Jared O'Connell.
Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:
- "Slightly Carbonated" by Erick Anderson
- "Happy Jackson" by Ken Brahmstedt
- "Saturn Returns" by Ken Brahmstedt
- "Feel Real Good" by William Van De Crommert
- "Hip Hop Slidester" by Steve Pierson
Photo courtesy of Flickr.
View Transcript
Dan Pashman: Your mom was a code breaker in WWII?
Bill Nye: Mm-hmm. So it is said.
Dan Pashman: And like, what — so she was — this was some top secret level stuff.
Bill Nye: Yeah, absolutely. So she was recruited apparently because she was good at puzzles and math and science. She was very — something my parents would do to socialize was to write limerick.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: Sit around writing limerick at what you do.
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: This is The Sporkful, it’s not for foodies it’s for eaters, I’m Dan Pashman. Each week on our show we obsess about food to learn more about people. Today on the show, I sit down with the one and only Bill Nye. Bill’s a goofball nerd to the core, just like his limerick-loving parents before him. And like them, he has an intense passion for science.
Dan Pashman: When he came out of college, he wanted to be an astronaut. NASA rejected him four times. He found his way to stand up comedy, using science in his act. He did a bit about what happens when you eat a marshmallow that’s been dunked in liquid nitrogen. He went on to host Bill Nye The Science Guy on PBS in the 90s,
[BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY THEME SONG]
Dan Pashman: Then the Netflix show Bill Nye Saves the World. In 2019 he launched the podcast, Science Rules!, and now he hosts the show The End is Nye, about epic global disasters, on Peacock.
Dan Pashman: When Bill first came into the studio, I was curious to see how his sciency, analytical approach to the world translates to food and eating. I had read that he’s a big peanut butter fan, so that’s where we began.
Bill Nye: I enjoy the peanut butter and jelly, but I really was raised on peanut butter and honey.
Dan Pashman: Okay.
Bill Nye: So there's not gonna have the fruit going but, I will choke down peanut butter and jelly. Don't get me wrong.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: But Peanut butter on an apple?
Dan Pashman: That's good.
Bill Nye: That's what I'm talking about.
Dan Pashman: Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
Bill Nye: So, I'm crunchy but I will choke down a smooth.
Dan Pashman: Right.
Bill Nye: I'm not like — if you want smooth, knock your smooth self out.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS] When you build a peanut butter and honey sandwich, tell me about the layering. Tell me about the structure.
Bill Nye: Well the — we start [LAUGHS] — ideally, you start with toast. That really takes it up a notch, for me.
Dan Pashman: Why?
Bill Nye: For the mouth feel, the crisp.
Dan Pashman: Oh, so you're a big crunch guy.
Bill Nye: Oh.
Dan Pashman: You want toast. You want the crunch of the apple, the crunch of the peanut butter,
Bill Nye: Phew. The triple threat.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: That's so — but the peanut butter first, honey on top, the bread on top of that. That's not controversial.
Dan Pashman: Peanut butter and jelly is one my all time favorites. I like to layer it though, because layering a peanut butter and jelly is complicated. What I like to do is to do a thin layer or jelly on the top and bottom.
Bill Nye: Interesting.
Dan Pashman: And then peanut butter in the middle. That gets a little on top for the roof of your mouth.
Bill Nye: Okay.
Dan Pashman: Plus, jelly on the bottom closer to your tongue.
Bill Nye: Okay. All right.
Dan Pashman: Accentuates sweetness.
Bill Nye: But mechanically ....
Dan Pashman: Okay, please.
Bill Nye: How am I spreading peanut butter on jelly? Is it only creamy peanut butter? Do you warm it up? How do you ....
Dan Pashman: That's a challenge. That's fair. I mean, it's a thin layer of jelly, so most of it will go into the crevices of the bread and it will kind of adhere to the bread.
Bill Nye: Uh-huh.
Dan Pashman: You know, you're gonna get a little mixing of the layers.
Bill Nye: A little bit.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: So what happens to the knife?
Dan Pashman: Well, that's what your tongue is for.
Bill Nye: No, no So here's what I mean. Something that I find unaesthetic is probably not dangerous.
Dan Pashman: Okay.
Bill Nye: But I'm not a fan of — opening the peanut butter and finding that somebody has left traces of his or her jelly from the previous sandwich there.
Dan Pashman: Right.
Bill Nye: Like not being — not having — not acknowledging that the surface of the peanut butter is a sterile field.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: Not to be — so you know, this is a whole thing. I was raised — my grandmother was French, so you know, you were a product of the stuff. So you decant every — you take it out of the jar, put it on it's own plate. No milk carton on the table. No packaging on the table.
Dan Pashman: Right. Everything on a serving dish.
Bill Nye: In a serving dish. Right.
Dan Pashman: Well, I would take the knife, spread the jelly on both sides, lick the knife clean, then do to peanut butter.
Bill Nye: So your saliva, is showing up in my peanut butter?
Dan Pashman: Perhaps.
Bill Nye: It's a family thing in your case.
Dan Pashman: Right. Right. [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: It's a Pashman family deal.
Dan Pashman: Yeah, exactly.
Bill Nye: When I'm over there I'm going to be wary.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: I'm going to be wary of —
Dan Pashman: I'm surprised that you would a germaphobe, Bill. I feel like a —
Bill Nye: It's not — no, no.
Dan Pashman: A man of science, like you, would be ...
Bill Nye: No, I did my best.
Dan Pashman: Just get in there.
Bill Nye: I did my best to introduce this as a cultural thing that is respect for others.
Dan Pashman: Uh-huh.
Bill Nye: Okay. So, why do you decant? Why do you put stuff in little dishes? To show the other people that you're concerned — the food is valuable. We're concerned about this. We treat the food with respect. Why do we have table manner, everybody? I'm talking to my 12, 13. 14-year-old colleagues — whatever.
Dan Pashman: So we have a reason to yell at our kids?
Bill Nye: That could be. But the other thing is out of respect for the other people at the table. You keep your elbows contained. You use utensils so when you shake hands, you're not having peanut butter interactions, hand wise. And similarly, you don't put a freaking knife that you licked [DAN PASHMAN LAUGHING] in to the peanut butter jar.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: As the expression would go, "Are you high?".
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: No! This is simply not done.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: But the Pashmans — be wary, people!
Dan Pashman: Yeah.
Bill Nye: If you're invited to dinner at the Pashmans, you may be dealing with some pre-licked peanut butter serving tool.
Dan Pashman: I make no promises. What about the 5-second rule? What's your take on that?
Bill Nye: Oh, the 5-second rule is very reasonable. Here's what happens. When stuffs on the floor, trouble starts. It's not so much about germs, just people step on the Oreo. People step on the dollop of peanut butter, and then it goes all over the house. That's the real issue. So why is it bad luck to walk under a ladder?
Dan Pashman: Why?;
Bill Nye: Because you get paint dripped on you if somebody's up there working.
Dan Pashman: Right.
Bill Nye: Or the thing pops loose and lands on your head. Why is it bad luck to leave a hat on the head?
Dan Pashman: I ...
Bill Nye: Because you're gonna sit on it!
Dan Pashman: Ohh. [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: Okay? So why is it bad luck to go 30 seconds with an Oero on the floor? Because somebody's gonna step on it.
Dan Pashman: But you think — in terms of germs, that's the concern a lot of people have, it falls on the floor, it's going to get dirty, that it's not clean to eat.
Bill Nye: Well, there's got to be something to that in certain situations, but in most, I think, U.S. households, you can literally lick the floor and live through it. Look at me. I'm fine.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING] Can you explain cotton candy to me?
Bill Nye: I guess. You get the cotton really hot and it turns — you can draw it into a watt — into a filament.
Dan Pashman: It's sugar? Is it just sugar? And it's been heated in a certain way?
Bill Nye: Sugar, often with a coloring — yeah.
Dan Pashman: I think it's amazing.
Bill Nye: I make — it is cool and so good for you.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: It's just — it's sugar with some — experimented with food coloring that can tolerate the heat. It's amazing. I mean, it's just — when you're a kid, what is more intriguing than cotton candy?
Dan Pashman: Right.
Bill Nye: And now are you [COUGHS] — when you consume your cotton candy, do you go at it with your mouth or do you pick it off with your —
Dan Pashman: I pick it off with my hands.
Bill Nye: And why do you do that?
Dan Pashman: Cause I don't like it getting all over my face.
Bill Nye: All over the face. You're very reasonable.
Dan Pashman: Yeah.
Bill Nye: The pizza ... the pizza lips.
Dan Pashman: Yeah, you don't want that.
Bill Nye: Yeah.
Dan Pashman: Yeah.
Bill Nye: But then, your fingers have to be clean enough going where you're okay with it. But you're a guy that puts his saliva-ful peanut butter knife back in the jar.
Dan Pashman: Yeah.
Bill Nye: This germaphobic concern is not yours.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: Clearly, everything Bill comes across is an opportunity to nerd out, to learn something about science. But it's all just a joke. Bill is the C.E.O. of the Planetary Society. It's a nonprofit founded by Carl Sagan and others to promote space education and exploration. For years, he's been an outspoken global warming activist. Back in 2019, he appeared on John Oliver's show, Last Week Tonight, with a blow torch and a globe to offer a lesson on the issue.
[CLIP LAST WEEK TONIGHT]
CLIP (BILL NYE): Here, I've an experiment for you. Safety glasses on.
[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]
CLIP (BILL NYE): By the end of this century, if emission keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another 4 to 8 degrees. What I'm saying is, the planet's on -ing fire.
[TORCHES GLOBE]
CLIP (BILL NYE):There's a lot of things we could do to put it out. Are any of them free? No, of course not! Nothing's free, you idiots. Grow the up. You're not children anymore. I didn't mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12. But you're adults now and this is an actual crisis! Got it? Safety glasses off, mother-ers.
[AUDIENCE CHEERS AND APPLAUDS]
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: So Bill's still using humor to teach and he's still learning. A few years back, he made news when he reversed his position on GMOs, genetically modified crops. Now, he's in favor of them. I asked him what changed his mind?
Bill Nye: I wasn't really opposed scientifically to modifying genes. In other words, modifying genes didn't strike as inherently bad for the plant, for the crop. My concern was for the ecosystem, because of the unknowns, the unintended effects, and people have adopted and U.S., English have adopted a rugby term, the knock-on effects. Like you couldn't tell what you were going to do to the ecosystem when you modified a corn plant, or cotton plant, or whatever it was. But that would be 25, even 30 years ago. Now, I am satisfied now, that modern researchers can modify crops and really know what genes are going to be produced, what chromosomes are going to do what, and what interactions going to happen. And then furthermore, this happens in nature all the time and the medium, the carrier, the thing that induces these genetic changes are viruses. So the classy example everybody, if you've ever seen a tree with a big growth on the side, mushroom shaped growth? That's where a virus has gotten into the tree and not just infected it, but changed the tree's genes. It happens in nature all the time, so I am no longer opposed to GMOs. Furthermore, I think the future of humankind is going to require them. Farming is not natural. If you stop farming, the land goes back to whatever the heck it was, or is going to be. And so you just have to keep that in mind and just ...
Dan Pashman: Right. It's inherently a manmade process.
Bill Nye: Yeah, or human made.
Dan Pashman: Human made. Thank you.
Bill Nye: Agricultural business people brought on their own problems, but I think there's nothing inherently wrong with genetically modified organisms, not inherently.
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: Bill, we got some calls lined up from listeners.
Bill Nye: Oh, cool.
Dan Pashman: A lot of food science questions people want to ask. Will you stick around and answer some questions?
Bill Nye: Some FSQs.
Dan Pashman: Yes.
Bill Nye: Yes, cause you know I'm an expert on all things food science.
Dan Pashman: Right. There you go. All right.
Bill Nye: Well, I'll take a shot.
Dan Pashman: All right. Great.
Bill Nye: I'll do my best.
Dan Pashman: Also coming up, I'll ask Bill a question about bananas that I have asked two other science people before. They haven't been able to give me an answer. Will Bill? Stick around.
MUSIC
+++ BREAK +++
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: Welcome back to The Sporkful, I’m Dan Pashman. On last week’s show, I talked with Sam Sanders, Saeed Jones, and Zach Stafford, hosts of the podcast Vibe Check. These guys are close friends, and the show is basically their group chat come to life. And they all have strong opinions about food, like when Zach explained his thoughts about grocery shopping with your partner
CLIP (ZACH STAFFORD): Grocery shopping can be some of the most intimate things you do with someone else. Like to walk through a store and see what they pull for their week to eat when they're happy, to eat when they're sad ...
CLIP (DAN PASHMAN): Tell me something you learned about Craig that you didn't know about him by going grocery shopping with him.
CLIP (ZACH STAFFORD): Canned chicken. That's what I learned about Craig. I did not know ....
CLIP (SAM SANDERS): Wwwwwait ... Canned chicken?
CLIP (ZACH STAFFORD): Yes, canned chicken.
CLIP (DAN PASHMAN): Saeed looks so confused.
CLIP (SAEED JONES): [LAUGHING]
CLIP (ZACH STAFFORD): It's wet. It can stay around forever and ever and ever. Yeah, canned chicken was a big aha when we moved in together.
CLIP (SAM SANDERS): Wow.
CLIP (DAN PASHMAN): And where are you at with canned chicken in your relationship today?
CLIP (ZACH STAFFORD): We don't really cook with canned chicken anymore.
CLIP (SAEED JONES): Okay.
[LAUGHING]
Dan Pashman: We also helped some of our listeners with their food relationship disputes. This episode is up now. It's a lot of fun, check it out.
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: Okay, back to the show, I’m joined by Bill Nye, and we also have your co-host on the podcast Science Rules!, the science writer Corey S. Powell. Hi Corey.
Corey S. Powell: Hey! Great to be here.
Dan Pashman: So we are going to do what you guys do on Science Rules, which is we're going to take some calls [Corey Powell: Excellent.] from people about science, food science in this case, and we're gonna try to answer some questions. Can we do that?
Bill Nye: Yes. Why not?
Dan Pashman: Okay.
Bill Nye: We can dream.
Dan Pashman: All right. First off, I want to ask you guys a food science question. This has been plaguing me and I want to ...
Bill Nye: Plaguing?
Dan Pashman: Yes. Plaguing me. So I make a dish for me kids sometimes, that I call banana pudding.
Bill Nye: Okay.
Dan Pashman: All I do is take a banana, mash it up for a fork. Keep mashing and mashing until it becomes the consistency of pudding and I add a little splash of cinnamon. I don't add sugar, but I have found that the mashing of the banana somehow, even if it was a not especially ripe, not especially sweet banana to begin with, the mashing turns it sweeter. And by the time I've made my banana pudding, it tastes like candy. What's happening?
Bill Nye: Well, I gotta say one word to you. Amylase
Corey S. Powell: Amylase. Yeah, that's really the word to say is amylase.
Dan Pashman: Okay. [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: So there's an enzyme in bananas that when you fork it up, you — this enzymes busts out of the cells and it effects our taste buds and we think bananas taste sweeter. People also report — I'm sure of it — after you freeze a banana, you'll — the spicules, the ice crystals in the bananas will pierce the cells and also release this amylase. So it is not your imagination, it is a true fact, not a false fact.
Dan Pashman: So but I think there's probably a great business here because everyone wants things to taste sweet without adding sugar.
Corey S. Powell: Well, so here's the cool thing about amylase. So amylase is an enzyme that's involved in the ripening of fruit. It breaks down starches into sugars. So what you're doing is you're essentially — by mashing the banana, it's like you're making it ripen all at once. You're destroying all the cell walls, so you're releasing all the starch and you're mixing it all together with the amylase. So you're turning the starches to sugars. So it's like you're doing a week worth of ripening, you know, in a minute when you're mashing it.
Bill Nye: So I was thinking — this is an old thing, starch and sugar. Just express briefly, starch is a polysaccharide. Sugar is a disaccharide. So you're taking the poly, the many, and smashing it down into the two. And so that's why we love them. And on the Science Guy show, talking again briefly about me, the joke was banana milkshake — is anything as good as a banana milkshake? And the charm of a banana milkshake is it doesn't need any sugar. You blend that banana, you chop up that banana and it releases the amylase and the poly becomes the di-, the starch becomes the sugar, and it's a joy. It's a joy!
Dan Pashman: Oh my God.
Corey S. Powell: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: That is if you have the mutant gene that enables you to enjoy dairy products.
Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHS]
Corey S. Powell: Yes.
Bill Nye: Which my European ancestors had and here I am.
Dan Pashman: At this point I have to make a confession to our listeners. I actually told your producer in advance, Bill, that I was gonna ask this question. Because I have asked two other food science people here on the show and they had nothing for me, so I wanted to give you some advanced notice, so maybe you could do a little research ahead of time. And what I love Bill, is that despite the fact that you’re a very busy guy, you conducted an experiment with bananas in your house last night.
Bill Nye: Yes! I took a banana and cut it in thirds. Now, I'm the first to admit I cut it, what I would call, latitudinally, across the banana. Maybe looking back, I should have gone — I could have gone longitudinally, the long way.
Dan Pashman: But it's hard to cut a banana in thirds the long way.
Bill Nye: Well, it could be done.
Dan Pashman: Right. Right.
Bill Nye: So, I did raw banana or banana off the shelf, frozen banana, and mashed with a fork per your anecdote.
Dan Pashman: Right. And you have a photo of this.
Bill Nye: I have a photo of the mashed banana, the frozen banana, and the off the shelf banana — per Dan's story, I did it with a fork. I did the mashing of the banana with a fork and it's quite noticeable, you guys. You don't have to take my word for it.
Dan Pashman: Yeah.
Bill Nye: And I did — I imagine, in a food processors or blender, the effect would be stronger.
Dan Pashman: I just love that you're the kind of guy who will actually be like, I'm gonna run an experiment in my free time.
Bill Nye: Well, come one!
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: This is what makes me crazy!
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING] Bill Nye: So you think the world — you think the Earth is flat. Well, go to the edge and take a picture. Dan Pashman: Right. [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: There's no edge. No picture, is there? What about that? Is it true? Hey Bill, is it true that hot water freezes faster than cold water? Well, why don't you try it and then come back to me.
Corey S. Powell: Most people have access to hot and cold water.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: In our society, they do.
Corey S. Powell: Most people have access to bananas.
Bill Nye: Yes.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHING]
Corey S. Powell: So amylase, the enzyme in bananas that breaks down and makes a mashed banana sweet is also an enzyme that's in your saliva, that helps break down your food.
Dan Pashman: Well, you know what's especially interesting about this? Because I have taken flack on this show for my opinion that — like when my kids were younger, you know, they're like 1, 2-years-old, you let them just sort of like nibble on a graham cracker and it keeps them busy for a while. It tastes good. And you know, I always end up — when you're a parent like scrounging your kids crumby leftovers, and I felt that that graham crackers that had been gummed by my little kids tasted better than graham crackers straight out of the package. And people said, that's gross. How can you eat graham crackers that have been in your kids mouth? I thought that it's probably because I think they are a little bit softer. They're not so dry and brittle, which I like a little chewiness. But now you're telling me that probably, also I liked it that way because they're sweeter
Bill Nye: Sounds like it.
Corey S. Powell: Your kids are little enzyme preparation machines.
Dan Pashman: I'm just gonna have them pre chew all my food now.
Corey S. Powell: You should.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Bill Nye: The EP2000. Enzyme Prep 2000.
[LAUGHING]
Dan Pashman: Yeah. [LAUGHS]
Corey S. Powell: Yeah, it's like the mama bird regurgitating the food [Bill Nye: Yes.] for the baby birds.
Bill Nye: It's like a spider.
Corey S. Powell: Only it's going the other way. Your babies were ...
Bill Nye: Gurgitating on behalf of the parent.
Dan Pashman: Exactly.
Corey S. Powell: And somatically preparing the food for you.
Bill Nye: Yes.
Dan Pashman: It's the circle of life.
Corey S. Powell: It's the circle of life.
[LAUGHING]
Bill Nye: There’s no I in team.
Dan Pashman: All right. Should we go to the phones and take food science questions from listeners?
Bill Nye: Please!
Corey S. Powell: We have Nicole, who has a question — I'm quite excited to hear about — talking about salt and boiling water. I wonder what that's about.
Nicole: Hi! So this question came up last year when I was teaching marine science and we were talking cold, dense, salty sea water. And somehow it led to a teacher who taught near me, who liked to be the smartest person in the room, saying that the reason why people salt their pasta water is to lower the boiling point, so that it will boil faster. And I have learned that since then that a lot of people think this. So I don't know where that came from. Do you think that salting the water has any effect on flavor or temperature? Trying to prove this person wrong.
Bill Nye: So Nicole ...
Nicole: Yes.
Bill Nye: This is, as Corey pointed out, this is a fabulous question, I think, near and dear to all pasta enjoyers.
Dan Pashman: Yes.
Bill Nye: Dan, among which you are whom, if I may construct it for community effect.
Dan Pashman: Big enjoyer. Big enjoyer. Yes. Bill Nye: And so why do you feel — cause I got strong opinions here on physics, but why do you feel we salt the pasta water?
Dan Pashman: Well, in terms of the science, I'll defer to you, Bill. But I do want to say that salt in water for flavor absolutely makes a difference. And when you're making pasta, you should absolutely should salt your water liberally, with more salt than you think you need. It'll make your pasta taste much better.
Bill Nye: Just cause it's got that salt, mouth stimulating jolt of sodium ions.
Dan Pashman: Yeah, exactly.
Bill Nye: So Corey ...
Corey S. Powell: Yes, Bill?
Bill Nye: You're a science reporter with years of behind the keyboard.
Dan Pashman: [LAUGHS]
Corey S. Powell: A veteran, one might say.
Bill Nye: So do you have a strong opinion about the salt and the boiling? Cause I do.
Corey S. Powell: Uh ...
Bill Nye: Strong opinion about salt and boiling.
Corey S. Powell: My ... Look, so salt does — it lowers the specific heat of the water, which ....
Bill Nye: Which the water would hold less heat.
Corey S. Powell: Which would make it boil a little more easily. But it also — salt, in general, adding extra things to the water raises the boiling point. But the thing is, both of those effects are very very small. To impressionable change the boiling point, you'd have to add like 100, 200 grams of salt. That's a lot of salt.
Bill Nye: To a liter?
Corey S. Powell: To a hint of 1 liter of water.
Bill Nye: 10 or 20% of the mass of the thing would be salt.
Corey S. Powell: Right. You'd have to be really dumping salt in there to have a big impact on ...
Dan Pashman: I gotta jump in here because at this point Bill and Cory started getting in to some really hardcore science and I kind of got lost. So I looked into it some more, talked with them some more, and here’s the deal:
Dan Pashman: You’re not likely to add enough salt to make your water boil faster. The ocean is 3 percent salt. You’d need your water to be 10 or 20%. But many of us have had that experience where the water in the pot is close to boiling and you pour in some salt and suddenly, BOOM, it’s boiling, right? Wrong. That’s actually sort of an illusion.
Dan Pashman: So what’s really happening? That turns out to be pretty complicated. It could be that the salt crystals are creating what are called nucleation sites, which essentially make the water fizz briefly, like champagne. Or it could be that the temperature contrast between the salt and the water causes it to fizz up. Either way, if you create that fizz effect just as the water is about to boil, and then soon after, it starts boiling, you could be tricked into thinking you made it boil faster. But the truth is it would have boiled at that same moment even without the salt. There is a second bottom line, which Corey summed up very well.
Corey S. Powell: The most important thing I take away here is that salt in your pasta water makes the pasta taste better.
Bill Nye: Nicole, thank you so much.
Corey S. Powell: That was a great question.
Bill Nye: Inspirational. Thank you.
Corey S. Powell: Okay ...
Nicole: All right. Thank you!
Bill Nye: What else do we got on the big board, Corey?
Corey S. Powell: Thank you. It's a question from Julie, and here — Julie, go. You're on the air. Go ahead and as your question.
Julie: Why hello. My question is why do we like more food the older we get? What's happening in our mouths?
Corey S. Powell: Julie, thank you so much. I actually have to ask one question. Do you have children? Is that part of why you asked this question?
Julie: Well, I have — I'm goal food service director, so I have like 2500 kids. And I noticed there's a big shift between elementary aged kids and middle school aged kids with what they want to eat. The middle school aged kids are all after the spicy, the buffalo, the sriracha — and personally, yeah, I do have kids, myself. But yeah, there's seems to be a giant shift when in the teenage years, or early teens, where they will be more adventurous.
Bill Nye: Wow.
Corey S. Powell: That's a great question.
Bill Nye: Dan, you're the man for this. You have kids and you're not a kid as much anymore as you once were.
Dan Pashman: I mean, I think the short answer is exposure. I mean, you know, and there's a lot of research done on food aversions, why do people dislike certain foods, how can you learn to like a food that you don't like. And the short answer that sensory scientists will tells is exposure. You know, start off my exposing yourself in small amounts. We actually did an episode of The Sporkful about picky eaters, called "In Defense of Picky Eater". We got into a lot of the science in picky eating. One of the things that I learned is that it can take someone 30 or 40 tastes of a food, before they acquire a liking for it. And so, I think mostly what's happening in this case, is just the first 30 times you tried eating and you didn't really like it. But then finally, in small doses, it ends up in a few things that you eat by accident or at a friend's house and then finally, you know, your eyes are open to it. I've acquired a taste for a lot of foods in my 30s and 40s that I never liked when I was a kid.
Julie: Yeah.
Corey S. Powell: Julie, a great question.
Bill Nye: Thank you. Thank you.
Corey S. Powell: All right. I love this next question. As someone who is fascinated by the future, I'm very fascinated by this next caller who want to know about lab grown meat. We have Dub. Dub, are you there
Dub: I am here. Thanks for having me on, guys. Appreciate this.
Bill Nye: Thanks for taking the time. Dub! Lab grown meat.
Dub: Thank you! Yeah. Yes, sir. So my question, really, how far away are we from affordable, clean, lab produced meat. I have a diet of a protein, high fat — seems to work really well for me. And it really works best when it's fueled with animal protein but just kind of like, you know, the battle of the ethics behind it or the guilt behind where the meat comes from. So this intrigues me quite a bit.
Bill Nye: So what researchers have done is get the stem cells of meat and grow them in culture. And they produced a hamburger that right now would cost hundreds of dollars per burger, or a fraction of $200 per burger. That's right.
Corey S. Powell: But basically, you're growing the muscle of the cow without the rest of the cow.
Dan Pashman: Right.
Bill Nye: With no baseball glove leather, no intestines, no cat gut for guitar strings, no of this.
Corey S. Powell: No. No.
Bill Nye: So I have on the electric TV machine, I have tastes lab grown meat. And it tastes exactly like meat. Furthermore, recently I was with my friends at the union of concerned scientists and ...
Corey S. Powell: Whooo!
Bill Nye: We visited this lab where they have found a protein and a molecule, they refer to as the heme, of having to do with hemoglobin and iron. And so they found they can insert this genetically, genetic modification of crops, and get it to taste —for example, a soy product to taste like meat. So when I think about the cost of this hamburger right now, getting back to this one idea — thank you for calling, Dub — when you get back to the cost of a hamburger, it's hundreds of dollars right now, but if you were making a on McDonald's scales, you gotta think it would be cheaper, far cheaper. I mean, pick a number — 100th of the cost of raising a whole cow on a giant farm. So I can imagine as research continues, Dub, that this will become affordable in one form or another. And by that I mean either in derived vegetable form or in a derived animal form. So Dub, stay tuned! I am confident. I predict here early in the 21st century that laboratory style or industrial style, satisfactory meat products will be available at reasonable cost.
Corey S. Powell: And Dub, am I correct, that that's something you're waiting for? You sound like you're eager for the lab grown burger rather than creeped out by it. Is that true.
Dub: Yeah! Absolutely. No creepiness factor added at all. I'm very ....
[LAUGHING]
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Dan Pashman: Bill Nye, Corey S. Powell, it’s been so exciting having you here, thank you so much.
Bill Nye: Thank You!
Corey S. Powell: Thank you!
MUSIC
Dan Pashman: Next week on the show, we look in to the mysterious world of food texturey. You know, I'm a big texture eater. I'm always thinking about texture, but it's something that some folks don't give a whole lot of thought to. Still, it's a huge part of why you love and hate certain foods. So what makes a food creamy, or crunchy, even squishy and slimy? We'll nerd out on all of it next week.
Dan Pashman: Meanwhile, check out last week’s show, with the hosts of the podcast Vibe Check. They share some controversial food opinions, and help a few listeners with food relationship disputes. That episode is up now.
