Research roundup: 6 cool science stories we almost missed

Also: the science of regular vs. gluten-free spaghetti, catching high-speed snake bites in action, etc.

See full article...

 

[Bippy]

I love the breadth of these roundups!

 

[Instructables can be Confusable]

As someone with a litany of food issues, gluten-free pasta has gotten better. Though it is true that it is not as good as the real thing.

I have found the Ronzoni brand to be particularly decent. Various cooking times and quenching with either hot tap or cold water do not seem to affect the overall texture too dramatically.

 

[SiberX]

I actually just got back from an Egypt trip where I was able to visit Karnak Temple; it was fascinating!

The most impressive artifact there is a 30 meter tall obelisk carved from a single piece of granite that was somehow brought to the site and erected. It has survived at least one major earthquake that destroyed smaller statues and obelisks at the site, and the engravings are still as clear and sharp as the day they were carved.

 

[NoSkill]

“As far as I can tell, I’m the only person who is actually interested in this problem.”
That’s not entirely true: there was an attempt in 1982

It Boggles the mind - still a great game and worthy of any Thanksgiving binge recess.

 

[Rector]

I actually just got back from an Egypt trip where I was able to visit Karnak Temple; it was fascinating!

The most impressive artifact there is a 30 meter tall obelisk carved from a single piece of granite that was somehow brought to the site and erected. It has survived at least one major earthquake that destroyed smaller statues and obelisks at the site, and the engravings are still as clear and sharp as the day they were carved.

There is a 30 meter obelisk in Rome that used to be at Karnak. However it was not only twice moved, it also fell and was broken before being re-erected in the 16th century.

 

[Fatesrider]

and how to get dry spaghetti strands to break neatly in two, rather than three or more scattered pieces.

Weirdly, I didn't know this was difficult that. I pull them from the package, hold them with my palms up, pinkies together touching, give them a bit of a twist (not a lot), then bend quickly and sharply to bring my thumbs together. I also can do it the other way, with thumbs touching, palms down and breaking downward in the middle so my knuckles touch. The idea is to get the breaking force focused on one small area.

I get clean breaks almost every time.

Yes, this was a refined technique, but I learned it very early in life - my teens, IIRC. I'd have thought someone would have mentioned how to do that generally. If you do it slow, you get shards. If you hold them at the ends, you get shards. If you don't twist a bit to lock them together or compress them more, you can get shards, too.

The twisting compresses them against their neighbors a bit, keeping them from moving on their own, and giving them less chance to shatter. Keeping your hands as near to each other as you can limits the location where it can bend. It puts the bending force all on one small area. And the quick sharp bend puts creates a fast breaking force for all of them through that small area, enough to break them all at once, preventing the weaker ones from shattering first. It's like it sends that snap propagating through the neighbors along one "fault line". You might get a few bits, but mostly you get full halves.

Upward or downward for the palms, as long as the break is downward toward the water it's all good. The other direction upward in the middle can make the bits occasionally be a little like shrapnel, while they go into the water downward.

And all that's probably a little TMI, but it works.

 

[deltaproximus]

Weirdly, I didn't know this was difficult that. I pull them from the package, hold them with my palms up, pinkies together touching, give them a bit of a twist (not a lot), then bend quickly and sharply to bring my thumbs together. I also can do it the other way, with thumbs touching, palms down and breaking downward in the middle so my knuckles touch. The idea is to get the breaking force focused on one small area.

I get clean breaks almost every time.

Yes, this was a refined technique, but I learned it very early in life - my teens, IIRC. I'd have thought someone would have mentioned how to do that generally. If you do it slow, you get shards. If you hold them at the ends, you get shards. If you don't twist a bit to lock them together or compress them more, you can get shards, too.

The twisting compresses them against their neighbors a bit, keeping them from moving on their own, and giving them less chance to shatter. Keeping your hands as near to each other as you can limits the location where it can bend. It puts the bending force all on one small area. And the quick sharp bend puts creates a fast breaking force for all of them through that small area, enough to break them all at once, preventing the weaker ones from shattering first. It's like it sends that snap propagating through the neighbors along one "fault line". You might get a few bits, but mostly you get full halves.

Upward or downward for the palms, as long as the break is downward toward the water it's all good. The other direction upward in the middle can make the bits occasionally be a little like shrapnel, while they go into the water downward.

And all that's probably a little TMI, but it works.

But why break them at all? Even if they don't fit in the pot, once they go floppy they will.

And semi-related question for the world at large, why aren't spaghetti noodles dried like ramen noodles, i.e., in pucks or blocks? Even non-fried ramen noodles are dried in puck shapes, which are better fits for most pot.

ETA: I forgot when writing this comment that ramen noodles are cooked before drying, which might have something to do with it.

 

[Calidore]

Next Boggle question: What are the odds of actually shaking out that perfect board?

 

[graylshaped]

I now know Venomworld is a thing.

 

[mcswell]

But why break them at all? Even if they don't fit in the pot, once they go floppy they will.

For me, it's because I want to be able to get them in my mouth. I never mastered the "wind it around a fork" technique, so having shorter strands makes it a lot easier to deal with on the plate.

 

[Veritas super omens]

If you get a chance to see Karnak, do your best to allow (i)at least(/i) 2 full days to explore. The site is HUGE. I was there in late Sept -early Oct 2001, and despite an understandable dearth of crowds, the 4 hour tour scheduled by my vacation company was not nearly enough time to do more than dash through and quickly see the most important highlights.

 

[ZenBeam]

Next Boggle question: What are the odds of actually shaking out that perfect board?

Well...

Software engineer Dan Vanderkam alerted us to a a preprint he posted to the physics arXiv, detailing his quest to find the Boggle board configuration that yields the highest possible score. It’s pictured above, with a total score of 3,625 points, according to Vanderkam’s first-ever computational proof.

[...]

That’s not entirely true: there was an attempt in 1982 that found an optimal board yielding 2,195 points.

From Bananagrammer, the dice letters were redesigned circa 1987. That could affect the odds, and possibly even whether the replastering configuration is possible in the original design (I'm not going to bother checking).

Regardless, both lettering designs are given at that link. If anyone wants to give it a go figuring out the odds, they'll need that.

 

[Veritas super omens]

Interesting new work on the gullies. I was quite skeptical of the aqueous hypthesis for Mars dune gully formation when postulated some time back. If you have ever been to sand dunes with even the slightest breeze it becomes obvious that no lasting structures are very likely. If you visit them year after year they seem more like slow motion ocean waves than solid ground. I know Martian air is quite thin but dust storms can be seen from earth (with a very good telescope). So they have to be very very recently formed. If they were created by water there would almost certainly be evidence of surface water now.

 

[huckl]

Wait, so what is the perfect amount of salt for the best pasta structure?

 

[ChateauErin]

is it inappropriate to crosspost from the 404 weekly roundup? Hopefully not, because I just learned (and science recently learned I guess) that hadrosaurs had hooves. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3536?ref=404media.co

 

[nxg]

Wait, so what is the perfect amount of salt for the best pasta structure?

The (paywalled) article reports that this manufacturer (Barilla, specifically their ‘regular no.5', and their gluten-free one) specifies 7g/L.

As far as cooking practice goes – for those if us who aren’t materials scientists – the main result seems to be that the gluten-free pasta is more sensitive to being cooked at the ‘wrong’ salt concentration or for the wrong time (the instructions specify 10 or 11 minutes, respectively). The gluten seems to let you get away with more deviation from the script, without destroying relevant microstructures.

ETA: I happen to have a packet of Barilla GF pasta in my kitchen (reportedly good stuff, though a little pricy), but, checking, there are no instructions about the salt concentration: perhaps they don't feel the need to mention it, if it's drummed into them in Italian primary schools, or instilled direct from Nonna.

 

[NewCrow]

Two cameras recorded the action at 1000 frames per second, capturing more than 100 individual strikes in great detail.

Among their findings: vipers moved the fastest when they struck, with the blunt-nosed viper accelerating up to 710 m/s2, landing a bite within 22 microseconds. All the vipers landed bites within 100 microseconds of striking.

So all the vipers landed bites within 0.1 frame of the high-speed camera film (1000 fps, or 1 ms between start of each frame)?

Sounds unreasonable to me, I guess there is a mixup of milliseconds and microseconds...

 

[ZenBeam]

So all the vipers landed bites within 0.1 frame of the high-speed camera film (1000 fps, or 1 ms between start of each frame)?

Sounds unreasonable to me, I guess there is a mixup of milliseconds and microseconds...

Yeah, the author here messed up the units. You can check the link to the paper, given in the article.

 

[clb2c4e]

Spaghetti, like most pasta, is made of semolina flour

I'm surprised by this, I don't know much about industrial processes for pasta, but as far as I know, most pasta is made from 00 wheat or semola, the finer ground version of durum wheat then semolina, being the corser ground version.

In fact, I mistakenly bought semolina instead of semola this last week to make lasagna noodles and only noticed by trying to figure out why the pasta was much softer than usual.

Perhaps the brass dies and industrial processes change things.

 

[Voix des Airs]

So all the vipers landed bites within 0.1 frame of the high-speed camera film (1000 fps, or 1 ms between start of each frame)?

Sounds unreasonable to me, I guess there is a mixup of milliseconds and microseconds...

Yeah. I was confused by that, too.

And I've been told by our vet and read from reputable sources that cats have considerably faster reaction times than venomous snakes, which is why they can hunt them. I've actually seen a feral cat carrying/dragging a freshly dead rattlesnake across my yard. And cats' reaction times are generally given to be in the 20-30 ms range.

(There's also a language/units mismatch elsewhere in the snake section).

 

[Techlight]

So all the vipers landed bites within 0.1 frame of the high-speed camera film (1000 fps, or 1 ms between start of each frame)?

Sounds unreasonable to me, I guess there is a mixup of milliseconds and microseconds...

Came to say the same. The report clearly mentions ms (milliseconds). Was also a bit skeptical of strikes happening in microseconds. That's awfully fast, especially knowing there are other animals fast enough to avoid those strikes.

I do wonder also about the statement that "until quite recently it just wasn’t technologically possible to capture those strikes in high definition". 1000fps isn't that much. Granted it's not easy, but the "slowmoguys" on youtube have been making recordings of 100 thousand fps and more for years. They have at least one clip of 5 million fps, but ok, that's recent. A quick browse also shows they did 170k fps 10 years ago.

(edit: the extremely high framerates require very bright lighting, not suitable for live animals most likely. However, 1000fps still isn't very much given a smartphone camera has been able to do 240fps HD already for years too, and it has a tiny lens and sensor)

 

[Chuckstar]

Yeah. I was confused by that, too.

And I've been told by our vet and read from reputable sources that cats have considerably faster reaction times than venomous snakes, which is why they can hunt them. I've actually seen a feral cat carrying/dragging a freshly dead rattlesnake across my yard. And cats' reaction times are generally given to be in the 20-30 ms range.

(There's also a language/units mismatch elsewhere in the snake section).

Yeah, I remember being surprised to find out (many years ago) that mongooses are only partially resistant to cobra venom. Mostly they are just fast enough to not get bit very often.

 

[akwuestenfuchs]

As someone with a litany of food issues, gluten-free pasta has gotten better. Though it is true that it is not as good as the real thing.

I have found the Ronzoni brand to be particularly decent. Various cooking times and quenching with either hot tap or cold water do not seem to affect the overall texture too dramatically.

I have a kid with celiac disease, and we have struggled with leftovers. Quenching with cold water has made that better. Ronzini is definitely the best brand and we rarely have leftovers when I use that.

 

[sleette]

I've always wanted to visit Karnak but those exploding dudes freak me out. Seriously!

 

[Veritas super omens]

Wait, so what is the perfect amount of salt for the best pasta structure?

Depends who you are feeding it to. If it is for nefarious purposes "just enough" thallium sulfate is recommended...

/s. Do not poison people...m'kay?

 

[phiellaep]

speeds of 2.5 m/s2

acceleration

 

[Antron Argaiv]

So all the vipers landed bites within 0.1 frame of the high-speed camera film (1000 fps, or 1 ms between start of each frame)?

Sounds unreasonable to me, I guess there is a mixup of milliseconds and microseconds...

Nobody has yet commented that this news comes from Australia, where almost everything tries to kill you?

(Spent almost 3 years there as a kid and have been back twice as an adult...still alive)

 

[nivedita]

Came to say the same. The report clearly mentions ms (milliseconds). Was also a bit skeptical of strikes happening in microseconds. That's awfully fast, especially knowing there are other animals fast enough to avoid those strikes.

I do wonder also about the statement that "until quite recently it just wasn’t technologically possible to capture those strikes in high definition". 1000fps isn't that much. Granted it's not easy, but the "slowmoguys" on youtube have been making recordings of 100 thousand fps and more for years. They have at least one clip of 5 million fps, but ok, that's recent. A quick browse also shows they did 170k fps 10 years ago.

(edit: the extremely high framerates require very bright lighting, not suitable for live animals most likely. However, 1000fps still isn't very much given a smartphone camera has been able to do 240fps HD already for years too, and it has a tiny lens and sensor)

The paper covers that too. Just skimmed the intro, but the new thing seems to be two cameras to get a 3d picture of the strike, higher resolution, and across a broader set of species. Lower resolution 2d studies have been done for a while.

 

[nartreb]

Uh... "replasterings" is right under your nose!

 

[sjl]

Regardless, both lettering designs are given at that link. If anyone wants to give it a go figuring out the odds, they'll need that.

A first cut:

There are sixteen dice. They can be laid out (ignoring orientation) in 16! ways. Only a quarter of those count as distinct (rotation of the board), for 5.2307e12 possible layouts.

In each of those layouts, there are sixteen dice that each have six possible positions (the face that is up), meaning each layout can present in 6^16 ways (2.82111e12 combinations.) Multiply the two numbers I’ve just given to give an upper bound on the number of possible boards.

Then we get into the more complicated mathematics of taking into consideration the duplication of various letters across the dice, which will reduce the above figure considerably. I’m leaving that as an exercise for the reader. (Yup - I’ve done the easy bit and brushed off the hard part.)

 

[artvandelayIIII]

Yeah, the author here messed up the units. You can check the link to the paper, given in the article.

OK, phew. I know vipers are wicked fast, but if my back of envelope calculation is right, then taking 22 microseconds to travel... let's say a distance of .1m would get you a snake head moving at ~500m/s, which is well above the speed of sound. I guess if that was possible you'd hear a whip crack?

 

[Veritas super omens]

Nobody has yet commented that this news comes from Australia, where almost everything tries to kill you?

(Spent almost 3 years there as a kid and have been back twice as an adult...still alive)

Australia is so bad that just touching the plants can make you want to kill yourself.

 

[Veritas super omens]

A first cut:

There are sixteen dice. They can be laid out (ignoring orientation) in 16! ways. Only a quarter of those count as distinct (rotation of the board), for 5.2307e12 possible layouts.

In each of those layouts, there are sixteen dice that each have six possible positions (the face that is up), meaning each layout can present in 6^16 ways (2.82111e12 combinations.) Multiply the two numbers I’ve just given to give an upper bound on the number of possible boards.

Then we get into the more complicated mathematics of taking into consideration the duplication of various letters across the dice, which will reduce the above figure considerably. I’m leaving that as an exercise for the reader. (Yup - I’ve done the easy bit and brushed off the hard part.)

The odds will change in the future as new words will be coined?

 

[Voix des Airs]

Australia is so bad that just touching the plants can make you want to kill yourself.

I'm originally from South Florida and I think I spent about half my youth trying to get rid of &$#@ing Australian plants!

 

[onefang]

Nobody has yet commented that this news comes from Australia, where almost everything tries to kill you?

(Spent almost 3 years there as a kid and have been back twice as an adult...still alive)

Now we have an answer to the animals that try to kill us here in Australia, killer AI robots! What could possibly go wrong?

AI robots enlisted in fight against sea urchin surge along Australia's east coast

 

[jalcoza]

So the fastest were 1588 mph and the slowest we’re 5.5 mph. That is a pretty incredible range…

 

[Sulla]

The snake strike thing was fascinating, but as a person who loves food, the pasta thing might've beat it out.

 

[SixDegrees]

The snake strike thing was fascinating, but as a person who loves food, the pasta thing might've beat it out.

Just remember, you can eat snake, too.

 

[Oldnoobguy]

But why break them at all? Even if they don't fit in the pot, once they go floppy they will.

And semi-related question for the world at large, why aren't spaghetti noodles dried like ramen noodles, i.e., in pucks or blocks? Even non-fried ramen noodles are dried in puck shapes, which are better fits for most pot.

ETA: I forgot when writing this comment that ramen noodles are cooked before drying, which might have something to do with it.

Another semi related question. Why does Cincinnati chili use spaghetti broken into pieces that are so short they can only be scooped up by a fork? The official reason I have seen is the customers preferred it that way. Which leads to the question why is it that so many people in Cincinnati have problems with spooling spaghetti on a fork? One time I had a spaghetti dinner with some Vietnamese immigrants who were not comfortable with using forks, but had no problems with spooling the spaghetti on their chopsticks. Yet, a sufficiently large portion of the Cincinnati population had issues with this, so that now all Cincinnati style chili is served on a bed of broken up spaghetti.