Posted by
michael
on from the c-is-for-cookie dept.
cdneng2 writes "In these articles from Yahoo,
scientists have discovered how and why a cookie crumbles... and
it has nothing to do with the packaging and how they are
transported. More details in Nature,
and other news articles here."
67 comments
Welcome !
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 4, Funny
I, for one, welcome our new Keebler elf overlords.
Re:Welcome !
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Now that's funny. But then again, I never say anything unless I'm absolutely sure everybody else feels exactly the same way. Rule of the Schoolyard, you know.
What a crumby article.
by
dnahelix
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· Score: 0, Redundant
No pun intended. Seriously.
-- Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
Wow
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Can you say duh? A fifth grader would've figured that out.
Who funds these guys?
by
saden1
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· Score: 2, Interesting
And how did they manage to get grants to do this kind of work? I want some of that money do my research on how toilet paper folds.
--
----- One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
Re:Who funds these guys?
by
fireduck
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I saw this on CNN and immediately read the actual article published in the Journal of Measurement Science Technology. (probably need an institutional subscription to access the article.) One of the co-authors works for Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, which is presumbly where the funding came from (the sample preparation section mentions that the cookies were baked there).
Obviously companies that are in the business of selling cookies will do research into problems associated with their product. Broken cookies are a big deal. I open my Chips Ahoy and find a bunch of them broken, I'm a bit annoyed. I might even switch to Keebler cookies if there's don't break as much.
Basic experimental method (at least from what I can gather looking at the article). Take cookie, put it in environment with a given humidity and allow to equilibrate. Then transfer to new chamber with different humidity and watch how the cookie swells over time with speckle interferometry measurements to measure displacement and strain (I don't really understand how that part works). From this, determine a hygroscopic expansion coefficient and publish your work in a random journal.
Unfortunately, they really didn't test a variety of cookies and really didn't go into much detail on the type of cookie they did test. Would have been interesting if they did comparitive work between chocolate chip vs. snickerdoodles...
Re:Who funds these guys?
by
spooky_nerd
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· Score: 1
Who wants to take bets on whether this research warrants the awarding of an ignoble prize?
Re:Who funds these guys?
by
bfandreas
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Your question is valid, yet portrais a sad state of science nowadays. It is true that science needs funding. But not all of it promises immediate gain or material increase of the guy who cough up the dough(no pun intended since these guys seem to get money from a cookie manufacturer).
Yet funding comes your way when companies or the military see some merit in what they are paying for. These entities tend to only think VERY short term.
Think of it this way. Who would have paid Newton to sit underneath an apple tree. This little anecdote(true or not) marks the beginning of research of gravity. Something that everybody took for granted. Yet ask the NASA what they would do without the outcome of this line of research. If you ask about the benefit of sending people to the moon, ask the folks who will live a couple of hundred years from now. Satelites should be a no-brainer.
True science resembles art. Not many understand why we need it, yet we would still be sitting in cold caves not wondering why round stones roll down the hill while others don't.
Silly as it may seem, I think that this cookie induced revelation will advance our civilisation and mankind in itsself.
DISCLAIMER: I spent a couple of years partaking in pure science robotics stuff nobody thinks will be usefull. Ever. We shall see. Hooray for BMBF!
-- 20 minutes into the future
Re:Who funds these guys?
by
Walt+Dismal
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· Score: 3, Funny
I've applied for a DARPA grant to investigate cookies as weapons of mass destruction. My uncle, the general, assures me I'll get at least $5 million from the administration. Subsequent proposals will cover the use of peanut butter breath as a biowarfare agent
Geeks are getting slow
by
Winterblink
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· Score: 3, Funny
We nerds should have had this researched years ago. Who leaves cookie research to scientists!? There are hundred page sites out there detailing the physical changes adverse environments cause on peeps and twinkies, and yet nothing done about the lowly cookie.
-- "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
This has to be the least popular/. story I've seen... You'd think with as many of us geek's reading this who are online 18-20 hours a day and snacking at their desks that we'd have a few cookie bingers that would post. Lol
At least my anti-nonfat cookie stance leaves me eating less broken cookies.;)
Re:Whoa
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Funny
But broken cookies have no calories. They all leaked out.
"It's very exciting," he added.
by
s88
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· Score: 3, Funny
Sir, you and I differ greatly on our definition of "exciting".
Perhaps nobody? Next time you go to the bathroom, lug all your computer gear in there and start researching while you do your thing. It seems that they mostly were looking at sound, and most computers have microphones.
then again, the researchers are in finland, and "everyone" knows that the governments in that area of the world are as close as you can get to socalists. (so far...) You have a place to live and food on your table no matter what you do. So if you want to research this you only need to work until you can afford the equipment.
Re:This is research?
by
FroMan
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Lets see, not to put down the "scientists" who have discovered why cookies crumble, but do you really think this group is the one that will discover the cure for AIDS if they had not been working on cookie discoveries?
With that in mind, I assume all of your resources are going to find a cure for AIDS? But wait! This gets better, AIDS is not the number one killer in the US. So, maybe we should say, "Hey scientists... Cancer! We still have cancer!" Or maybe something else.
I love on slashdot how everytime someone works on something that the slashbot doesn't think is noble enough of a cause they come up with what cause they should have been working on.
Maybe you should stop reading slashdot and go find a cure for AIDS...
-- Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
Re:This is research?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
I love on slashdot how everytime someone works on something that the slashbot doesn't think is noble enough of a cause they come up with what cause they should have been working on.
Well, I love on slashdot how nobody has a sense of humor on the whole thing. I mean, if you're ever seen that specific newscast from SNL, you would understand that the comment itself (and not necessarily the actual science) is just funny.
about.31% of the US population is HIV positive.
about.66% of the Earth's population is HIV positive.
This disease has not been around very long, and is quickly approaching 1 out of every 100 people having it. While some of your points are valid, your seeming callousness is alarming and somewhat disturbing. After all, the post you so articulately derided was only quoting a Saturday Night Live character. I tend to agree with that post's general sentiment that a study on how cookies crumble is somewhat frivolous. Especially when my Grandma has been making sturdy, delicious cookies for 70 years.
Now that we know how (or at least why) the cookie crumbles, can we figure out who the "they" are in "that's what they say"? Or maybe how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Or maybe how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood
A wood chuck would chuck what wood a wood chuck could chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood. Everybody knows that.
-- As x approaches total apathy I couldn't care less.
Yeah, and I want to do a study to find out if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about. That could take awhile...Oh, and how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop! Whether toast always lands butter-side down, and the side study of what happens when you strap a piece of toast on the back of a cat and drop it (butter-side facing up as mounted on said feline).
Hmm, "A Study on the Yaw Effects of Hydrolized Bovine Mammary Gland Extract-Coated, Exothermically-Excited Wheat-Based Modules as Mounted on Domesticated Felines."
Yes, that should be good for a few hundred grand, at least!
Please consider these hypotheses when applying for funding:
I want to do a study to find out if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about.
Nope. It's all about "for-tea-two", and the corresponding question is "what is a good attitude toward life?" If the Hokey Pokey were what it's all about, the Macarena (essentially a sped-up PG-13 Hokey Pokey) wouldn't have died as quickly as it became popular.
what happens when you strap a piece of toast on the back of a cat and drop it
Conventional wisdom: Housecats (Felis domesticus) are stronger than buttered toast. For one thing, housecats weigh more.
Well, I'm glad science has advanced to the point where it was possible to figure this out. I'll sleep better at night.
Re:Phew!
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
Me too!
Now excuse me while I go make some more cookie dough (no really... I actually planned to make some cookie dough before I read this article, and now I'm getting hungry).
p.s. The wonderful thing about uncooked cookie dough: it doesn't crumble!!!
As they say over on Fark...
by
JasonMaggini
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· Score: 1
...still no cure for cancer.
Re:As they say over on Fark...
by
NanoGator
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· Score: 2, Insightful
"...still no cure for cancer."
I hate stupid comments like this. Research of cancer doesn't go faster if you add more people to it, especially if those people have no qualifications or background to do it.
-- "Derp de derp."
Re:As they say over on Fark...
by
JasonMaggini
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· Score: 1
The problem is that there's good money being thrown at this kind of stuff (for example, testing the viscosity of ketchup - there's a boon to mankind) when it could be spent in much better ways.
I've lost members of my family to cancer. Nobody ever died from a broken cookie.
Re:As they say over on Fark...
by
NanoGator
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· Score: 4, Insightful
"The problem is that there's good money being thrown at this kind of stuff (for example, testing the viscosity of ketchup - there's a boon to mankind) when it could be spent in much better ways."
Fundamental stuff has to be understoood. I'm sorry you lost family members to cancer, however, there's no telling what all will need to be understood in order to cure it or anything else.
We live in a diverse, colorful world. Remember that.
Nothing like changing the subject in the first paragraph. From a baking point of view a cookie crumbles because of the amount of fat vs. sugar. Les fat more sugar=crumbles. Perhaps the biscuit they are talking about crumble because they are cheep crap biscuits, but who cares because they do not know the difference. I know why apples turn red, it has to do with the gas I need to mow my yard. Ion engines are slow but they can always deliver the mail.
-- I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
Next thing they'll tell you is that they have discovered that this is similar to why drying mud cracks.
I feel a Princess Bride flashback coming on... "Plato, Socrates, Aristotle... Morons."
How can something so obvious be counted as a new discovery? What IS wrong with kids these days?
-- - Zav
- Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
at the risk of sounding a flame...
by
bninja_penguin
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I've lost members of my family to cancer
I too, have lost family members to cancer. I've also lost family members to gunfire(seriously), old age, heart attacks, etc. It sucks, but face it: No one gets out of this life alive.
So, maybe what the point of my post is, anything that works to improve the quality of life is way more important than working to improve the quantity of life. That said, both researching a cure for cancer and researching how/why/whatever a cookie crumbles are both noble causes.
So, think of me what you will, in 75 to 100 years, we will both be dead and who cares then?
-- For those who describe their systems as 'boxen', do you order multiple 'boxen' of corn flakes also?
Re:at the risk of sounding a flame...
by
JasonMaggini
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· Score: 1
"Sorry mum, you've got terminal pancreatic cancer, but hey! You can have a lovely tin of bisuits with your afternoon cuppa!" </Bad British Accent>
I still don't think comparing research like that is valid. But whatever. If they're getting somebody to fund it, more power to 'em. Keeps 'em off the street.
And it's more proof people take things too damn seriously. The original post was just intended as a bit of humor.
"Cookie" does have its own meaning in Britain, referring to a generally sweet or confectioned, crumbly or "gooey" biscuit.. i.e. "chocolate chip cookies" which would be understood by any Brit. A digestive, rich tea, or otherwise hard biscuit would not be referred to as a "cookie," however.
I stand corrected, however less fat, more sugar = crumbles. I retract the cheap crapy part you Brits are o.k.(most) heck we were enemies once what a beter foundation for fiendship
-- I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
I stand corrected again however less fat more sugar = crumbles it is interesting that the people involved in this study did not open a pastry text book, what makes a cookie crumble was figured out last century.
-- I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
If your name is Michael Douglas you girlfriend must be very attractive, seems like you have the best of both countries. My last name is welsh, some day I will have to tract down my ancestral village. I also hear that some of the worlds best tennors come from Wales.
-- I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
Re:Next projects: Even Better
by
fven
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· Score: 1
Esau sawed wood. Easu wood would saw wood. Oh the wood Wood would saw. One day Esau Wood saw a saw saw wood as no other wood-saw would saw wood. In fact if all the wood-saws wood ever saw wood would saw wood, Wood never saw a wood saw saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood. And I never saw a wood-saw saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood until I saw Easu Wood saw wood with the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood.:-)
Re:Next projects: Even Better
by
Quill_28
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· Score: 1
Did you just make that up?
I have too much time on my hands......
by
stfvon007
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· Score: 1
The toosie roll pop experiment:
Problem: How many licks does is take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
Materials: 3 tootsie roll pops, mouth
Procedure: 1. Unwrap tootsie roll pop 2. Lick tootsie roll pop counting the licks untill the center is reached 3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with remaining tootsie roll pops
Data: |Trial|# of licks |1.....|214 |2.....|194 |3.....|221 |Ave .|209 1/3
Observations: It took a lot of licks. My mouth is tierd now.
Conclusion: It takes aprox. 209 1/3 licks to get to the center of the tootsie pop.
-- All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
I'll bet he'll love new and improved, less crumbly cookies. Maybe he'll actually get some in his mouth now.
Ok, it's a really lame comment, but I've never had a chance to make a Sesame Street reference on Slashdot before!
SNL is funny?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0
SNL is funny? Since when?
This is the cause of Toddler tantrums!
by
mabhatter654
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· Score: 1
And there are far more upset Toddlers than people with AIDS. The government has a mandate in the preamble to promote the "Domestic Tranquility" and reducing the number of broken cookie incidents directly falls under that mandate.
Every once in a while, something comes out of science that changes the world. It is the thing science ficton of yeasteryear never predicts, that everything revolves around. It will be the question of the century, "where were you when you heard about the uncumbleable cookie?"
Slashdot Mirror
I, for one, welcome our new Keebler elf overlords.
No pun intended. Seriously.
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
Can you say duh? A fifth grader would've figured that out.
And how did they manage to get grants to do this kind of work? I want some of that money do my research on how toilet paper folds.
-----
One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
...wet cookie contest...
No encryption can withstand the power of the Lucky Guess.
We nerds should have had this researched years ago. Who leaves cookie research to scientists!? There are hundred page sites out there detailing the physical changes adverse environments cause on peeps and twinkies, and yet nothing done about the lowly cookie.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
This has to be the least popular /. story I've seen... You'd think with as many of us geek's reading this who are online 18-20 hours a day and snacking at their desks that we'd have a few cookie bingers that would post. Lol
;)
At least my anti-nonfat cookie stance leaves me eating less broken cookies.
Sir, you and I differ greatly on our definition of "exciting".
Perhaps nobody? Next time you go to the bathroom, lug all your computer gear in there and start researching while you do your thing. It seems that they mostly were looking at sound, and most computers have microphones.
then again, the researchers are in finland, and "everyone" knows that the governments in that area of the world are as close as you can get to socalists. (so far...) You have a place to live and food on your table no matter what you do. So if you want to research this you only need to work until you can afford the equipment.
In the immortal words of Tina Fey of SNL...
"Hey scientist guys... AIDS! We still have AIDS!"
if they could figure out how the cookie crumbles; that would be something.
"You have the right to free speech...as long as, you aren't dumb enough to actually try it." - The Clash
He described the process as like "an earthquake running through the biscuit."
"It's very exciting," he added.
D'oh
some fat lard assed American sat on it...
Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Now that we know how (or at least why) the cookie crumbles, can we figure out who the "they" are in "that's what they say"? Or maybe how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
Yeah, and I want to do a study to find out if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about. That could take awhile...Oh, and how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop! Whether toast always lands butter-side down, and the side study of what happens when you strap a piece of toast on the back of a cat and drop it (butter-side facing up as mounted on said feline).
Hmm, "A Study on the Yaw Effects of Hydrolized Bovine Mammary Gland Extract-Coated, Exothermically-Excited Wheat-Based Modules as Mounted on Domesticated Felines."
Yes, that should be good for a few hundred grand, at least!
That should be 'Roll', not Yaw. Sheesh.
No, no! When is even better! ...now mod me insightful!
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
Well, I'm glad science has advanced to the point where it was possible to figure this out. I'll sleep better at night.
A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
IOW, .... DUH!
You could've hired me.
...still no cure for cancer.
Nothing like changing the subject in the first paragraph. From a baking point of view a cookie crumbles because of the amount of fat vs. sugar. Les fat more sugar=crumbles. Perhaps the biscuit they are talking about crumble because they are cheep crap biscuits, but who cares because they do not know the difference. I know why apples turn red, it has to do with the gas I need to mow my yard. Ion engines are slow but they can always deliver the mail.
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth
Gee, this sounds mind blowing.
Next thing they'll tell you is that they have discovered that this is similar to why drying mud cracks.
I feel a Princess Bride flashback coming on...
"Plato, Socrates, Aristotle... Morons."
How can something so obvious be counted as a new discovery? What IS wrong with kids these days?
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
I've lost members of my family to cancer
I too, have lost family members to cancer. I've also lost family members to gunfire(seriously), old age, heart attacks, etc.
It sucks, but face it:
No one gets out of this life alive.
So, maybe what the point of my post is, anything that works to improve the quality of life is way more important than working to improve the quantity of life. That said, both researching a cure for cancer and researching how/why/whatever a cookie crumbles are both noble causes.
So, think of me what you will, in 75 to 100 years, we will both be dead and who cares then?
For those who describe their systems as 'boxen', do you order multiple 'boxen' of corn flakes also?
What White-Americans call a "cookie" Brits call a "biscuit."
Will I retire or break 10K?
Esau sawed wood. Easu wood would saw wood. Oh the wood Wood would saw. One day Esau Wood saw a saw saw wood as no other wood-saw would saw wood. In fact if all the wood-saws wood ever saw wood would saw wood, Wood never saw a wood saw saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood. And I never saw a wood-saw saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood until I saw Easu Wood saw wood with the wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood. :-)
Did you just make that up?
The toosie roll pop experiment:
e .|209 1/3
Problem: How many licks does is take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?
Materials: 3 tootsie roll pops, mouth
Procedure:
1. Unwrap tootsie roll pop
2. Lick tootsie roll pop counting the licks untill the center is reached
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 with remaining tootsie roll pops
Data:
|Trial|# of licks
|1.....|214
|2.....|194
|3.....|221
|Av
Observations:
It took a lot of licks. My mouth is tierd now.
Conclusion:
It takes aprox. 209 1/3 licks to get to the center of the tootsie pop.
All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
I'll bet he'll love new and improved, less crumbly cookies. Maybe he'll actually get some in his mouth now.
Ok, it's a really lame comment, but I've never had a chance to make a Sesame Street reference on Slashdot before!
SNL is funny? Since when?
And there are far more upset Toddlers than people with AIDS. The government has a mandate in the preamble to promote the "Domestic Tranquility" and reducing the number of broken cookie incidents directly falls under that mandate.
Every once in a while, something comes out of science that changes the world. It is the thing science ficton of yeasteryear never predicts, that everything revolves around. It will be the question of the century, "where were you when you heard about the uncumbleable cookie?"
%\
And that's the way the cookie crumbles.
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"