Science never tasted so sweet: your favorite treat could be your meal ticket to a great science experiment.Your favorite treat could be your meal ticket to a great science experiment. Walk down the candy aisle in a supermarket and the rich smell of chocolate wafts through your nose. A visit to a gourmet shop is even more delectable. Handmade hand·made adj. Made or prepared by hand rather than by machine. handmade Adjective made by hand, not by machine Adj. 1. candies in shiny wrappers In data mining and treatment learning, wrappers were used by Ron Kohavi and George John. Their idea was to wrap their treatments learners in a preprocessor that would search to make subsets from the current set of attributes. fill glass cases: chewy chew·y adj. chew·i·er, chew·i·est Needing much chewing: chewy candy. chew  i·ness n. caramel, nutty nougat nou·gat n. A confection made from a sugar or honey paste into which nuts are mixed. [French, from Provençal, from nougo, nut, from Old Provençal noga, from Vulgar Latin , creamy cream·y adj. cream·i·er, cream·i·est Rich in or resembling cream. cream i·ly adv. fudge 1. fudge - To perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way, particularly with respect to the writing of a program. "I didn't feel like going through that pain and suffering, so I fudged it - I'll fix it later."2. fudge - The resulting code. . One look and you'll probably agree: Chocolate candies are the best thing to ever come out of a kitchen. But the truth is, they come out of a laboratory first. Just ask Carl Wong. For 21 years Wong has concocted secret recipes Secret Recipe is a lifestyle café chain and has become a household name following its debut in Malaysia since 1997. Secret Recipe has successfully established its brand name in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand by virtue of its quality cakes, fusion food and for Hershey Foods Corporation, one of the world's largest chocolate companies, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. But Wong isn't a chef. He's a food scientist, with a masters degree in microbiology microbiology: see biology. microbiology Scientific study of microorganisms, a diverse group of simple life-forms including protozoans, algae, molds, bacteria, and viruses. and a doctorate in food chemistry. Sometimes Wong and his staff will try to perfect a candy bar the company already makes, like Reese's [R] Pieces. Other times they dream up brandnew treats. Either way, Wong must develop a foolproof formula to churn out churn n. A vessel or device in which cream or milk is agitated to separate the oily globules from the caseous and serous parts, used to make butter. v. churned, churn·ing, churns v.tr. 1. millions of candies that taste exactly alike and will stay fresh for as long as possible. The best way to get the job done, says Wong, is to use the scientific method, a step-by-step process for doing research. GO NUTS! Often the first step in the scientific method is to simply notice something, or make an observation. For example, Wong might taste a 10-month-old batch of peanut-filled chocolate candies. He notices the peanuts pea·nut n. 1. A prostrate southern Brazilian plant (Arachis hypogaea) widely cultivated in tropical and warm temperate regions, having yellow flowers on stalks that bend over so that the seed pods ripen underground. 2. taste stale stale horseman's term for the act of urination by a horse. . As peanuts get older, their oils break down and produce a gaseous gas·e·ous adj. 1. Of, relating to, or existing as a gas. 2. Full of or containing gas; gassy. byproduct by·prod·uct or by-prod·uct n. 1. Something produced in the making of something else. 2. A secondary result; a side effect. Noun 1. called aldehyde aldehyde (ăl`dəhīd) [alcohol + New Lat. dehydrogenatus=dehydrogenated], any of a class of organic compounds that contain the carbonyl group, and in which the carbonyl group is bonded to at least one hydrogen; the general . The higher the level of aldehydes, the staler the peanuts become. Wong knows that peanuts roasted at exactly the right temperature stay fresh longer. This leads to Wong's research question: What roasting temperature will maintain a low level of aldehydes in the peanuts? Wong relies on years of experience to answer most questions. But he may do some background research to study the temperature at which other food scientists roast peanuts for candies. Based on his research, Wong develops a hypothesis, or educated guess, about the answer to his research question: Roasting a batch of peanuts at 121 [degrees] C (250 [degrees] F) will produce the smallest amount of aldehydes. EDIBLE VARIABLES How can Wong find out if his prediction is correct? He designs an experiment. A good experiment tests the effect of one variable, or characteristic, on another--for example, the effect of roasting temperature on aldehyde levels. There are two major kinds of variables: the independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is the one you change on purpose--in Wong's experiment, the roasting temperature. Changing the independent variable affects other variables, known as dependent variables. For example, increasing the roasting temperature might decrease peanut aldehyde levels, Wong's dependent variable. To ensure that other variables, like roasting time or type of oven, won't affect the outcome, Wong keeps them constant, or unchanged, during the experiment. Wong then moves ahead with a step-by-step procedure, or plan. First, he and his assistants roast peanuts at 121 [degrees] C. Then, they mix the nuts with chocolate to make a test batch of the candy. To measure the peanuts' aldehyde levels, Wong places a sample of the peanut-filled candy in a machine called a gas chromatograph gas chromatograph n. An instrument used in gas chromatography to separate a sample of a volatile substance into its components. (kroh-MA-tuh-graf) which actually counts the aldehyde molecules present in the candy. A panel of five or six expert taste-testers also samples the candy. If the candy doesn't taste quite right, Wong starts over again. This time he might increase the roasting temperature by a few degrees. These repeated trials help him get closer and closer to roasting peanuts that taste great and stay flesh longer. CRUNCH TIME Finally Wong reaches a conclusion: To keep peanuts tasting freshest, they must be roasted at about 149 [degrees] C (300 [degrees] F). At that temperature, peanuts produce the lowest level of aldehydes during the time the candy sits on a store shelf. Wong records and publishes his results in a recipe, which only Hershey's employees are allowed to see. But all it takes is one visit to the candy store and you can taste the results! RELATED ARTICLE: Steps of the Scientific Method 1. Base your idea for a science project on an observation. 2. State the purpose of your project. Usually, you will state your purpose in the form of a research question. (For example: What roasting temperature will keep a low level of aldehydes in peanuts?) 3. Do background research to find out what is already known about your topic. 4. State your hypothesis, an educated guess about your research question. (For example: For low aldehyde levels, the peanuts should be roasted at 121 [degrees] C.) 5. Come up with a detailed procedure (see p. 12). 6. Carry out an experiment and collect data. 7. Record the results. In many cases you can present your results in tables, charts, and graphs (see p. 14). 8. Draw a conclusion from the results. Did your hypothesis prove true? 9. Write down the steps of the procedure and results of your experiment. 10. Publish and present your report (see pp. 18 and 20). RELATED ARTICLE: Parts of an Experiment Variables: the characteristics ill an experiment that change (for example, roasting temperature and peanuts' aldehyde levels) Independent variable: the variable you change on purpose, also called the manipulated variable (the roasting temperature) Dependent variable: the variable chat responds to a change in the independent variable, also called the responding variable (peanuts' aldehyde levels) Constants: variables in the experiment that stay the same (roasting time or type of oven) Control: the standard for comparison in an experiment, used to judge the outcome of the experiment (a fresh batch of candy) Repeated trials: the number of times an experiment is repeated (the more trials, the more reliable the results) |
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