THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL

by **Paul** Tue 25 Jun 2024, 7:55 am

Scientists have studied the ideal amount of time to dunk an Oreo in milk.

Milk and cookies go together like peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, Jay-Z and Beyoncé. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to dunk a cookie in milk, according to scientists. In 1998, a professor at the University of Bristol in the U.K. looked into the ideal method for dunking a British biscuit (aka a cookie) into a drink, using the concept of capillary action — the way fluids move spontaneously through small tubes in porous materials — and Washburn’s equation, which describes their journey. Eventually, he determined that the typical British biscuit is best dunked for 3.5 to 5 seconds. Using this same technique in 2016, scientists at the University of Utah's Splash Lab determined the perfect dunk time for the much-beloved Oreo. Although the amount of time to get to “perfect” depends on preferred sogginess levels and milk fat content, the Utah researchers determined that three seconds was enough to thoroughly saturate the Oreo without losing structural integrity.

by **Paul** Tue 25 Jun 2024, 8:03 am

Numbers Don’t Lie

Percent of creme filling in a “Double Stuf” Oreo compared to the original
186

Number of mammalian species (Homo sapiens) that drink milk as adults
1

Year the “Oreo Biscuit” was introduced by Nabisco
1912

Amount of milk (in gallons) an average dairy cow in the U.S. produces each day
7.5

by **Paul** Tue 25 Jun 2024, 8:04 am

THINK TWICE
All humans used to be lactose intolerant.
All mammalian young produce an enzyme known as lactase, which allows babies to digest lactose, a naturally occurring sugar found in milk (human or otherwise). As mammals age, their bodies naturally produce less and less lactase, until eventually milk sugars are no longer digestible. But around 10,000 BCE, a genetic mutation in humans took hold near modern-day Turkey that effectively kept human lactase production permanently set in the “on” position. According to some anthropologists, this gave certain cultures a distinct advantage, since this new lactose tolerance added a pool of easily accessible calories to the human diet. A [url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2015-11-24/europeans-drink-milk-tolerate-lactose-dates/6955414#:~:text=The study of DNA from,needed%2C" Dr Llamas said.]2015 study[/url] looking at the DNA of Eurasians who lived between 6500 BCE and 300 BCE shows that Russian steppe herders likely introduced the mutation to Western Europe. However, humanity’s ability to digest milk isn’t as widespread as you might think. The [url=https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/digestive-diseases/lactose-intolerance/definition-facts#:~:text=While most infants can digest,world's population has lactose malabsorption.]U.S. Department of Health and Human Services[/url] estimates that 68% of the world's adult population experiences “lactose malabsorption,” and those percentages are particularly high in Asia and Africa.