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Science

Scientists Discover Why the Cookie Crumbles 67

Posted by michael 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."
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Scientists Discover Why the Cookie Crumbles More

Scientists Discover Why the Cookie Crumbles

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  • Welcome ! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:17PM (#7116408)
    I, for one, welcome our new Keebler elf overlords.

  • Who funds these guys? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by saden1 ( 581102 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:28PM (#7116534)
    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.

    • 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 w

    • Re:Who funds these guys? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fireduck ( 197000 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:48PM (#7116781)
      I saw this on CNN and immediately read the actual article [iop.org] published in the Journal of Measurement Science Technology [iop.org]. (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...

    • funding (Score:4, Funny)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @04:03PM (#7116967)
      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.
      • Oh, and how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop!


        Mr. Owl said that it takes 3 [tootsie.com] licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop!

        • Re:funding (Score:3, Funny)

          by Tumbleweed ( 3706 )
          > Mr. Owl said that it takes 3 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop!

          I've found his research methodology seriously lacking.
          • 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
            |Av e .|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 t

      • 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 [bbc.co.uk] 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:

      • The Hokey Pokey is not what it's all about. It is, in fact, all about the Hokey Cokey.

        Hokey pokey is a kind of crunchy, crumbly sweetmeat made with golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda.

        For example;
        Q: What goes in and out and smells of urine?
        A: Old folks doing the Hokey Cokey
    • Who wants to take bets on whether this research warrants the awarding of an ignoble prize?
    • 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 app

  • Hmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Frambooz ( 555784 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:30PM (#7116554) Homepage
    ...wet cookie contest...

  • Geeks are getting slow (Score:4, Funny)

    by Winterblink ( 575267 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:35PM (#7116602) Homepage
    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.
  • 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 (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      But broken cookies have no calories. They all leaked out.

  • "It's very exciting," he added. (Score:4, Funny)

    by s88 ( 255181 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:36PM (#7116614) Homepage
    Sir, you and I differ greatly on our definition of "exciting".
  • In the immortal words of Tina Fey [nbc.com] of SNL...

    "Hey scientist guys... AIDS! We still have AIDS!"

    • Re:This is research? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by FroMan ( 111520 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @03:48PM (#7116770) Homepage Journal
      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...
      • 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 f
      • 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.
  • if they could figure out how the cookie crumbles; that would be something.

  • Duh (Score:1)

    by orkysoft ( 93727 )
    Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
  • 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.

      2 cords.

      Next! ...
    • Or maybe how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

      A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

      IOW, .... DUH!

    • 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.

    • can we figure out who the "they" are in "that's what they say"?

      "They" are "many people of this culture".

      And the amount of wood that your woodchuck can chuck depends on how many spamvertised pills you've swallowed.

    • 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. :-)

  • Phew! (Score:1)

    by Syris ( 129850 )
    Well, I'm glad science has advanced to the point where it was possible to figure this out. I'll sleep better at night.
  • ...still no cure for cancer.
    • "...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.
      • 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... (Score:5, Insightful)

          by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday October 02, 2003 @06:28PM (#7118582) Homepage Journal
          "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.
        • 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,
          • <Bad British Accent>
            "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.

  • Gee.. (Score:2)

    by azav ( 469988 )
    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?

  • 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!
  • 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.

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