Lab Gourmet

Technically, this post is cheating, a shortcut. It is the product of cross-pollination (or cross-contamination?) of two blogs. I recently wrote a food-centric post for my science-y blog and I think it may fit well here. You are about to get a glimpse of the true depths of my dork-hood.



I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about food. Eating food, cooking food, foraging for food, reading and writing about food are always at the front of my mind. I consider going to restaurants a full-blown hobby (and a most excellent occupation). Since I spend the majority of my waking hours in a laboratory, a lot of my food day dreaming has no choice but take place in a lab. Many may be disturbed by the combination of lab and food. In reality, labs are full of edibles – you just have to look closely to find them.

- The most obvious lab food items are seaweed extracts such as agar and sodium alginate. The former is prized by vegans as an animal product-free Jell-O alternative, while the latter has been elevated to new heights by Ferran Adria, chef of El Bulli, one of the best-known restaurants in the world. Adria uses sodium alginate to create liquid pea ravioli, in which a thin membrane encloses a sphere of bright green pea soup. The bubble bursts in the mouth, releasing the soup and all of its glorious flavor in one big gush.

- We use 5% milk to block Western blots. It is ordinary, reconstituted non-fat dried milk, whatever brand happens to be sold in bulk at Costco. Milk in itself is not terribly appealing, however, one of the labs I rotated in used autoclaved milk for storing HSV plaque picks (why, I have absolutely no idea). Autoclaving milk turns it a beautiful light caramel color. Does autoclaved milk taste slightly bitter and sweet, like burnt sugar, or is it simply burnt? I had to exhibit considerable self control not to tip some out into my cupped hand and try a sip. I would have done, if it wasn’t for the disgusted and perplexed stares shot my way when I mentioned it.

- Bottles of ultra pure PCR-grade water line a shelf in my lab. Would be the best, cleanest and crispest tasting water of all time, putting Poland Spring and Evian to shame? Likely not since its deionized, but it calls to me nonetheless.

- I, on multiple occasions, have gazed longingly at a giant jug of purified caffeine sitting on the dry chemical shelf. Enough said.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. Have I missed anything? What other food-related items are found in labs? I promise not to tell the radioactivity surveyor.