Physicists at the University of Warwick created a new hard-to-eat pasta shape they call anelloni to demonstrate the complicated formations ring-shaped polymers can form when they intertwine.
Since anelloni highlights how polymers tangle together into dense formations by tangling pieces of pasta together into a lumpy noodle version of the RatKing, scientists Davide Michieletto and Matthew Turner basically created the most annoying pasta to eat of all time-usurping even slippery, boring linguine.
Combining science and food can have delicious results, like the molecular gastronomy of high-end restaurants like Alinea*. Other times, the results are good for research but bad for your mouth.
The decision to use delicious carbs to showcase science is hard not to get behind, but I hope the physicists will come up with a demonstration that results in food that is not a jumbled frustration headache. Michieletto and Turner primarily focus on computer simulations of polymers, so this foray into kitchen experiments may not get a repeat.
Farfalle may only demonstrate the enduring quaintness of bowties and not the intricacies of polymer contact, but at least it’s easy to move from fork to mouth. [Physics World via Phys.org]
*I have never eaten at Alinea because I am a blogger.