Globules

At the recent American Association for the Advancement of Science convention in Boston, I heard a guy talking about a partly frozen foam with ice crystals and air bubbles, with flocculated fat globules surrounding the air bubbles, and proteins and emulsifiers surrounding the flocculated fat globules. My mind began drifting until I realized he was actually talking about ice cream, one of my favorite topics. Only then did I begin to realize that ice cream scientists take their work as seriously as brain surgeons and rocket scientists, maybe more so.

He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.