Category: Science

What’s inside that energy drink? Sugar, acid, caffeine + ‘fairy dust’

Monster Troupe by MJmerry, on FlickrIt is 7 a.m. and I am investigating the world’s most popular mind-altering drug. Having scrutinised the latest data, it’s time for a hands-on experiment. The substance in question is a potent white powder called 1.3 7- trimethylxanthine. Its use has reached endemic levels in children – and health care professionals are concerned. You will know this drug as caffeine. And the formulation under scrutiny is called an ‘energy drink’.

Ever since highly caffeinated energy drinks charged onto the scene twenty years ago, they have been branded “dangerous” and “harmful” by the media. Today, one in ten British teenagers drink an energy drink on most days, and a frightening 25% of children under ten have drunk one in the past year. I’ve decided to discover out what’s really inside them – and find out what they taste like. Read more

Dr Stu’s science of bisuit dunking

044 of 366 by Pam loves pie, on FlickrGo on, admit it: you love doing it. Every morning at 11 O’clock, tens of thousands of people prise open the biscuit tin to get ready to do some dunking. It’s a worldwide tea break curiosity that has existed to since the dawn of the sweet baked treat. In America, they do it with doughnuts, while South Africans like to use rusks.

In a tonight’s BBC4 documentary, Nigel Slater’s Great British Biscuit, I explain some of the science of biscuit dunking. Here, more of the mysteries of the dunk are unwrapped… Read more

The science behind a midlife crisis: are you having one?

Extraordinary Shovel by fatboyke (Luc), on FlickrRock concerts, fast cars and beach holidays – a midlife crisis sounds like a dream. If you happen to be a child of a parent going through a 40-something identity crisis – then you’re probably in for a great time.

Just because you’ve bought a ridiculously overpriced motorbike and you’re over 35, does it mean you’re having a midlife crisis? Today we shall be finding out what’s really behind those middle-aged Harley Davidson cravings.
Read more

More Money makes you Bad at Work: The Myth of Performance-Related Pay.

Semi Daily Self Portrait by mike ambs, on FlickrMotivated by money? I confess I am. Well ok, not always: there are plenty of things that will trump a stack of greenbacks. However, few of us would object to a kindly benefactor plopping a million quid into our current account. Even for the least materially-minded, it would be difficult to ignore such an offer: an abundance of wealth brings great opportunities to do great things for a great many people. Just ask Bill Gates.

But would money make you work harder? Politicians have a thing for ‘performance-related pay’ – especially when it means cutting the salaries of civil servants. If you listen to the UK Chancellor and his sidekick (Education Secretary, Michael Gove) then getting paid more for doing a good job is “empowering”, “rewarding” and will “drive up quality” (read the words of what he is proposing for teachers). It’s a simple equation: more money = harder work. Who could argue with such a logical conclusion? Well, money may make you try harder, but what you do will be lousy. Read more

Coming soon to a high street near you… horse meat burgers?

The Hillbilly Grill II by David Robert Wright, on FlickrA Findus ‘100% beef’ lasagne made from 100% horsemeat now has a market value of over £50 ($75). A bargain.

The woes of the processed meat industry may continue unabated. The exposé of recent weeks has been staggering: horsemeat and pork in ‘beef’ burgers, Non-Halal meat in ‘Halal’ meals and, staggeringly, 100% beef lasagne without a trace of beef (reported to be selling on eBay at over £70). And yet, the humiliation of the big name food manufacturers spreads outside the UK, as Europe-wide testing finds the food industry with its pants down.
Read more

Get fit faster: listen to music!

Hill Attack. Tension Up! #4It’s now officially Games Over. Gone is the excuse to bunk off work to catch five minutes of of dressage or synchronised swimming. And as our love affair ends, normal life must resume. The real challenge now begins: to stay true to those keep-fit resolutions.

One of the tricks to stay motivated may be, quite literally, music to your ears. ‘Music has received very little attention among sports scholars’ wrote one author in 1993 in the Sociology of Sport Journal.  Since then, much has changed. Long distance champ Paula Radcliff swears that her playlist during training – insisting it helps to keep her going. Yet Usain Bolt is denied such an indulgence.

Taking a perusal trough the latest research, we’ll explore what is known about the power of music to get you fired up and heading down the gym. Even when The X-Factor is on… Read more

The challenge to live a ‘no impact’ life

no-impact-manOf all the consumables I couldn’t live without, it wouldn’t be the internet. Neither would it be chocolate, ice cream or shampoo. I think I could cope without electricity just fine (I learnt how to make camp fires as a child). No, the one thing that would really chafe me (quite literally) would be not having toilet paper.

I’m not usually one for watching documentaries, but last night my wife and I forewent our trashy film fascination to watch the 2010 documentary ‘No Impact Man’. It follows a year in the life of New York writer Colin Beaven and his family’s attempt to live a year with no-net impact on the environment. No plastic, no elevators, no public transport, no electricity and only locally-sourced food. And no toilet paper.

For an upper-middle class family who think nothing of spending $1,000 on a handbag, their painful transition certainly makes for compelling viewing. Were they bonkers? Quite possibly. The US tabloid media certainly thought so, and were lambasted as self-promoting weirdoes. Their motives appeared genuine, and after watching their efforts it is difficult to not be challenged; which is perhaps why their experiment attracted so much antagonism. No Westerner likes to think that they are living a lifestyle that sucks the planet dry. No one likes to admit they’re wrong. No one likes to give anything up.

Few of us are going to cast everything modern aside and wash our laundry with borax and bicarbonate of soda. But if there was one thing – even a small thing – that we could change to make a measurable difference to the environment, what would it be? The answer to that question might surprise you. Read more

Nostalgia: Why we think things were better in the past

HotlineThey just don’t write blogs like they used to. Back in the good old days there was none of this Twitter or Facebook piffle. Web pages were once simple and images didn’t instantly appear but – like a photo being developed – gradually formed out of a pixelated mess. In the 1990s, receiving an email was still a fun novelty. Ah, the how things were better back then. You kids don’t know you’re born.

Contrary to what you might think, it’s not senior citizens who are the experts in nostalgia. At the tender age of thirty, I’m as adept at reminiscing as anyone. I can fondly remember a bygone era where social engagements weren’t cancelled on the whim of a text-message. Foolish sentimentality? We rose-tinted nostalgics are perhaps the ones most capable of dealing with modern-day life. Today’s blog post is for everyone who thinks things were better when they were a kid… Read more

Do old people get more grumpy?

Happy 95th!It is said that during our twenties we spend our time worrying about what other people think . In our thirties, we blame our parents for all our problems. In our forties, we finally realise that no one was really paying us that much attention and all our issues aren’t our parent’s fault after all.

Not so very long ago, a certain Sir Michael rather publically lamented today’s teachers – accusing them of being a group of whinging bums (I paraphrase). One commenter wondered whether it was just his age getting the better of him. She questioned whether there is any research about age-related ‘grumpiness’. In today’s post, you will find out whether there really is any truth to the “grumpy old codger” stereotype – and whether we are all destined to get grumpy as we get old… Read more

How can I stop…… stammering?

London 1940 was a grey place. In June, smog and grey skies made way for sunshine. Not that there was any summer cheer. Homes were in a perpetual gloom because of blacked-out windows. Food was scarce and kitchen broth was the family staple meal. And then the Germans were approaching.

Against this backdrop, the new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, made a series of inspiring speeches that strengthened the resolve of this despairing nation. His most famous, ‘we shall fight on the beaches’, remains etched in the British psyche even today. The bald, rotund cigar-smoker suffered from a stutter and yet is remembered as one of the greatest orators of all time.

A concerned blog reader contacted me to ask whether it was possible for her to stop stammering. King George and Winston Churchill overcame their speech impediments, as did actor Bruce Willis. Had they not, the world would look very different today (and there would be no Die Hard movies). But how did they do it? How can a stutterer gain eloquent prose, sufficient to rally the troops and entertain the masses? Let’s find out, and dispel some false assumptions along the way…

Read more