October, the month of Halloween, is upon us. Pumpkins have appeared outside the grocery stores, all ready to be taken home and carved into jack-o-lanterns. Inside, the shelves of the candy section groan with offerings to be doled out to trick-or-treaters.
Somewhat coincidentally, at the Pacific Science Center a new exhibit, "Candy Unwrapped," presents a scientific and informative look at candy. The Jelly Belly folks - makers of premier jelly beans - have created an interactive and tempting look at the biology, chemistry, physiology and psychology of candy.
Recently I was invited - along with a number of other journalists from around town as well as a fourth-grade class from Highland Park - to a special press preview of the exhibit. The first thing we witnessed was a young woman using a fresh package of Peeps candy as a presentational prop.
The idea was to provoke a discussion on how to approach an examination of anything scientifically. You must first predict the end result, then do the experiment, observe its results and, finally, measure those results.
There appeared a sea of raised hands. The children guessed what would happen if you poured hot water on a piece of Peeps candy (it melted), then fired another out of a weed-blower. The presenter showed the kids a little about aerodynamics when she formed a paper nosecone on the Peeps, causing it to shoot much further down the small course they had made.
My partner, who at times is a devoted consumer of Peeps, wouldn't have cared anything about its flight tendencies. She thinks that a Peep, in order to reach the proper edible state, must first be stale. Consequently we have aging, unopened packages of Peeps occupying back corners of our kitchen cupboards. I don't think she's very scientific about her Peeps.
As I wandered around the exhibition, I ran across a number of interesting presentations. The first thing you come to is an immense stack of 5-pound sugar packages. The stack is 4 feet by 4 feet by 19 feet tall. This represents the sugar an average North American consumes in a lifetime. The stack weighs 12,090 pounds. The average North American digests 157 pounds of sugar each year.
However, per capita, Denmark consumes the most candy, and Switzerland consumes the most chocolate.
As I continued my tour, I came upon a stationary bike that you could pedal to learn how fast you burned calories. It takes the average adult about three minutes to bicycle off the 33 calories contained in one sugar cube.
I also learned of a number of industrial uses for sugar that previously I had no idea existed. A little sugar in concrete keeps it from hardening too quickly. There is also a bit of sugar in the plastic used in garbage bags; it helps speed up their breakdown in landfills. Sugar is used in other plastics, medicines, hair products, explosives, paints and resins.
Another exhibit I was drawn to was titled simply "Tastes Like." This was part of a larger exhibit that explained how you learn a flavor language at about the same time you learn a spoken language. It also pointed out that some things which look unappetizing to some North Americans are treats to other peoples - say, kim chee and sushi.
Choose a picture of lobster in butter sauce with french fries, push the button below it and learn that it tastes like what looks like cicadas with wax moth larvae. Chicken and french fries tastes like tarantulas with wax moth larvae. However, the next time I'm asked "Want fries with that?" I doubt I'll respond with: "No thanks, I've got a bag of wax moth larvae."
Displayed around the room are quotes about candy by famous people. There's Ronald Reagan, of course: "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jelly beans." Or: "What you see before you, my friend, is the result of a lifetime of chocolate" - Katharine Hepburn.
My favorite was a quote from the fictional character Alfred E. Newman: "We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons."
One exhibit, titled "Romancing the Bean," is entirely devoted to chocolate. In the 1500s, Aztec emperor Montezuma of Mexico drank about 50 glasses of chocolate each day. Cocoa beans were so valued in ancient Mexico that the Mayans used it as a currency of trade, to purchase items and services.
But even in today's culture it seems significant that the melting point of cocoa butter is just below the temperature of the human body. That's why chocolate literally melts in your mouth.
Maybe you should check out "Candy Unwrapped" before you dive into all those Halloween goodies. It will probably give you an entirely new perspective. The exhibit will be at the Pacific Science Center until Jan. 2, 2005.
Gary McDaniel is a freelance writer living in Magnolia.[[In-content Ad]]
