I'd Like Some Toasted Bread, Please!

Believe it or not, your humble kitchen toaster contains some very hot technology. Its heating elements are wires made of nichrome, a special alloy of nickel and chromium that incandesces (glows like a light bulb), yet doesn't burn up when exposed to the air.

Why does toasting turn a slice of white bread brown? The bread isn't burning when it turns brown. Rather, it's undergoing what chemists call a Maillard reaction--sugars and amino acids in the bread reacting at 310 degrees Fahrenheit (F) to "toast" the bread. Heating also dehydrates the bread (removes water), leaving the slice dry and crunchy.

What happens if your toaster doesn't heat to 310 degrees F? Try it!

Lindstrom, Elizabeth E. (Editor). Odyssey: Adventures in Science. 2009: 18 (3); p. 26.

Do Astronauts Eat Sandwiches?

Sure, they do! It's called a "rocket science sandwich!"

But first, a quick question: "Have you ever dropped a few crumbs while making or eating a sandwich?" Well, you can't do that in space because in zero gravity astronauts accidentally could inhale breadcrumbs floating around in their spacecraft and choke. That's why lunch on the Space Shuttle is served on special "space bread," a tortilla-like wafer that snaps instead of crumbles. To create it, NASA's food scientists used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), known as "MRI" in medical testing, to study bread at the atomic level.

Lindstrom, Elizabeth E. (Editor). Odyssey: Adventures in Science. 2009: 18 (3); p. 15.