First recipie: Honey Comb Candies

dissolve in a large saucepan over medium-high heat:

1 1/4 cup ---------------------------- sugar (1 cup pure cane, 1/4 cup light brown)
in: 1/3 cup -------------------------- water

When mixture turns a light caramel color increase heat and add:

Finished product.

 2 tbs. ----------------------------------molasses
1 1/2 cup ----------------------------- butter
1 tsp.----------------------------------- vanilla
3/4 tsp.-------------------------------- ground, powdered ginger
3 tbs ----------------------------------- honey

Candy thermometer at work.

Stir together ingredients until they boil, then reduce heat to medium and let the mixture sit for 7-14 minutes, or until mixture is caramel-colored, and becomes slightly hard when a drop is submersed in ice-water .  You can also use a candy thermometer, and cook it until the soft-crack stage.  When mixture is ready, turn heat almost all the way down, and  stir in:

It's rising!

3 1/2 tsp. ---------------------------- baking soda.

let mixture sit until it doubles in volume, then pour onto greased cooking sheet.  Let the mixture spread out naturally, if you touch it it will pop, and will no longer have a light texture, or honey-comb look.  when it becomes hard, use a meat "pounder" to break it up into small pieces, so mass-consumption is easier.  



Science behind it:

Since sugar has crystals in it, and any kind of crystal can be dissolved in water over time (in our case it was only a matter of minutes, because of the heat we applied), then turn into one giant  crystal.  Well actually, even with our end result, there were still the same amount of crystals a before, you just need to make sure to regulate the temperature, and spread the heat out evenly, so the crystals don't clump up together, in unorganized ways.

Since baking powder is an oxidizer, and the relatively acidic (without any acids the oxidizer would do nothing) mixture was boiling (heat is also a big contributor to the success of our mixtures expansion) ,when we added some to our mixture, it released almost all the oxygen atoms from our h20, therefor our gelatinous blob expanded.  The baking soda also released some of the co2, but that is a whole other explanation.

This is a cool photo I found online of Honda's newest robots.  The one on the  far right is ASIMO the one on the far left is the Honda Personal Mobility Unit. the others I can't name.  Here is a link to a video about the mobility unit:  CLICK HERE and another about ASIMO: CLICK HERE TOO

Wait, america is building the fastest train known to man? Yes, the answer is yes.

Above: the "supertrain", exiting the vacuume chamber.

I know what you, whoever you may happen to be, are thinking; "China built the fastest train known to man, like, a gazillion years ago.  so... ya".  Well you are right.  Currently the fastest train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev, a train able to reach speeds up to 270 mph, and was built around 7 years ago.  Another train, one in Beijing, recently tried to go about 500 mph, but failed miserably, slamming into the cracked, Chinese desert floor with an extremely loud thud.  That other train, the one in shanghai, wouldn't be able to go from New York city to L.A. in 41 minuets.  to do that it would have to go about 2100 mph. but, another one that America is about to build will be able to do so.  It does this be riding through a complete vacuum chamber.  A complete vacuum chamber is, in this case, a tube that has had all the air in it sucked out.  This will reduce nearly 89% of the friction, and will make the train ride through the under-ground tunnel in almost complete weightlessness . The cabin you sit in will not only be extremely luxurious, but, because of the vacuum chamber, there will be almost complete silence, and it will not even feel like the train is moving.  My thinking is that the train will be completed by 2057, with the longest train in the world, one from Paris, France to Seoul, Korea, all the way to  the U.S. (city unknown), being completed about 10 years later.  Is the age of  the train over? Hardly, in fact I think that by 2070 the tables will turn, and planes will become out dated.  Go from new york to la in 41 minutes in your lifetime? Yes.  I can safely say this, because of the fact that they have already started to develop a high-speed locomotive that goes from Boston to new york city, in about 6.3471 minutes. Yes, I think the United States are finally catching up to the current Era of technological advancement, and may even  start to pull ahead of the others.

New blog,

To those of you reading this (that is  probably all of you) I hope for you to continue  to do so, and to not jump to any in-mature conclusions.  The aim of this blog is not to talk to you about what I like, but to instead find others who are interested in generally the same things I am, and talk to you about that.  This blog will, mainly, talk about things related to the sciences.  I do not wish to bore you, so we won't talk about boring science, we will instead talk about really, really awesome science.  Since I find the science involved in cooking interesting, we will also talk about that some too. there will also be the occasional video.  So, I deeply encourage you to become a follower of Sammy's Stuff, and to also check out my you tube channel (click here: Catfish Cameras, for awesomeness)