kitchen oceanography: food related Archives - Adventures in Oceanography and Teaching

#KitchenOceanography

January 1, 2025

/ˈkɪtʃɪn ˌəʊʃəˈnɒɡrəfi/ noun Experimenting with ocean physics using only household items Observing oceanographic processes in, or during the preparation of, food and drinks DIYnamics: Rotating tank experiments based on LEGO…

Using coffee in a talk on kitchen oceanography

October 21, 2021

I have been a bit quiet on here recently, because I had so many exciting projects going on that I did not manage to document them in real time (well,…

Molecular diffusion at different temperatures (involving tea bags and some convection)

August 30, 2021

I thought I had posted the picture below some time in winter already, but when I recently searched for it, I couldn’t find it. So either I didn’t post it,…

24 Days of #KitchenOceanography — Ice cores

December 21, 2020

24 Days of #KitchenOceanography — Resublimation

December 20, 2020

24 Days of #KitchenOceanography — Diffusive layering

December 17, 2020

Diffusive layering — a super easy experiment!

December 17, 2020

Day 17 of my 24 days of #KitchenOceanography is about double-diffusive layering, and the post is using “go have a nice latte” as instructions. However, in times of Covid-19 (and…

24 Days of #KitchenOceanography — Double-diffusive mixing with cream and tea

December 16, 2020

24 Days of #KitchenOceanography — Transport of substances

December 12, 2020

Destroying the diffusive layers in a latte in order to observe the insulating properties of milk foam

November 19, 2019

Have you ever noticed how, if you stir your latte*, when you pull out the spoon it’s piping hot, yet there is no steam rising from the latte itself? That’s…

Ostfriesentee — Double diffusion in a tea cup

April 26, 2019

Showing double-diffusive mixing in tank experiments is a pain if you try to do it the proper way with carefully measured temperatures and salinities. It is, however, super simple, if…

#KitchenOceanography with Judith and her hot chocolate

January 25, 2019

Let’s talk about zonal jets! They keep popping into my life all the time right now, and that has got to mean something, right? Zonal jets, for all that are…

Sea ice formation, brine release, or: What ice cubes can tell you about your freezer

October 10, 2018

Many of my kitchen oceanography experiments use dyed ice cubes, usually because it makes it easier to track the melt water (for example when looking at how quickly ice cubes…

Stuff you can (and should!) observe in your kitchen: circulation in the water when boiling eggs

August 31, 2018

Now that I have introduced the new tag “kitchen oceanography: food related” to my blog, it’s time to add a couple new posts to that category. And today I have…

Layered latte: A great real-life example of double-diffusive mixing!

August 25, 2018

Sometimes sitting in a café for a work meeting with #lieblingskollegin Julia can lead to unexpected discoveries of oceanographic processes — in my latte! It’s those little things that inspire blog…

Guest post: Using seawater to make bread!

August 22, 2018

Last week I got one of the coolest emails I have ever received: Someone had found my blog while googling for the salt content of seawater in order to use…

“Laboratory layered latte” – combining latte and double diffusion. Easily my favourite paper ever!

December 16, 2017

My friends know me well. Especially A&I, which was proven again when they sent me the link to an article about two things that I am mildly obsessed with: Latte…

Of cupcakes and ice cores

December 2, 2017

For a popular science presentation on climate change, I needed a simple illustration for how ice cores can be used as archives of past climates. Luckily, my sister and family…

Foam pattern when hard-boiling eggs

September 9, 2017

Today we have foam patterns again, but of a very different kind than usually: I don’t know if I have just never noticed before (I can’t really imagine I would…

Café Latte

August 10, 2017

Even though most people think I am crazy, I always love watching the convection pattern develop in a hot drink.

Frost flowers on ice cream: When you start thinking about phenomena and something really annoying, all of a sudden, becomes really cool.

June 23, 2016

Frost flowers on ice cream. You must have seen them before: They sometimes occur when you’ve had some ice cream, put the left-overs back in the freezer, and take them out…

Strawberry ice cream crystals

August 12, 2015

My new favorite thing is to put strawberries through a blender and then freeze small portions of that to eat as ice cream later. It is super yummy plus you…

Vacuum pumps

April 20, 2014

What else did you think we tested them on? Before using my parents’ vacuum pumps (“vacuum” being used in a loose sense of the word…) on water in this post, we…

Tasting sea water reloaded

September 25, 2013

Doing the “tasting sea water” activity again with a different group of students. A very good introduction to the concept of salinity is the “tasting sea water” activity. Last time…

More on density

August 28, 2013

Extremely simple experiment to illustrate the effect of density differences. At room temperature, will coke cans float or sink in freshwater? And how about coke light? Btw, this experiment is…