The Science of Food

Slimy soy, decomposed shark, and maggot cheese

Food is a marvelous window through which to examine the multifaceted emotion of disgust. Food is a great passion, but it can also inspire terrible repulsion. Strangely, as with almost all facets of disgust, it is in our nature to be attracted to this repulsion. Who, uninitiated to the actual foodstuff, isn't at least a little curious about tasting some soft and stinky hákarl or a wormy morsel of casu marzu?

What human beings find disgusting varies greatly not just from place to place but across time. It cannot be separated from what the object of our repulsion means to us. [MORE ]

Penn State's creamery: From the cow to the cone

Penn State ice cream from the Creamery! It's a tradition for generations of Penn Staters and their guests. But there's more than meets the eye, or the mouth, for that matter. Every cone of "Peachy Paterno" or cup of "Death by Chocolate" begins with cream provided by cows at Penn State's dairy barns only a mile north of the creamery store. [Video]