What actually happens to bread in a toaster? Why does it change color? Where does the flavor come from?
And what’s going on in that short moment between “still soft” and “burnt brick”?
The answer lies in a delicious bit of chemistry called the Maillard reaction — one of the tastiest science experiments ever happening right in your kitchen.
That “rain is coming” smell actually has a name: petrichor.
It comes from two Greek words: Petra meaning stone or rock & Ichor meaning the golden fluid that flowed in the veins of the gods
Pretty fancy, right?
The term was first coined by scientists in the 1960s, but the smell itself is ancient — and so is your brain’s ability to recognize it.
We’re used to fire being wild. Hot. Dangerous. Bright. It crackles. It burns. It keeps us warm — and melts marshmallows into gooey magic. But what if we told you that some fire barely gives off any heat at all? That in certain labs — or even in jet engines — scientists have discovered flames that are so soft and quiet, you can hardly see them.
They’re called cold flames.
And while they’re not ice cold, they challenge everything we think we know about fire.
