between air and water, and thus forming the cream with a relatively stable foam
structure. In recent years, the emergence of molecular gastronomy transplants the
lab physical chemistry into the food processing, to understand the molecular
mechanism and even to propose new recipes to meet the multiple functions of
food such as pretty, delicacy, tasty, hygiene, nutrition and healthy (This 2009 ;
Barham et al. 2010 ). In the near future, when a gastrologist elaborates on a specific
recipe, he may explain its physicochemical principles by using some knowledge of
polymer physics.
Question Sets
- Try to find one more example of the complex system from the emergentism point
of view. - Why can short chains of isotactic and atactic polypropylenes mix homo-
geneously in the melt, while their long chains cannot? - In the preparation of porous membranes, if one makes use of phase separation
followed with crystalline solidification in polymer solutions to control the pore
sizes, whether does the longer time for phase separation make larger sizes of
pores? - Surf the literature to learn the thermodynamic mechanism of DNA unwinding,
and to list potentially important intramolecular and intermolecular contributions
of enthalpy and entropy.
References
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(2010) Molecular gastronomy: a new emerging scientific discipline. Chem Rev
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238 11 Interplay Between Phase Separation and Polymer Crystallization