Can I Eat That?

Exploring some of the science behind food and cooking, this glossy four-part offering from PBS's NOVA scienceNOW series finds affable host David Pogue acting like a kid in a laboratory, fiddling with equipment and registering shock, disbelief, and astonishment as he watches, via x-ray, as a python digests a rat (Pogue also samples fried cricket, and has his nose taped shut in a demonstration of how all five senses are involved in tasting). A segment on the physics of a Thanksgiving feast features tips on how to keep a bird juicy (hint: brining helps) and the stuffing crisp, while animation and explanation are combined to enliven a discussion of the Maillard reaction—i.e., why fried foods turn brown. Pogue also toasts marshmallows over a campfire with biologist Stephen Secor, who theorizes that cooking is inextricably linked to human evolution. Filmmaker Doug Hamilton concludes with a profile of Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive who is so widely read that he once was Amazon's biggest individual book customer. Myhrvold has co-authored a six-volume cookbook on “modernist cuisine,” with foods like butter made from centrifuged peas (definitely not your grandma's cooking). Fast-moving, fun, and informative, this will appeal to both foodies and science buffs. Highly recommended. [Note: also newly available in the series are What Will the Future Be Like? and What Are Animals Thinking?] Aud: J, H, C, P. (F. Gardner)