The Science of Sugar

Halloween is pretty much my favorite holiday. I love the costumes, the spookiness, using marshmallow "peeps" in my science experiments, and the candy!

Of course, we know what makes candy great is sugar. What we know as sugar is sucrose, a molecule composed of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of hydrogen, and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12H22O11).

I don’t really consider myself much of a scientist, being a communications person and all, but I love the idea that cooking, baking, and the like counts as science. When we mix different ingredients together, we form new compounds, and formulate chemical reactions to make delicious foods. By the way, whenever this mad scientist is in the kitchen, it’s definitely considered experimental. I once burned rice krispie treats! (in the science world that is called carbon. Sheepish grin.)

Anyway, back to the candy. Tonight at trick-or-treat there will probably be a lot of candy gathered. This is a great time to think about the science behind sugar. We found a whole blog dedicated to experiments with candy. http://www.candyexperiments.com/p/experiments.html My favorite is the density rainbow. Who knew that sugar water was denser than plain water?

Even though you may not need it after tonight, now is your chance to win some sugar on this holiday. COSI is hosting Jelly Belly Masterpieces of Jelly Bean Art for a little while, so this prize is fitting: just tell the world your favorite Halloween candy in the blog comments below and I’ll choose five random winners to win an Apples to Apples Jelly Belly Game! Comment by Friday at 2pm!

Happy Halloween!