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I was an intern in that lab more than 20 years ago. I have lots of cool stories from there. The people I worked with were AWESOME! This really surprised me how
by matt_the_bass 8y ago
I was an intern in that lab more than 20 years ago. I have lots of cool stories from there. The people I worked with were AWESOME! This really surprised me how much they cared about their work with minimal salary and funding.
At the time, one project was to simulate a 30 year shelf life by storing food in a 100 deg F “heat room” for 10 years. Periodically a sample would be taken out for testing (chemical, mechanical and taste). Imagine the taste! The samples were full size recipes but only a small portion of the food was used. The rest was put out on a table just before lunchtime and was available for anyone on the campus to eat. Needless to say, I made it a rule to never eat anything I didn’t prepare myself or whitnessed being prepared!
One project I really liked was the desert dehydration project. One scientist was testing how frozen yogurt and ice cream could be dehydrated. Again a full industrial size was made with a soft serve dispenser but only a small portion was used for the tests. All summer an new variety was tested each week. So the scientist incharge scheduled the “sample preparation” every Wednesday at 2pm. There would be a long line ready for the leftovers. Let’s just say I whitnessed these being prepared.
- chaosbutters 8y agoThis is all pretty standard in R&D at food companies
- freddie_mercury 8y agoThere's no need to be a jerk. It is easier to just move along if you think a personal anecdote isn't unique. After all, HN is chock full of personal anecdotes, none of which are unique.
- Bjartr 8y agoI'm not getting a jerk vibe, merely support that the anecdote generalizes.
- umvi 8y agoSeems like a natural extension of Linus's Law: "Given enough eyeballs, all anecdotes are shallow" Basically when you have an audience as big as HN, even the most unique anecdote will seem completely obvious and ordinary to someone (and that someone will usually feel the need to comment)
- matt_the_bass 8y agoThat’s one of the things I like about HN, there is always someone with an anecdote about some subject that I thought was super obscur. For once _i_ was able to offer the anecdote!
- tudelo 8y agoThere is nothing wrong with an experience not being unique? If anything, he is adding validity to the anecdote.
- golergka 8y agoThanks, that's interesting and useful addition to the parent comment. (I'm not being sarcastic, just trying to counter balance other comment with honest opinion).
- matt_the_bass 8y agoWhat parts on particular? Don’t eat what you didn’t see or 30 year testing?
- joezydeco 8y agoThere's a really good 99% Invisible podcast episode about Natick. Have you heard it? https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/war-and-pizza/ https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/war-and-pizza/
- matt_the_bass 8y agoNo I’ve been behind on my podcasts. But 99pi is in my rotation and I have a long flight ahead of me soon. Thanks!
- Dennip 8y agoDo you know if anything fruitful ever came of the dehydration experiment? FYI it's spelled 'witnessed', no 'h' :)
- matt_the_bass 8y agoNo idea about the results of that dehydration experiment. Thanks for the ‘h’ call out. I’m lousy at spelling. :(
- aptwebapps 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_ice_cream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_ice_cream