Food Science: Play With Your Food

If you were the kind of kid who loved to mix milk and soda together and then dare your friends to drink it, then you’ll find plenty of gruesome yet scientific experiments online. In one instance, Twinkies, the indomitable sponge cakes loaded with creamy chemical filling, are subjected to fire, dissolution, and death defying falls from high places at a site definitely not endorsed by Hostess. At another, demented college students torture our marshmallow friends, holding a grudge against marshmallow Peeps and Bunnies in particular. And while all schoolchildren know the effects of cigarette smoking on the human body, they probably have no idea how it can damage their Easter basket treats.

Some sites let you relive the glory days of gathering every foodstuff you could get your grubby mitts on and shoving it into the microwave, with exciting (and messy) results. Exploding grapes teach youngsters about physics as well as brightening the kitchen with a lovely phosphorescent gleam. Be forewarned, however, that blowing up grapes only leads to more serious delinquency, such as posting QuickTime videos of yourself shooting snack foods with a gun and filming Pop-Tarts as they blaze unejected inside a toaster. Who would have suspected the tasty pastries of harboring pyromaniac tendencies?

Perhaps the ultimate food gross-out on the Web belongs to Meatmation, an ingenious depiction of a hamburger family whose antics and glued-on eyeballs will send chills down your spine. Like the sites featuring tortured sweet snacks, this one will change the way you view your next meal.