Water research pays off
Achieving the impossible - an isotonic sorbet
An understanding of water is a requirement for producing novel foodstuffs. As an example we have recently designed an isotonic sorbet (Isorbet), marketed by Tranmore performance foods and endorsed by Commonwealth gold medallist Dalton Grant. Although the production of isotonic drinks is well established, turning one into an ice sorbet was thought to be impossible. Our knowledge of the way water interacts with natural food ingredients has enabled us to design this new product.
Water and Plato
The great Greek philosopher Plato was so taken by the properties of the five regular solids that he identified these ?latonic?solids with particular properties (tetrahedron = fire, cube = earth, octahedron = air, dodecahedron = the universe and icosahedron = water). Modern science has dealt severe blows to these ideas but rather strangely there does now appear to be a definite link between water and icosahedra. I have discovered that within the structure of liquid water, the individual molecules prefer to take up icosahedral arrangements.
Does water have a memory?
Some of the anomalous properties of water, such as ice expanding on freezing to break our pipes or this ice melting again under pressure on an ice skating rink, are due to the special features of the bonds between the water molecules. Other anomalies, however, such as hot water freezing faster than cold and water flowing more easily when put under pressure are not so easily explained but can be by the presence in liquid water of these icosahedral clusters. These concepts can even give insights into the way that water may have a memory, offering scientific explanation for some aspects of homeopathy
Submitted by: Martin Chaplin, South Bank University, 17 January 2007
