I’ve always been a bit bemused when confronted with the phrase “food science.” There’s just something….hokey about it. I can’t help suppressing a chuckle when I read it. It calls to mind men wearing thick rimmed glasses, white lab coats, and very serious expressions as they measure the elasticity of peanut butter between two cracker crusts.

But food science is a real discipline, and there are lots of people out there who are doing some pretty bizarre interesting research. I’ve done a lot of Champagne reviews recently, so one of their latest studies caught my eye as I browsed through the Web: a piece of research entitled, “Champagne Experiences Various Rhythmical Bubbling Regimes in a Flute.”

I don’t know what a rhythmical bubbling regime is, but just writing it makes me feel dirty and excited. I think I would like to experience one. Apparently so would these scientists.

The study examines just how the streams of bubbles that characterize Champagne get started and what determines their behavior. Apparently the streams of bubbles generally begin around tiny particulates (fibers, etc.) that end up on the inside of the glass accidentally or due to towel drying. These particles attract the gas as it emerges from solution and the way the gas bubbles form and cling to the particulate “nucleation sites” can cause rhythmic bubbling sequences.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me a little weak in the knees.

All joking aside, apparently (and who am I to raise an eyebrow at science?) this research actually may have medical applications, as it may provide explanations for problems in the body “where undesired bubbles form.”

Here’s hoping most of your bubbles stay right where they belong. If you think you might (unlike me) actually understand a scientific paper about this sort of thing, I might recommend this paper on bubble formation from Gérard Liger-Belair and Philippe Jeandet, which is where I borrowed that lovely image from.