WORM Adventure!!

Worms

Abstract:  WORMS, THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!!

Introduction:  

Fig 1.  (Not pictured: this man's dignity)

      Worms can be defined as any of the various invertebrates that have elongate, sometimes flattened (platy flaties) bodies often without appendages (1).  They are a very important part of our ecosystem and take on much of the duties of decomposition to make fertile soil (2).  They are often used by the show Fear Factor to freak people out, usually with placement on the body, typically with the addition of dirt. This combination of slimy and slithery tends to freak people out.  The slime is actually excreted by the worm because it needs to stay moist so it can breath (3).  

     Well, that's all well and good, but if you're anything like me (and I know that's the case), you totally love Halloween (TWIST!).  Well it is just around the corner and I am just tickled orange and black about it!!  So, this lead me to the line of thinking as follows, "Me?" "Yes Me?"  "What would be a good snack on Halloween?" "I don't know, you should ask someone who drinks a lot to maybe combine alcohol and worms."  "What a fantastic idea!"  That is preciously what I did and thus the idea of alcoholic gummi worms was born.  I decided I must make them and perform an experiment to find the best alcohol/gummi combination!!

Materials:

Fig 2.  I have accumulated quite a bit of liquor!

- A plethora of different Alcohol (I chose little airplane bottles because they're so cute!)

- Gummi related paraphernalia 

Methods:

1)  Set up gummi objects in booze as follows:

Fig 3. A-C:  Various gummi set ups, they all looked pretty much like this, but I included the one's that I thought looked the best/had sassy pictures on the label.

        (A)                                                                (B)                                                            (C)

     A)  Tequila Gummi Worms

     B)  Courvoisier Gummi Worms

     C)  Gin Gummi Worms

     D)  Brandy Gummi Worms

     E)  Captain Morgan Gummi Worms

     F)  Pear Vodka Gummi Worms

     G)  Vodka Gummi Worms

     H)  Sugar Cane Rum Gummi Worms

     I)  Whipped Cream Vodka Gummi Worms

     J)  Vodka Sour Gummi Worms

     H)  Vodka Sour Patch Kids

2)  Cover and allow to marinate for about 3-4 days in the refrigerator.

Fig 4.  This is my fridge, chill out and don't judge me!

3)  CONSUME/get crunk!

Results and Discussion:

Fig 5.  I'd say they about doubled in size, this would have been a perfect time to get a comparison shot of before and after, but I didn't so now we both have to live with that!

     The worms really expanded in size, I hadn't realized before that the heads were so round!  Would that make them more gummi snakes than worms? I would recommend completely submerging the worms next time as some had crunchy bits in them, which was somewhat distracting to the palate.

     For this experiment I required the assistance of my lovely and talented friend Kate.  She is a professional food taster (allegedly) and works with alcohol.  The following are the comments and score for each combo.

     Fig 6.  Me (left) and Kate (right) about to seriously masticate/drink (drasticate?) some worms!

A)  Tequila Gummi Worms-  Similar to a margarita, Ole!  Although Kate found them "somewhat offensive" (Kate- 7/10; Me- 6/10)

B)  Courvoisier Gummi Worms-  Reminds me of the Nineties with that rapper song, "Pass the Courvoisier." Things were all going deliciously until I swallowed and then it had a big ol' aftertaste.  (Kate-3/10; Me: 3/10)

C)  Gin Gummi Worms-  Just like Christmas time, sugarplums and pine trees...ahhh.  Kate's take:  When it hits the bitter portion of my tongue...things go to hell.  (Kate-4/10;  Matt-5/10)

D)  Brandy Gummi Worms-  We both agreed they were not very remarkable and not entirely unpleasant.  (Kate- 5/10; Me- 5/10)

E)  Captain Morgan Gummi Worms-  I enjoy a little bit of Capt in me now and again and this worm was no different!  Kate's take:  The spiciness is good, more of a "people pleaser", definitely better than the brandy. (Kate- 6/10; Me- 5/10)

F)  Pear Vodka Gummi Worms-  Nothing really offensive about it, not really blown away by the flavor combo.  (Kate-5/10; Me- 5/10)

G)  Vodka Gummi Worms-  These really maintained the gummi flavor and were quite pleasant. Kate's take:  They have a pleasant alcohol burn no weird flavors. (Kate- 8/10; Me-9/10)

H)  Sugar Cane Rum Gummi Worms- These had a lot of an alcohol kick and didn't have too bad of a flavor.  (Kate- 7.5/10.25; Me- 7.75/10)

I)  Whipped Cream Vodka Gummi Worms-  These were very nice and creamy tasting, you really couldn't taste the alcohol, which is very dangerous.  Kate's take:  If you want a booty call you get your booty call to eat some of these, than you find a dark corner and... (Kate- 7/10; Me- 8/10)

(A)         (B)
Fig 7.  A)  My "ruminating" face B) Kate likes it!

J)  Vodka Sour Gummi Worms-  Soft and tender texture, somewhat gritty.  Kate's take:  As disappointing as "Mr. Softy."   (Kate- 0/10; Me- 1/10)

(A)      (B)

Fig 8.  A-B.  We did not enjoy the sour gummi worm monstrosities, these are our "dissapointed" faces, take note, it may help you in the future!

H)  Vodka Sour Patch Kids-  Pretty tasty, although the texture was all wrong, very mealy.  Kate's take:  What happened friends? (Kate- 1/10; Matt- 2/10)

(A)    (B)

                                  Fig 9. A)  Before, looks somewhat suspicious  B) Gross Kate...Gross.

     Our favorites that we thought would be the best party snack food were the regular vodka worms and the tequila ones.  You'll notice as the sampling went on the notes became somewhat more confusing, this is mainly due to the fact that you can't really tell how much alcohol they absorb.  All I can say is we were feeling fine by the end of our tasting.

Literature Cited:

1)  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/WORM

2)  My Brain

3) http://www.worm-farming.com/worm-facts.html

Rainbow ADVENTURE

Rainbow Roses
(1)

Introduction

I was on my weekly shopping constitutional when I spotted several pots of gaily colored flowers not normally found in nature.  I was immediately overcome with an irresistible urge, so I quickly went to use the bathroom, and then decided I needed to make some pretty plants myself, and what’s prettier than a rainbow?

Many retailers have taken advantage of the method vascular plants use to take up water and some nutrients termed transpiration.  This process, common to all vascular plants, is where evaporating water on the surface of the plant causes water (and some other nutrients or dyes if you add them) to be drawn up through the roots and the xylem of the plant, ultimately ending at the surface of the leaves and flowers (2).  The most popular flower plants that are colored with this method are chrysanthemums, carnations, hydrangeas, some species of orchid, and roses.
The ability to make colored flowers has been known for millennium, however in 2005 Dutch grower Peter van de Werken used a special combination of 7 dyes with roses to create the first Rainbow Rose (3).

Materials

Figure One:  So few things required! This one will be a breeze!

1) Budding white roses (I totally used an old-ass white rose from Cub, because it was only a couple of bucks as opposed to a 15 dollar bunch!  What difference could it make right?!)
2) Dye of some sort (I used food coloring because it was sitting on my spice rack!)
3) Some way to contain the dye while being able to insert the plant into it (I had many great ideas including glass vials from work, but I didn't want to worry about disinfecting them and who wants roses filled with unknown protein? My luck I’d probably create mutant roses that would take over the world… I've seen “Little Shop of Horrors” I know how that ends… (Sorry that thought kind of got away from me, I used zip-lock bags, because I bought them from Costco and now I’ll never ever run out!))
4) Sharp implements (Like scissors)

Methods

1)    Take rose and cut the stem into as many slits as colors you are going to use, I forgot I was making a rainbow and used four colors, because rainbows in my world are not so showy. 

Figure Two:  It took me about a thousand shots to actually get this in focus because I have ADD and therefore cannot FOCUS oh my goodness is that some dude walking his dog?! PS- I have been diagnosed as making up having ADD in order to get out of tricky situations. Please make a note of it. PPS- When writing figure notes they should probably only relate to the picture and not include PS's in them.

2) Put dye in each baggie/receptacle and insert stem portion into them.

Figure Three: Ohhhhhhhhhhh so pretty!  Maybe I should just decorate with bags of food coloring!  But then they would probably just dry out and be all crusty which would not be cute at all!

3)  I secured each bag with those plastic strip things people always use in TV shows to keep people restrained while they’re kidnapping/interrogating them.  The fact I have so many is not to insinuate I’m doing any aforementioned kidnapping or interrogating, but as an ex-boy scout I always try to be prepared…just in case.  Ok  I’m not saying I've thought that that situation would actually arise, but you never know...This train of thought brought to you by the “Supernatural” marathon I've been watching.

Figure Four:  Zip-ties used to secure each part of the stem into the bag, totally not to interrogate the rose.  Although I'm sure that would be a "thorny" situation (tee hee)

3)  Wait for about a week and BAM! You have Rainbow Roses...kinda

Figure Five.  OH MY GOD IT'S SO AMAZING IT BURNED THE CONES IN YOUR EYES OUT SO ALL YOU SEE IS WHITE WHERE YOU SHOULD SEE BEAUTIFUL COLORS! You'd better get yourself to a doctor ASAP!

Results and Discussion

Well the lesson I learned this week is that attempting to make rainbow roses using an older rose does not work very well. 

I was hoping for a result something like this:

What I got was more like this:

Lesson learned!  Making multicolored flowers was much more difficult than I thought, and in the hopes that it would look better I let it sit forever until it started disintegrating and all the petals fell off.  Some may call it being too stubborn to admit that maybe the experiment wasn't working, but I chose to call it determination.  May all your flowers be more rainbowey than mine!

Literature Cited:

1. http://cdn3.blogs.babble.com/being-pregnant/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/pFc4jkWyd4QXeRtdG.jpg
2.  Peter A. Raven, Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn (1999). Biology of Plants. W.H. Freeman and Company. pp. 576–577.
3.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_rose