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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
The noodle caboodle's here!
I want macaroni!
No, wait!
Baked ziti!
No, wait!
Zamboni!
Hey, where are you going?
Shake up your daily routine with some homemade tortellini!
What in the... Good morning, Guy Razzi!
Can I interest you in some of my famous pastarazzi?
Mindy, Reggie, what have you done with your ice cream truck?
Oh, well, isn't it obvious?
We... Okay, I know what I want now.
I'll take a venti-sized bowl of Lamborghini.
Hold the terracotta, please.
Okay, nothing in that sentence made any sense.
Sure it did, Guy Raz.
I speak fluent Italian.
Magenta Fiasco Diva Broccoli Influenza.
E tu?
Uh-huh.
Sorry, Dennis, but we're all out of Lamborghini noodles.
Can I interest you in a bowl of science instead?
Hmm.
No.
Wait.
Science?
Consider this a scientific pasta presentation inspired by a noodle scientific study.
Don't you mean a new scientific study?
No.
I mean a new. scientific study.
So, a new scientific study?
It's a pun, Guy, and it's whizzing right past to you.
She's trying to tell you that she read a new study about noodles.
Thanks, Dennis.
Wait a minute.
Are you talking about that new study about flat-packed noodles that was just on the cover of the journal Science Advances?
Yes, you know about it, Guy?
Oh, I read that one, Mindy.
It was amazing the way those researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Syracuse and Zhejiang Universities got together and completely reinvented the way we should be making and packaging pasta.
Oh, that sounds tortellini awesome.
I know, bonker balls, right?
So, in an effort to recreate what these scientists did in their lab, decided to turn my ice cream truck into the noodle caboodle, delivering pop-up pasta presentations all over town.
Now I understand.
Any way I can help?
Uh, yeah.
You can help by not cutting the line.
Oh, sorry.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Ahem.
I want noodles!
Just be patient, Dennis.
I promise you this will be worth the wait.
Did somebody say they're looking for a date?
No, no, no.
G-Force, she said she's got something you'll hate.
Grandma G-Force!
Thomas Fingerling!
What?
Welcome, everyone, to the Noodle Caboodle.
You're just in time for a delicious demonstration.
Well, OK.
Now, I'm just going to throw some chairs out for you all to sit on while you watch here.
Uh, Reggie?
Chairs?
Thank you.
All right, everyone.
Here, catch a chair.
Wait, what?
One for you.
One for you.
Here's another one.
Ah, big day.
Don't throw things at me.
Now, please take your seats and we will begin the presentation.
Ooh, is it one of them fancy edible presentations?
No.
Well, phooey.
But if all goes well, you might get to eat what comes out of it.
Our presentation begins in the year 2017, when two scientists and engineers, Ning Yao and Tang Zhang, set out to find a way to create materials that were flat or two-dimensional, but could transform themselves into three-dimensional shapes.
And to give you an example of a three-dimensional shape, we'll take this box of pasta.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
That's what I'm talking about.
Oh, I just knew this presentation was going to be one of them fancy edible kinds.
Okay.
Well, this box is a three-dimensional or 3D shape because it has volume, a top and a bottom sides, a front and a back.
Hmm.
Go on.
And there was a recent peer-reviewed scientific study in the journal Science Advances.
Wait, wait, wait.
Go back to the pasta.
The one inside that there 3D box.
Yeah, the pasta.
Anywho, before these scientists could transform two-dimensional flat materials into three-dimensional shapes, they had to experiment with different kinds of materials.
Which brings us to Mindy's Noodle Caboodle.
And now we eat.
No.
Oh.
Well, Holmes, can anyone guess what these scientists used for their experiment?
Oh, I know.
Um, science.
Everybody knows it's science, fella.
You gotta guess more specific.
They used something found in this noodle caboodle truck here.
Oh, um, car keys.
No, um, motor oil.
No, wait.
It's, it's, uh, it's, it's, uh.
I give up.
Why don't you just tell them, Mindy?
Well, I could tell you.
Yes.
But I'd rather show you.
I knew she was going to say that.
Quiet.
Guy Raz, hand me that bowl over there in the back.
Okay.
Reggie, I'm going to need some semolina flour, some eggs, and some water.
Stack.
Oh, I'll go get the hose from my yard.
What are we doing, Mindy?
What do you think we're doing, Guy Raz?
Here we are, standing in the serving window of my noodle caboodle truck.
Huh?
Uh.
We're making morphable material known as pasta dough.
Huh.
It's also an edible material.
Glad I'm wearing a bib.
Guy Raz, first I'll need you to take that bag of flour and dump it into this bowl.
Mindy, this bag of flour weighs more than Grandma G-Force.
Oh, nice.
Are you sure you want to use this whole thing?
Yes, of course I'm not sure, Guy Raz.
Now dump it in the bowl.
Okay.
Where did all the smoke come from?
Is there a fire?
That's not smoke.
It's cooking flour.
Did somebody say smoke from a cooking fire?
What?
Don't worry, Guy Raz.
I can put it out with the hose.
Dennis, no.
Not the hose.
Take this fire.
Look at me, everyone.
I'm a superhero.
Aquaman.
Or Fireman.
Or probably one of those two.
Dennis?
Oh, no.
Hey, fireman, while you're at it, put some water in the bowl for the pasta.
Oh, sure.
There we go.
My hero.
Okay, next up, the eggs.
Uh, where are the eggs?
What happened to the eggs?
They were just here.
Well, let me just get them eggs out from under my rump. sitting on the eggs?
Just trying to keep them safe during that smoke storm we just had.
What?
Oh, Grandma G-Force, that was so thoughtful of you.
What's next, Mindy?
Okay, so next, we're going to mix it all up.
I attached an airplane propeller to this mixer here.
Just put the bowl underneath it, turn this puppy on, There, that should do it.
Now we just need to take the dough out of this bowl.
And we're going to roll it flat.
Oh, do you have a rolling pin, Mindy?
A rolling pin?
Nah, I'm going to use a little baking technique that my grandma G-Force, once taught me when I was a wee little Mindy.
Aw.
I'm going to run the dough over with this truck.
Oh, no.
Already one step ahead of you, Mindy.
Where'd she get the keys?
I feel unsafe.
Quick, Dennis, take this dough and put it in front of the noodle caboodle.
Okay.
Hold on to your tater tots, everybody.
Grandma G-Force is gonna step on the gas.
G-Force, be careful!
Hey!
Oh, yeah!
G-Force, you maniac!
Ah, brings back memories.
I guess I'll go peel the dough off the road.
Oh, thanks, Sky Rozzy.
And while you do that, I'll continue with the presentation.
And by presentation, you mean cooking pasta?
Yeah, for eating.
Oh, yeah.
So typically pasta noodles are made by school dough through a metal pasta die and formed into shape.
But like the scientists in this study, we are going to use flat, rolled dough instead.
I got your rolled dough, Mindy.
Oh, thank you, Guy Raz.
Smashed and full of gravel, just like my grandma G-Force used to make.
That's me.
Showboat.
And, just like the scientists in this study, we are going to cut this dough into flat shapes like this
Circle, square, rectangle, triangle.
Ooh, I want a rhombus.
No, wait, a parallelogram.
No, wait, a concave octagon.
Okay, now my partner, Guy Raz here, is going to take this fork and gently press in into the shapes to make tiny patterned grooves on the surface of the dough.
Mindy, I'd love to, but I feel like the tires from your noodle truck already did that.
Oh, you know what?
You're right, Guy Raz.
Look at that, everyone.
This dough's got grooves.
Which is more than I can say for you, Fingerling.
What?
I got groove?
I dance like an angel.
Ooh.
Okay, just not right now.
Now I need everyone to listen carefully, because what I'm about to tell you is very important and very scientific.
I'm listening.
What?
I wasn't.
What did I miss?
Dennis.
Well, I'm sorry.
I was daydreaming about pasta, which made me think of Italy, which made me think of Rome, which made me think of the roaming charges on my cell phone bill, which made me think of Mindy.
Ow.
Wake up or you're going to miss the best part.
What's the best part, Mindy?
The best part is getting to watch these flat pasta shapes pop up.
Pop up pasta.
Pop up pasta?
What is that?
Some kind of musician or something?
Oh, I've heard of him.
Hey, Reg.
Do you want to get the water boiling on the stove back there?
So, Mindy, you were about to say something important and scientastic.
Oh, right.
So the grooves in this pasta dough might look like ordinary tire tracks to some of you.
But what if I told you that they were the key to some scientastic magic?
What if I told you that these grooves could be used to control the shape of these flat pasta noodles?
Mindy's right.
The scientists in this study added their own flat pasta pasta dough into boiling water and they found that the groove sides expanded and swelled less than the smooth sides, which led the pasta to morph into three-dimensional shapes.
Tubes spirals twists waves ripples, Jumping and swelling to almost every shape you could dream of.
Ooh, I'd eat all of those.
There's more, Mandy.
Why tell you more?
When we can show you more.
Ooh!
Show me, show me, show me, show me, show me!
Show me!
Everyone, into the ice cream truck!
I mean, the noodle caboodle.
What?
Get in.
Oh, okay.
Ooh!
You gonna see something?
Oh, I'm gonna eat everything.
Now, what you'll see here is a large pot of boiling water.
Ooh, a hot tub.
Well, sign me up.
Oh, no, no.
Again, this is a large pot of boiling water, so we need everyone to stay very still and be very careful around it.
And while you're all busy being very careful...
I'm going to gently add the flat, grooved pasta shapes into this boiling water just like this.
Careful.
Careful now, Mindy.
Ooh.
Oh, look.
Something's happening to the little shapes.
What you're seeing here is that it's taking longer for the water to cook the grooved parts of the pasta shapes than it is the smooth parts.
And they're plumping up.
And they're curling up, too.
Ooh, and that one looks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
And this one looks like my large intestine.
Ew.
Amazing, just like the scientists found in their study.
The flat? pasta dough with grooves is bouncing and swelling to three-dimensional shapes.
And what's even more wow is that the researchers found that by carefully planning where they placed the grooves and how they pressed the grooves into the dough, they could control the shapes that the pasta morphed into once it was cooked.
This is awesome!
I'm only eating magic shape-shifting noodles from now on.
It's called papa pasta.
Oh yeah, that's right.
You know Mindy, a box of pasta that comes flat and doesn't expand or bounce into shape until after it cooks would probably take up a lot less space than say, a big box of twisty fusilli or even macaroni.
Well, finally, a box of noodles that will fit into that Debbie doll dream hut of yours.
Okay, for the last time, it's a sustainable, solar-powered micro house.
And But Grandma G-Force is right, Guy Raz.
A box of flat-to-plump pasta would require a lot less packaging and a lot less storage space.
In fact, the researchers in this study found that if macaroni noodles were flat to start with, A full box of macaroni would take 60 less packaging space.
Wow, that would be like packing the same amount of pasta in a box twice as small as the boxes we see in grocery stores now.
You know it.
And I'm also guessing that smaller packages of flat-packed pasta would lead to a smaller carbon footprint when it came to delivering it to stores and restaurants.
Exactly.
And the researchers on this study also found that this flat to plump pasta only takes a short seven minutes to cook, which means Which means that it would also save energy.
Papa Pasta, saving all the energy.
And with this discovery, Dr Yao, Dr Zhang and their team may have found a new way to get flat-packed pasta to astronauts on the International Space Station or disaster sites or anywhere else.
That food should take up as little space as possible.
And I think I read that they're also experimenting with other morphable materials like plastic and rubber and fabric, and
Other foods.
Exact Doritos.
And, as they experiment more, if they find that grooves can be used to control the shapes of some of these other materials well, this could lead to some big breakthroughs in the future of soft robotics or more.
Amazing.
Who knew you could pack so much science into such simple pasta?
Mandy, when are we going to get to eat the little noodles?
My tummy's barking.
Oh, well, good question, Grandma G-Force.
We are now about to begin the taste test portion of our presentation.
Now you're talking.
So if you'll all just exit the noodle caboodle here.
And line up in front of the serving window, we will prepare each of you a bowl.
Guy Raz?
Reggie?
Want to help?
Okay, Reggie, you hold the bowls, and I'll serve up the noodles.
There we go.
Three bowls of shape-shifting noodles.
Served piping hot.
Here you go.
What are the magic words?
Uh, hocus pocus?
No, it's rumple stiltskin.
Oh, yeah, rumple stiltskin.
Okay, well, I was just thinking thank you, but okay.
Uh, everyone, dig in.
Bon appetit.
Ah!
The flavor's delicious, but there's a hint of something that I just can't quite place.
Truck tire.
Oh, right.
Oh, that's the stuff.
And it slurps up real good, too.
So, Mindy, any chance we'll start to see tiny boxes of flat-packed pasta in stores anytime soon?
Well, that's the hope.
The next step is for the researchers to work with food manufacturers to test this out in a big, big way.
But it sure is pastable.
Oh, my goodness.
Now, if only someone could invent slurpless noodles.
Well, I'd like to thank you all for coming to my pop-up pasta presentation today, but I'm afraid we must be on our way.
Bye, Mindy!
Bye, pageant.
Bye, Papa Pasta.
Reggie?
Hey, grownups, it's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some brand new Wow in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't yet.
From our 100 experiments, that Wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our Wow in the World toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest Wow in the World toys designed with your curious wowzer in mind.
You can shop our Wow in the World toys at Tinkercast.com slash toys.
That's Tinkercastcom slash toys show wow in the world.
Hi, thanks for calling wow in the world after the beep get ready to record.
Hi, my name is Beatrix, I live in Seattle Washington and the wow in my world is that dolphins sleep with half their brains and then When they wake up, they can switch to the other half of their brains while they're still swimming.
Bye.
Hi, Mindy and Guyrod.
My name is Carlo.
I'm 10 years old, and I live in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
My wow in the world is that ants sleep more than 250 times a day, napping for just one minute at a time.
Thanks, and say hi to everyone.
Bye.
Hi, my name is Rince.
And I'm six, and I live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
And my wow is that Firefly's glow power is for communicating with each other.
Hi, Mindy and Guy-Waz.
My name is Cree.
I live in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
My wow in the world is that zebras and tigers have different stripes, just like our fingerprints.
Say hi to Reggie for me.
Hello, my name is Lucian, and I live in Escondido, California.
My wow in the world is that in Europe, ferrets have been used to run television cables through pipes.
Say hi to Mindy Guy Raz, Dennis Thomas Fingerlin, Grandma G-Force, Mindy's cat that I don't know the name of Reggie and I can't oh, Dennis.
My name is Gideon, and I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
My wow in the world is that jellyfish have no hearts and octopuses have two of them.
They had a Reggie, Dennis, Thomas, Franklin, Static Man, and Grandma G-Force.
Bye.
Love your show.
Hi, Mindy and Guy Ross.
My name's Harper, and I'm from Carrollton, Georgia.
I'm six years old.
My wow in the world is that the biggest catfish known As big as a grizzly bear and nine feet long.
Hi, I'm Indian Guy Ross.
My name is Ian, and I'm from West Hartford, Connecticut.
My Wow in the World is Earth's biggest magnet.
I just named it Earth.
End of messages.
Grown-ups, if you like Wow in the World, you can listen early and ad-free right now on Wondery+.
Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Wondery Kids Plus on Apple Podcasts.
Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music.
And before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz.
Our senior producer, Jed Anderson, brings our show to life with sound design and music editing and is also in charge of wrangling Dennis Thomas Fingerling, Reggie and many of the other silly characters you hear.
Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker and Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, The Pop-Ups.
Find them at thepopups.com.
Special thanks to the rest of our team of tinkerers, including Anna Zagorski, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger and Henry Moskal.
To keep the wows rolling, visit us at tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowsers.
Learn more about upcoming events.
Shop our shop and pick up a copy of our new number one New York Times bestselling book, The How and Wow of the Human Body.
Grownups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at wowintheworld.
And our email address is hello at tinkercast.com.
And if you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of our show or an upcoming episode of Two What's and a Wow.
Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, keep on wowing.
Made by Tinkercast and sent to you by Wondery.
