A scientific look at the five-second rule

[yendi]

Ganked from mactavish:

http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/news/list.cfm?NID=2467

Comments

[aureth.livejournal.com]

I see my alma mater is doing some high quality research, these days. ;)

[luis-mw.livejournal.com]

I never really bothered with the 5 second rule. My normal rule is "is it covered in cat fur or not?"

I read New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/) each week. I'm constantly amazed at some of the things that people choose to research. Specialist scientific journals are even more fun...

My favourite was a research paper[1] that tried changing the size of the hole in salt cellars to see what effect it had on salt usage. From what I remember, they found that if you reduce the hole size, people shook the salt cellar for longer and also that more salt was used on days when there were chips (freedom fries) on the menu....

[1] Farleigh, C. A., Shepherd, R. & Wharf, S. G. (1990) The effect of manipulation of salt pot hole size on table salt use. Food Quality & Preference (http://www.elsevier.nl/locate/foodqual) 2 13-20.

[clawfoot.livejournal.com]

There *is* no "5-second rule" in our house. There is, however, an "if you can grab it before the dog does, it's yours" rule for dropped food.

With a lab in the house (see icon!), food does not last on the floor for 5 seconds. ;)