In a city of tweeting food trucks and Michelin-star restaurants,
it was only a matter of time before San Francisco’s fusion-food
culture found a way into a chemistry class. After all, chemistry
is what we taste when we bite into a chocolate-drizzled double
scoop of destabilized fat globules and Fragaria ananassa. We
just call it a strawberry ice cream sundae. Tami Spector,
professor of chemistry, introduced the class, called Molecular
Gastronomy, in spring 2011. It focuses on the physical and
chemical processes of food and drink preparation. The idea of
the course is to introduce non-science students, many of whom
find memorizing chemical formulas and reactions mind-numbing, to
the intricacies of molecular chemistry using an accessible and
interactive approach. Michelle Cancellier ’12, an English major,
said the class helped her and other humanities majors understand
the abstract concepts that underlie chemistry—such as polymers,
ionic charge, and chemical bonds—which can make the subject so
challenging. Spec