The Physics Of The Perfect Pizza

Yes, I said physics of the perfect pizza. Actual people have published an actual study about how to back the perfect margherita pizza. And yes, one of the study authors is Italian.

The secret to pizza, based on much sampling of pizza throughout Rome, is all in the way it's cooked. Also, I want to write a study that involves sampling a bunch of pizza. But anyway, the perfect margherita pizza can be baked in 2 minutes in a brick oven at 625 degrees Fahrenheit. If there are additional toppings, the pizza should be lifted off the bottom of the oven for 30 more seconds to prevent the bottom from burning.

Now, most people don't have a brick oven, and this is where the physics comes in. Using a complex thermodynamic equation, the scientists found that these conditions could be reasonably replicated in an electric oven. What you do is put your pizza on a metal tray, turn the oven to 450 degrees, and cook for 170 seconds, adding a bit more time if your toppings have a high water content.

One more thing, the study authors actually took the time to note that the perfect pizza basically requires you to wash it down with a pitcher of good beer. And that is a beautiful sentiment.

Italy Putting Science on Trial

The earthquake in question.

I'm not sure what to say about this. Italy convicted scientist, actual scientists, for manslaughter, because they didn't science well enough to predict an earthquake that killed about 300 people in a town in central Italy. Now, the scientists are appealing, but their prospects don't look good. Looking at this story and another story going into more detail about the incident, it's clear that these people did communicate that earthquakes were unlikely, and that they didn't do a great job of stressing that earthquakes are not predictable, giving people the wrong idea so that the town was not as prepared as it could have been. But that's not the issue here, not really. The issue is that these scientists are being held accountable for getting their geophysics wrong.

We can't predict earthquakes, not with any accuracy. All we can say is that an earthquake is likely on a particular fault line in 10, 20, 50 years. If we had a way to know if San Francisco was going to have a major earthquake on December 15, 2014, it would be big news. But we don't. It probably isn't possible to predict earthquakes with that level of accuracy, and it certainly isn't possible today. These scientists are being held accountable for failing to predict the unpredictable, and it isn't right.

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