Tastebud Time Machine

Abstract

It’s 1966 and you, a chemical engineering professor, are about to crack open this groovy new journal you’ve just gotten - Chemical Engineering Education. You are a very modern person - you started the day with instant oatmeal (it’s just become available, no more 10-minutes-of-stirring!) and that same orange-drink that the Gemini astronauts like. Later today, you’ll snack on a new kind of not-potato-chip called “Doritos,” and after dinner, you’ll have a gem-shiny gelatin dessert topped with a yummy cloud of Cool Whip, a new topping that works straight out of the container! It’s just a touch warm in your office, though, so what would make reading your new journal just the thing would be an ice cold soft drink. You step out to the corner store (a convenience store, not a “soda fountain”!), a 7-Eleven. There’s a sign on the door advertising something new - you go to the counter and instead of the soda you’d been intending to buy, you pick up their brand-new carbonated….beverage? Ice? Something in between? Well,whatever this is, it’s new, it’s refreshing, and it has a fun name: Slurpee.