A New Type of Pasta
Saanvi Kunisetty
Recently, seventeen scientists from universities like Syracuse, Zhejiang, and Carnegie Mellon took part in a research project that resulted in the creation of shape-changing pasta. This pasta starts flat, and begins to turn into fancy 3D shapes as it gets cooked. In order to achieve this, though, researchers had to figure out the exact correct locations to make certain grooves, indents, and imprints in order for the flat pasta to end up forming the perfect predicted shape. One of the professors leading this research project, Professor Yao, is very familiar with this type of technique. Yao has had experience with flat-packing other materials too, such as plastics, which can be turned into sophisticated 3D shapes when heated. In fact, the shape-changing pasta was inspired from other flat-packaged products like these. So, why flat-pack pasta, or why flat-pack anything? The reason is nothing but the importance of our environment. When day-to-day objects come in complex 3D shapes, these shapes take up a lot of unnecessary space in packaging boxes, and a lot of air and space is left. Due to this, packaging boxes must be made in unnecessarily large sizes, using up resources, and creating a lot of unwanted waste. By flat-packing materials such as pasta, they can neatly be stacked up, take up very little space, and only need a small, airtight container, producing less waste. Aside from pasta, another industry where researchers have tried this out in hopes of bettering the environment in the future is furniture.
Resources:
https://newsforkids.net/articles/2021/05/13/scientists-create-flat-pasta-that-changes-shape/
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