In today's Dining section of the Times I write about potato chips: the sounds they make, the music that has been made from them, and the forces that shape them.
My source for those shaping forces was Paul Green, a professor of plant biology at Stanford, and a friend. Paul died in 1998. In the column he became "Mr. Green." When I find a near-perfect chip and think of him, I don't think of Mr. Green, I think of Paul.
For helping me understand and explain the physics of chip shape, I thank two people who worked with Paul as postdoctoral fellows: Jacques Dumais of Harvard University and Sidney Shaw of Indiana University. Of course the simplifications and approximations are my doing, not theirs.
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Kim, S.-E. et al. Development of a method for the musical expression of cognitive food taste. Food Sci. Biotechnology 2005, 14, 738-42.
Zampini, M. and C. Spence. The role of auditory cues in modulating the perceived crispness and staleness of potato chips. Journal of Sensory Studies 2004, 19, 347-63.
Green, P. Transductions to generate plant form and pattern: An essay on cause and effect. Annals of Botany 1996, 78, 269-81.