We all know what happens when a chocolate bar sits inside of a backpack on a really hot day: it melts, and even if it resolidifies, it will never quite look the same. But what if you could tailor your chocolate to have a higher melting point?
You probably can, just by mastering a few basics of materials science, according to Jennifer Dailey, a graduate student in materials science and engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She recently taught a short course using chocolate to introduce 20 students to the concepts behind how atomic (or molecular) structure determines the properties of a given substance—in this case, Valrhona chocolate.
Read more at Gizmodo