1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:10,719
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogelbaum here admit it. Even the most open minded

3
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,880
Speaker 1: among us have preconceived notions about ice cream by virtue

4
00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:18,160
Speaker 1: of the fact that it's basically flavored sweetened milk that's frozen.

5
00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,599
Speaker 1: Certain properties are necessarily associated with it. For instance, it

6
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: melts when you're eating it on a hot day. It's

7
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:29,040
Speaker 1: also very difficult to light on fire. But the days

8
00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,479
Speaker 1: of such predictable, old fashioned frozen treats are over. A

9
00:00:32,560 --> 00:00:35,400
Speaker 1: team of Japanese scientists has developed a soft serve ice

10
00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,479
Speaker 1: cream that won't turn to milk soup even after hours

11
00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:40,800
Speaker 1: in the heat. And it's not because it contains the

12
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:45,720
Speaker 1: usual thickening suspects like diglycerides, kara gene in or polysorbate eighty.

13
00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,520
Speaker 1: It's basically just regular ice cream with one small modification.

14
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: The story of how we got to flammable ice cream

15
00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:56,440
Speaker 1: is pretty good. It starts with a strawberry accident. After

16
00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 1: the earthquake and tsunami ravage Japan. It's the one that

17
00:01:00,800 --> 00:01:03,560
Speaker 1: caused the meltdown of the reactors at the Hookushima Nuclear

18
00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,840
Speaker 1: Power Plant. A Japanese chef was tasked with figuring out

19
00:01:06,880 --> 00:01:11,440
Speaker 1: what to do with strawberry polyphenol, a compound extracted from strawberries.

20
00:01:12,040 --> 00:01:14,840
Speaker 1: It all started when nobody was buying a whole bunch

21
00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 1: of deformed strawberries grown in an area affected by the

22
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,240
Speaker 1: earthquake because they just weren't shaped quite right. Researchers at

23
00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:25,080
Speaker 1: Japan's Biotherapy Development Research Center wondered if instead of wasting

24
00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,080
Speaker 1: all that fruit, something could be done with the polyphenol

25
00:01:28,319 --> 00:01:31,280
Speaker 1: inside of it. They asked a pastry chef to create

26
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,679
Speaker 1: a dessert with it. The experiment went okay, but the

27
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,160
Speaker 1: problem was every time he added the compound to cream,

28
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:42,920
Speaker 1: it hardened right up. Baha lightbulb inventor Tolmi, a professor

29
00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 1: emeritus of pharmacy at Kanazawa University, told Japanese newspaper The

30
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:51,600
Speaker 1: Asaki Shimbun polyphenol liquid has properties to make it difficult

31
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,160
Speaker 1: for water and oil to separate, so that a popsicle

32
00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:56,400
Speaker 1: containing it will be able to retain the original shape

33
00:01:56,400 --> 00:01:58,640
Speaker 1: of the cream for a longer time than usual and

34
00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:02,120
Speaker 1: be hard to melt. With this realization, Odah and his

35
00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:05,680
Speaker 1: research team developed Kanazawa Ice popsicles, which hit stores in

36
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:08,520
Speaker 1: Japan last summer. They hold their shape through all sorts

37
00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:11,520
Speaker 1: of treatment that traditional popsicles can't withstand, from hot sun

38
00:02:11,560 --> 00:02:15,440
Speaker 1: to hair dryers. Now, Kanazawa Ice offers soft serve ice cream,

39
00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,520
Speaker 1: which can reportedly be caught on fire without melting and

40
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:20,880
Speaker 1: can keep its shape at temperatures of a hundred four

41
00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:24,359
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit, which is forty degrees celsius. I want to

42
00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,079
Speaker 1: get your paws on some flammable ice cream, Well, you're

43
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:28,920
Speaker 1: just gonna have to travel to Japan if you're not

44
00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,639
Speaker 1: already there. Japan has no plans to export it just yet.

45
00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:40,720
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by

46
00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of other

47
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,560
Speaker 1: cool topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot

48
00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:58,240
Speaker 1: com