The Mysteries of Life!

[CharliesAngles]

Well, maybe not quite as profound as the title makes out, but what little everyday things mystify you?
Things that are seemingly impossible, you know there’s science behind it but still can’t get your head around?

Today, mine is meringue. The ingredients are simple enough -
Sloppy egg whites.
Sugar
Air

That’s it. But somehow, combined altogether, when subjected to a period of heat it transforms into a thing of beauty and deliciousness. Especially when you add strawberries and cream on top…

(Guess what I’ve just been up to 😆)

What are the mysteries in your life?

Baked Alaska, even more miraculous than plain meringue!

Giraffes. Ds went to the zoo this morning with a summer camp and we were just saying they seem like they can't be real.

I also can't fathom how the sun comes up somewhere, moves, disappears, then comes back in a different place!!

Evolution.

How a new life starts. A few cells multiply but how do they know to make what? How does one cell think I'll make a heart and another I'll make a liver. And somehow millions of these clever things turn into a person who is unlike any other ever created, who capable of deep thought. Madness

Also double decker buses. If they are big enough to walk through an aisle and have two seats on either side, how do they fit on the same lane as a car where 3 people are squashed into the back.

The human body. I mean,just how? Everything from your heart to your brain, kidneys,eyes, etc. How did nature know how to arrange everything so that it works?!

I’ve just realised I have actually made a pavlova and not a meringue ☺️

Love reading these!

How people in the past worked out stuff was edible. I'm assuming that there was a fair amount of trial and fatal errors but things like apples are good to eat with skin but you need to peel oranges and melons or why we eat chicken but not wolf or badger give me pause for thought.

Then the next progression - who thought of mixing egg whites with sugar and air?

I do the same as you @TheWoollybacksWife - I was wondering earlier this week who decided to mix flour (or even make flour!) with other ingredients to make bread, cake or pasta etc.

So with you on the miracle of meringue.

Time baffles me. Who decided it was a thing and what about leap years and all of that? I’ve looked it up, still don’t really get it.

Belly buttons. I mean, what the fuck. But it’s how you know someone’s human and born from a human mother. The only thing weirder than belly buttons is someone without one.

Reproduction. Never not incredible. I look at my children and remember the little grey blobs on the screen and how they grew and it’s a never ending wonder. A different sperm, a different egg, they’d be different people.

Apt username for my comment @Someaddedsugar

@AnneLovesGilbert who decided how long a unit of time lasts? Standardising the duration of a second, a minute, an hour and then a day and a year 🤯 all without computers.

“Reproduction. Never not incredible. I look at my children and remember the little grey blobs on the screen and how they grew and it’s a never ending wonder. A different sperm, a different egg, they’d be different people.”

…and sometimes that little bunch of cells even split into two bundles and become two people 🤯🤯

Another one is the building of cathedrals - those vaulted ceilings, the spires, the sheer enormousness of them - all built by hand and most miraculous of all, in the main, they’re still standing!

So true about cathedrals. Always moving to think the men who designed and started to build them knew they wouldn’t live to see them finished.

I’ll add the pyramids.

😂 @TheWoollybacksWife

Another one for me is how planes stay in the sky...

And how video calls work - I just don't understand it at all!

I don't think I should have opened this thread as I have so many!

@Someaddedsugar I was just going to say how do phone calls work? This one has always puzzled me.
I pick up a handset, press a few buttons and voila - My sister picks up her handset 3,500 miles away and I can hear her actual voice… what?!!!!

Yes phone calls are another one!

And now the way you can ring someone and then switch to video calls if you fancy it! And they can be anywhere in the world! I realise I sound slightly mad 😂

No matter how much l read about them..I'm still baffled and in awe of crop circles.

@Floccinaucinihilipilificationisworthless ooh yes! Although they’re not as prevalent now as they were back in the 90s. Why is that?
In the same vein, what about those ancient Nazca Lines… they’re over 2000 years old and are still visible 🤯
I’ll put them alongside @AnneLovesGilbert ‘s Pyramids.

Now tell me about cameras. Someone presses a button and there is an image of me (looking mighty damn fine I might add 😌) from the 1980s! Just how?!

*who thought of mixing egg whites with sugar and air?"

A Swiss pastry chef called Gasparini perfected meringue in about 1720.

There had been various similar versions prior to that during the 1600s, as they occasionally appeared in recipe books of the era, (one by a lady in Knole, Kent, for example) but Gasparini gave the popular name to the confection.

Apparently, there was documented proof of this, but it was destroyed during WWII.