No Kidding! Frying Potatoes - A Small Step Towards The Apocalypse

2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29

As harmless as the evening may seem to you frying potatoes or fish, this can lead to serious consequences such as weather changes, aggravating the effects of global warming and even a snow apocalypse.

A new study has found that frying food can change the weather, as fatty acids released into the air from cooking oil help form clouds. Researchers suggest that the impact of frying food may even be large enough to have a cooling effect on the planet.

Researchers at the University of Reading, UK, have shown for the first time that fats released during cooking can form complex 3D structures in atmospheric aerosol droplets. The team believes that the formation of these structures is likely to prolong the atmospheric life of these molecules and affect the way clouds form.

It is known that the molecules of fatty acids covering the surface of aerosol particles in the atmosphere can affect the ability of aerosols to participate in cloud formation, says Dr. Christian Pfrang, co-author of the study.

This is the first time scientists have considered what these molecules do inside an aerosol droplet. They assembled a number of complex stacked models of molecular structures using captured levitating droplets of oleic acid (a cooking-related fatty acid) captured in the skies of London.

The researchers found that fat molecules bind to crystal-like spheres or cylinders that are known to affect water uptake. Other experiments have shown that the fatty acids in these structures are more resistant to ozone and thus can survive longer and continue to levitate in the atmosphere. The findings show that the extended lifespan of these molecules already aids in cloud formation.

Scientists suggest that in densely populated areas, where the culinary preferences of the population are associated with more frying, the climate can be largely determined by fat molecules in the atmosphere.

Probably, these fat structures have a significant effect on the absorption of water from the droplets in the atmosphere, increase the life of reactive molecules and according to our study this can aggravate the greenhouse effect and accelerate the process of global warming, says Dr. Pfrang.

This will lead to melting glaciers, floods, freezing ocean currents and abrupt climate change, and no wonder the snow apocalypse in the Northern Hemisphere.

Think about it the next time you add another serving of french fries, the scientist added.