Whilst doing some research on Food Science, and on Nicholas Kurti in particular, the so-called ‘father of Molecular Gastronomy’, I discovered that Oxford’s Science Area, where Kurti worked and not far from where I live, is renowned for once having been the ‘coldest spot on Earth’: “Using demagnetisation of nuclear alignment, Professor Kurti was able to create temperatures of a millionth of a degree above absolute zero.”
Cool.
Kurti’s interest in what he called ‘gastronomic physics’ also led him to invent an ‘Inverted Baked Alaska‘ which consisted of frozen meringue filled with piping hot apricot puree, described as ‘sticking a spoon into Iceland and getting an eyeful of magma’. Here is Heston Blumenthal’s recent update of Kurti’s original recipe in the Guardian: Nicholas Kurti’s stuffed profiteroles.