My Science School

A true arch allows the building of very high and wide doorways. To form a true arch, stones are laid against each other in a semicircular pattern in such a way that load or weight of the entire structure is shifted to the ‘keystone’, a specially shaped stone at the apex (highest point) of the arch. Because of this offsetting pressure, the overall structure does not collapse due to its own excessive weight, as it would otherwise do. So, true arches allow much larger and more majestic-looking doorways than straight doors, which would need many, many pillars around the room to hold up the structure.

The first use of the True Arch in India is perhaps in the mausoleum of the last slave king Ghiyas-ud-din Balban in 1287. The Turks were familiar with the True Arch for much longer, in fact Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the provincial city of Byzantium in 203 CE and endowed it with a Hippodrome — a course for horse racing, I have seen a fully preserved True Arch in one of the walls of the Hippodrome and there will be more. The True Arch existed in Ephesus from at least the 1st century of the Common Era and at the capital city from 200 years earlier and the Turks could not have been unaware of the form.

 

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Ancient Indian architecture was lush and ornate, with sculptures small and big, adorning the gates, the walls and the tall conical roofs of sprawling temple complexes. However, with the Turkic invasions and Sultanate rule in North India from the 12th century, there was suddenly a totally new style in vogue.

Calligraphy replaced statues, and single roomy buildings replaced many smaller ones, topped by the larger curved arches and domes we associate with Islamic architecture in India, and indeed, across the world. Well, this is the story of how the arch and dome first came to India!

Part of Islamic culture

The arch was extensively used across their empire by the Romans, and could be seen everywhere, from their gigantic aqueducts to triumphal arches and the Colosseum. Its popularity spread to pre-Islamic Persia. Like other aspects of Persian culture – calligraphy, geometric designs and so on – arches eventually became an essential part of Islamic culture.

When Qutb-ud-din Aibak became the governor of Delhi in 1192 AD many centuries later, he ordered a brand new mosque to be built to mark his victory. He naturally wanted to have it look like the mosques of his homeland...except, Indian stonemasons, talented and skilled as they were, did not know how to construct ‘true’ arches and domes at all!

Many attempts

What they did know was a common technique used in Hindu architecture called ‘corbelling’, in which successively overhanging layers of bricks rose up to cover the span of the doorway. However, this method did not have the load-bearing capacity to support very large openings. Thus Indian temple gates were very tall, but narrow. Aikbak’s Indian stone-masons decided to improvise – they continued to build arch-like openings using the stacked corbelling (i.e. the ‘fake’ arch). However, they simply chiselled away the inner surfaces of the protruding brick corbels into curved shapes, so it would look a true arch!

Now because they were not ‘true’ load-bearing arches, the gates were still much narrower than the ones found in Central Asia, but happily enough, the Sultans were happy with it! Early tombs like those of Sultan Ghari and Iltutmish are good examples of this fake-but-true arch style.

Now, it’s perfected

It was only with the tomb of Balban in 1287 CR, nearly fifty years later, that the first true arch was employed in India, after the Indian stone-masons had learned the technique from their foreign counterparts! Other early examples were the Alai Darwaza in the Qutb complex, and the Jamat Khana Masjid in Nizamuddin, built during Khilji times.

The arch technique was soon honed and expanded, and by Mughal times, we see large exquisite arches, such as in Humayun’s  tomb and of course, the Taj Mahal.

 

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Hannah Herbst from Florida, the U.S., is a teen inventor and social innovator. Currently studying Computer Science at Florida Atlantic University, Hannah believes computers provide a great platform to make people’s lives better.

Hannah has been involved in extra-curricular activities since she was very young – she has dabbled in singing and athletics. In her seventh grade, she was introduced to engineering as a platform for problem-solving when she attended a summer engineering camp. She was the only girl at the camp, which involved building robots. She learnt from her peers and online articles about how to program and build robots. Hannah found the camp interesting and started to develop an interest in engineering.

Later the same year, when she received a letter from her pen pal in Ethiopia, she realised how engineering could be used to solve problems such as energy poverty. This led to the birth of what was later called BEACON.

What about the letter inspired her?

When Hannah was in the fourth grade, her teacher introduced her class to a programme called Compassion International, where kids can connect with other kids in the world through a pen pal letter-writing system. During this programme, Hannah befriended Ruth from Ethiopia who was a few years younger than her. Ruth and Hannah would exchange letters every now and then.

Time passed by and when Hannah was in her seventh grade, Ruth wrote to her about the problems she was facing due to energy poverty. These included lack of electricity and access to clean water.

Hannah was moved by the problems faced by Ruth and people living in similar situations, and decided to use her newly found interest in engineering to create a device that would solve Ruth’s problems.

A BEACON of hope

Living in Florida and being surrounded by big bodies of water, Hannah decided to focus on using water her source for power. She started building a device called BEACON (Bringing Electricity Access to Countries through Ocean Energy), which would tap energy from moving water and convert it into usable electricity. This could be used to charge batteries as well as a way to purify water using a process called two-phase microfiltration.

Initially, Hannah built a big, complicated, wave energy-collecting device, but the device would keep breaking. Her Science teacher urged her to take a different path, but she found it difficult to move away from the first prototype she built. She thought it would work.

However, she moved on, and working with her mentor, she finally built the prototype. BEACON fetched her the title of America’s Top Young Scientists in 2015, as she won the Discovery Education and 3M Young Scientist Challenge. BEACON was exhibited at the White House Science Fair, and Hannah has spoken about her invention at the United Nations Science, Technology and Innovation Summit.

She wishes to make BEACON a commercial device soon.

What makes her special?

Hannah empathised with Ruth’s problems and decided to use her interest in engineering to help her. Despite her prototype breaking several times, Hannah never gave up until BEACON became a reality.

 

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Roald Dahl (September 13 1976 to November 23, 1990) was a British author of children’s books. Born in Wales to Norwegian immigrant parents, Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He became an ace aviator and intelligence officer. He grew to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children and adults. In 1953, he published the best-selling story collection “Someone Like You” and went on to publish the popular book “James and the Giant Peach” in 1961. In 1964, he released another highly successful work, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which was later adapted to film twice. A few of Dahl’s most popular works include:

James and the Giant Peach (1961)

This is a book about a lonely little boy who lives with his two mean aunts. One day, James gets a bag of mysterious things from an old man. The crocodile tongues that the bag contains squirm into the ground and a giant peach grows. James notices a hole in the peach and crawls in to escape from his aunts. Once inside the peach, he meets a giant Old Green Grasshopper, a Ladybug, a Spider, a Centipede, and an Earthworm. They start out on an amazing adventure. The book won widespread critical and commercial acclaim.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)

Three years after his first children’s book, Dahl published another big winner, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. An eccentric businessman, Willy Wonka runs a fantastical chocolate factory. Wonka hides five Golden Tickets inside his bars of chocolate. The finders are to be rewarded with a tour of his factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Charlie Bucket’s adventure begins when he finds a ticket and wins a whole day inside the chocolate factory. But, he has not idea of the surprises that are in store for him! Some critics accused Dahl of portraying a racist stereotype with his Oompa-Loompa characters in the book, but that never deterred him from writing more.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (1970)

The main character is a clever fox that talks, his wife and four little foxes. In order to feed his family, he steals food from three cruel farmers, Boggis, Bunce, and Bean, every night. The vexed farmers attempt to capture and kill him. How Mr. Fox outwits the farmers makes a delightful tale.

Over his decades-long writing career, Dahl wrote 19 children’s books. Despite their popularity, these books have been the subject of some controversy, as critics and parents have balked at their portrayal of children’s harsh revenge on adult wrongdoers. But that has not stopped children across the world from devouring his books with glee!

 

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Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time, Court Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, better known as Leo Tolstoy, was born on September 9, 1828. His ideas on non-violence had a profound impact on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Early Life

Born on his family estate, Yasnaya Polyana in the Tula province of Russia, Tolstoy belonged to an affluent family. Unfortunately, he lost his parents at a young age and lived with different relatives over the years.

At 16, Tolstoy began studying law and Oriental languages at Kazan University, but since he was home-schooled, he struggled to cope. Frustrated, he dropped out of the university and started looking for a non-academic career.

Sowing the seeds

Intent on taking up farming, Tolstoy moved to the family’s estate and began managing serfs and farmhands. Though he enjoyed the toil, he had to give up farming as he wanted to return to Moscow, which he missed. On his brother’s insistence, he joined the Russian Army. Tolstoy fought in the Crimean War, between Russia, and Britain and France. The violence and bloodshed he witnessed during the war scared him for life. He left the Army as soon as the war ended.

A new religion

Seeking solace in religion, he tried to evolve his own views on religion wherein he rejected the authority of the church and promoted ahimsa or non-violence. He believed in leading a morally and physically ascetic life. His followers moved onto the author’s estate to be near him and came to be known as Tolstayans. Many of these communes are operational even today.

Among those influenced by Tolstoy’s social beliefs were Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Gandhi established a cooperative colony named after Tolstoy in South Africa and corresponded with the author, crediting him with his own spiritual and philosophical evolution, particularly with regard to Tolstoy’s teachings on peaceful non-resistance to evil.

Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910, a few months after a few months after embarking on a pilgrimage with his daughter.

About war and peace

Written by the author over a period of six years, War and Peace cemented Tolstoy’s position as one of the greatest writers in the world. While it is a tale about the French invasion of Russia and its impact on everyday lives, it also perfectly captures the ethos of the time we live in today.

Oh Really?

• A Bombay High Court Judge asked an accused civil activist to explain why he had a copy of Tolstoy’s War and Peace at home. The comment has drawn criticism from people across the world.


• Tolstoy maintained a journal throughout his life in which he kept a detailed record of all his activities. In the diary, he jotted down a list of rules he aspired to live by. This included sleeping by 10 p.m. and with no more than a two-hour nap in the afternoon; eating moderately and avoiding sweets.


• Tolstoy’s wife helped him in finishing War and Peace on time. After completing the first draft in 1865, Tolstoy kept revising it over and over again. His wife, Sophia, patiently wrote out each version by hand – sometimes she even used a magnifying glass to decipher his scribbles. Over the next seven years, she rewrote the complete manuscript at least eight times.


• While fighting in the Army, Tolstoy wrote Childhood, an autobiographical novel, followed by Boyhood and Youth. His other works include Anna Karenina, Resurrection, Family Happiness and The Death of Ivan Illyich.  

 

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The Agra petha, made of ash gourd (white pumpkin), is probably the Indian sweet with the fewest ingredients. Even-popular, the petha is believed to have originated when Shah Jahan ordered his cook to make a sweet as white as the Taj Mahal. The chef, experimenting at short notice, probably found it easiest to dunk white ash gourd in sugar syrup. The result was the soft but firm and sweet jujube-like petha. While the original recipe contained just sugar, water and pumpkin, modern recipes include additives for colour and flavour. Cherry, orange-pineapple, khus khus, paan and even chocolate are some of the flavours in which pethas are available today.

We have a rich, varied and, if prepared the traditional way, even healthy repertoire of sweets.

 

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Relatively more recent in origin is the Mysore pak. In the 1930s, chef Kakasura Madappa concocted a mixture of sugar, gram flour and ghee, seasoned with cardamom powder. He intended to serve it as a liquid desert to the King of Mysore, Krishnaraja Wodeyar. But by the time the king finished his meal, the syrupy dish had cooled down and solidified. The king loved the dish and the world was gifted Mysore pak.

It is testimony to the ingenuity and talent of the Wodeyar chef Kakasura Madappa, that the Mysore pak is still so popular! It is available almost anywhere you go, but you have to make a trip to the Guru Sweet Mart shop in Mysore, which is run by Mdappa’s descendants, to get the original recipe of Mysore pak and take a bite into its amazing history!

 

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Another sweet we’ve been eating since the Vedic times is the laddoo (or laddu/ luddoo). Interestingly, laddoos started out as medicine. In 4 B.C., Sushruta, a revered Indian physician and surgeon, combined sesame seeds, jiggery and peanuts as an antiseptic for patients who had undergone surgery. Ayurvedic texts contain dozens of recipes for medicinal laddoos, including methi and sonth (ginger) laddoos. And then we have coconut laddoos, chickpea flour laddoos, boondi laddoos, millet laddoos, puffed rice laddoos and wheat laddoos, among numerous others. The sweetener was primarily jiggery until sugar became affordable.

The Balaji Temple in Tirupati started offering Laddus as an offering to the God as early as August 2nd, 1715! That makes this famous offering over 300 years old!

Another landmark event in the history of laddu is the fact that the famous Tirupati laddu has acquired the Geographical Indication (GI) tag. The purpose of issuing the GI tag is to preserve collective community rights.

This was a controversial move as some people felt that the Tirupati laddu was a money spinner for the temple and was not made by the local community. However, the courts decided to grant the GI tag in early 2014 and the naysayers lost.

The argument that a GI tag on the Tirupati laddu is an example of commercialisation of divine affairs and would inspire other temples to follow the Tirupati example, and thus lead to “irrevocable damage to the values of society”, was rejected!

 

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However, malpua is believed to be the oldest-known indigenous Indian sweet. In fact, it is one of the first offerings to the residing deity at the Jagannath Temple in Odisha. Referenced in the Rigveda as ‘apupa’, in ancient times, malpuas were flat cakes made of barley flour, deep fried in ghee and dipped in honey before eating. As time passed, rice and wheat replaced barley. The Mughals added eggs to the recipe. Modern recipes include mashed ripe bananas and pineapples in the batter and may use cream and dry fruits as toppings. The basic method of preparation, however, has remained largely unchanged.

Today, the malpua is popular and is a must have during festivals like Holi, Diwali and the Ramadan.

 

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The gulab jamun – at least as popular as the rasgulla, if not more – is the default sweetmeat for almost every occasion. Among the several theories about its origin, one attributes it to a cooking accident in emperor Shah Jahan’s kitchen. Another trace it to Persia, where dried and fresh milk are mixed into flour and shaped into balls. The balls are deep fried and dunked in rosewater syrup, lending the dish its name. The basic Indian version uses cardamom- and saffron-flavoured syrup and finely chopped dry fruits as garnishing. Sometimes, the balls are dusted with sugar before they’re fried, turning them into black “kala jamuns”. The Kumbakonam dry jamun is similar, with a crisp crust. The ledikeni, first prepared for Lady Canning in Bengal, uses light-fried cottage cheese rather than milk. Another variant, pantua, uses smaller cottage cheese balls stuffed with sugar crystals.

 

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Popular myth has it that upon his return from a nine-day vacation, Lord Jagannath had to bribe Goddess Lakshmi to gain entry into the Jagannath Puri temple – his own home. He used the sweet khira mohana as bribe. According to folklore, the temple kept khira mohana’s recipe a secret. But one of the priests, disturbed at the amount of milk being thrown away by the villagers of Phala, taught them to curdle milk and prepare the sweet. Soon, that tiny village on the outskirts of Bhubhaneshwar became a mandatory stop for everyone passing through Odisha. A local confectioner named Bikalananda Kar perfected the technique of steaming the cottage cheese balls and allowing them to swell in sugar syrup. This version travelled to West Bengal, where Nobin Chandra Das adapted it. The recipe soon became popular everywhere, spawning famous variations such as rasmalai, cham cham and Kamala bhog.

 

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Mirabai was a little late to the Bhakti movement but embraced it so fiercely and with si much devotion that her name and her poems continue to awe people even today. Mirabai, who had devoted herself to Lord Krishna from an early age, struggled for many years to be an ardent devotee to her favourite god. Her battle against society has eventual life as a wandering poet is an example of resilience and quiet strength.

Historical records don’t reveal much about the life of Mirabai (also Meera or Meerabai), the bhakti saint whose songs about Krishna continue to be sung today. Many of the stories we know of her now were pieced together from secondary literature and oral traditions.

Mirabai was born into n aristocratic Rajasthani family and it is said that her family were ardent devotees of Lord Krishna. Mirabai became one too, and her devotion was so deep that she considered herself married to her beloved god. When she was old enough, Mirabai was forcefully married to the crown prince of Mewar, and his family did not take too well to her devotion. It is also said that she refused to pray to their family goddess.

Five years into her marriage, her husband died at war. The story goes that Mirabai refused to jump into the funeral pyre of her husband, customary of Rajasthani women during her time.

In the end, Mirabai left her in-laws and became a wandering poet of the Bhakti movement. She left Mewar and travelled to places considered sacred – especially those associated with Krishna – such as Vraj (near Mathura) and Dwaraka. It is uncertain how and when she died.

Even though Mirabai was seen as a rebel and a revolutionary of her time, scholars often point out that it did not reflect in her work, because in her poems, she was always a dutiful wife to Krishna.

A legend surrounding Mirabai’s life is that Emperor Akbar heard of her and visited her in disguise. It is believed he even presented her a necklace. But the historical accuracy of this incident has been heavily contested because of the time periods they lived in.

Mirabai’s poems were often emotional and intense, especially when she wrote about being separated from Krishna.

Sigiriya, sometimes, called Sinhagiri, is an ancient rock fortress located in the northern Matale District near the town of Dambulla in Sri Lanka. A site of historical and archaeological significance, Sigiriya is dominated by a massive 200 metre-high column of rock surrounded by dense jungle. It gets its name from the giant lion statue between whose paws lies a staircase which gives access to the site.

Built in the 5th Century, Sigiriya is home to an ancient palace, beautiful gardens and fabulous frescos. It remained covered by the jungle until British archaeologists discovered it in the 1800s.

Today, Sigirita is a UNESCO World Heritage Site visited by thousands of tourists every year.

History of the city

Sigiriya was built by King Kashyapa I, who ruled the Moriya, the native Sinhalese dynasty. According to legends, Kashyapa orchestrated the assassination of his own father King Dhatusena, and expelled his half-brother to usurp the throne. Fearing attack by his half-brother, Kashyapa moved his capital from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya and built a giant fortress and palace on top of the cliff there.

Sigiriya remained the capital of the Moriya until Kashyapa’s half-brother returned and defeated Kashyapa. Unwilling to concede defeat, Kashyapa killed himself. Following his death, Sigiriya is said to have been used as a Buddhist Monastery until the 14th Century.

After the 14th Century, Sigiriya remained hidden from the outside world and was known only to the world and was known only to the locals. Once the British took over Sri Lanka, civil servant George Turnour worked with a Buddhist monk to translate an ancient 5th Century chronicle, the Mahavamsa, from the Sri Lankan Pali language into English. He also studied the Culavamsa, which narrated the story of Kashyapa. In 1827, Jonathan Forbes, a Scottish officer, befriended Turnour and decided to look for Sigiriya upon hearing Kashyapa’s story.

In 1831, he set off to find Sigiriya, based on information given by the locals. Eventually, he found the large rock and noticed platforms and galleries cut into the rock face. Forbes, however, was unsure if it was the Sigiriya he had read about in texts and decided to abandon the expedition. A few years later, when he returned, he traced the moat around the gardens at the foot of the rock. However, he did not climb it.

Finally, British mountaineers reached the top in 1851, and the task of surveying the site fell in the hands of the Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, Harry C.P. Bell. Bell’s study at the end of the 19th Century has since served as the basis for all the studies conducted on the site.

Mirror Wall

This wall was once so highly polished than the king could see his reflection as he walked alongside it. Today, however, the polish has faded, and what’s left are scribbles by visitors on a range of subjects – some dating back to the 8th Century.

The wall is currently barricaded to protect the scribbles and whatever little polish remaining on the wall.

Lion’s Paws

The lion’s paws are located at the northern end of the rock. Sigiriya derives its name from this. The paws were discovered by Bell in 1898. At the time, a gigantic lion stood here. The final ascent to the top began here on a staircase that would pass between the lion’s paws and end at its mouth. Today, however, the 5th Century lion’s head has disappeared and only its paws and a few flights of stairs remain.

Frescoes and paintings

When it was found, Sigiriya’s rock face had extensive galleries decorated with wall paintings. These wall paintings are some of Sri Lanka’s most prized possessions. There are a total of 21 surviving frescoes in Sigiriya. These mostly represent apsaras, celestial singers and dancers.

The walls of the rock face have over 1,000 graffiti done by monks and pilgrims who visited the site between the eighth and 13th Centuries.

Gardens

Found at the foot of the rock, the gardens of Sigiriya are among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. They are divided into three distinct forms – water gardens, boulder gardens and terraced gardens.

The water gardens include bathing pools, little islands with pavilions, and landscaped borders among others. The boulder gardens features boulders that once served as the base for monastery buildings, while the terraced gardens are formed from a natural hill at the base of the rock.

 

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Colourful, tropical creatures with big beaks rather like their feathered namesake – the parrot – parrotfish are known best for two things – eating most of time and pooping. Now, this may seem disgusting, but once you know more about these fish, you will realise that they are saviours of coral reefs. That’s because they spend around 90% of the day eating algae that damage the reefs. This continuous eating cleans the reefs and this ensures the health of the corals.

How does it go about doing this? Each parrotfish has around 1,000 teeth, line up in 15 rows and cemented together to form the beak structure, which they use for biting into the coral. When the teeth wear out, they fall to the ocean floor. But, this does not perturb the parrotfish, because it has so many rows of teeth. These powerful teeth break down bits of coral which are later excreted into nothing but fine white sand that lines the beaches of the South Pacific. This process is known as bioerosion and it helps keep algae under check which provides the right environment for young corals to grow.

You may scoff at the idea that some of the most beautiful beaches in this region are the creation of parrotfish or rather its poop! But, scientists estimate that a single Chlorurus gibbus parrotfish can excrete more than 2,000 pounds of sand each year!

There are about 80-90 species of parrotfish regarded as a family (Scaridae) that live in reefs all around the world, but they all generally live about 5-7 years and grow to 1-4 feet in length. The largest of the family is the bumphead parrotfish found in the Indo-Pacific waters, measuring more than 4 feet and reaching a weight of 100 pounds. Species vary in size from the five-inch Bluelip Parrotfish to the 4 foot Rainbow Parrotfish. Coloring ranges from reds to greens, blues and yellows, as well as grays, browns, and blacks. The parrotfish swims by rowing itself along with its pectoral (side) fins.

They eat and eat all through the day. At night, they sleep in the safety of a cocoon they make out of the mucous they secrete and by finding a suitable hiding place in the coral. It’s nature’s way of keeping them safe from predators.

Like most fish, male parrotfish contains harems of females. This means that in the event of there being no dominant male in a school which may comprise around 30-40 fishes, the largest female changes gender and colour to become the dominant. Once the transformation is complete, they can mate with the other females in the school. Parrotfish release many tiny eggs into the water, which become part of the plankton. The eggs float freely, settling into the coral until hatching.

Unfortunately, humans are their main predators as these fish are considered a delicacy in countries of the South Pacific where they are overfished. And when their numbers are depleted, algae levels shoot up affecting the health of the coral reefs. According to a recent study, reefs where parrotfish were abundant in the 1980s are the ones that are healthy today.

 

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How it all began?

According to a few food historians, the earliest known cotton candy dates back to 15th Century Italy, where sculptures were made from spun sugar, a predecessor of cotton candy. This was done by melting sugar and spinning thin strands using forks. Spun-sugar sculptures were popular among the noble classes in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The technique behind the production of spun-sugar was tricky and labour-intensive, and hence it was reserved only for special occasions.

The invention of modern-day cotton candy (also known as cotton floss) is attributed to Americana dentist William Morrison. He invented and patented the electric candy machine and created cotton candy with the help of confectioner John C. Wharton. This candy machine gained popularity at the St. Louis World’s Fair, Missouri, the U.S., in 1904, where Morrison and Wharton sold over 68,600 cotton candy servings packed in wooden boxes and marketed it as ‘fairy floss’.

In the year 1921, Joseph Lascaux, another American dentist invented a similar machine, and chose to call the sugar treat “cotton candy”. Over the years, the process of making the candy became easier.

Science behind the fluffiness

Do you know how the fluffy texture of the sugar candy arises? The chemical composition of sugar allows the candy to gain the airy, cloud-like form. The candy machine melts the sugar and reduces it to syrup. This syrup spins in the machine with strong force and is cooled rapidly. This doesn’t give the sugar molecules enough time to crystallise, resulting in the formation of thin and long strands. The colours and flavours of one’s choice can be added while the sugar spins in the machine.

Beware of moisture!

Th structure of cotton candy and its shelf depends on the humidity. Moisture in the air can make the cotton candy to clump into a dense ball. This is because the candy is composed of hygroscopic sugar (a substance that absorbs moisture from the air). It is therefore better to enjoy the cotton candy right after it is made.

In order to store the candy, plastic packaging is often used to prevent exposure to moisture.

Colours and flavours

Cotton candy without any colouring agent is white-coloured. The most commonly available colours are pink, blue, yellow and purple. Today the cotton candy is available in several quirky flavours such as bubble gum, mango, salted caramel, strawberry, peanut butter, mint, cherry and coconut. In the recent past, cotton candies are also being prepared in creative forms. There are cotton candy burritos, ice-creams, frappuccinos, milkshakes, burgers and cupcakes.

 

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