Science & Technology

Scientists find a way to unboil an egg

By T.K. Randall
January 26, 2015 ·  29 comments

A boiled egg can now be turned back in to an uncooked egg. Image Credit: sxc.hu The process of boiling an egg, which sees the proteins inside rearrange in to a tighter and more tangled structure, would seem to be a one-way process that is impossible to reverse.

Now however scientists have managed to develop a new technique that enables them to pull apart the tangled proteins and return the egg to its original state within a matter of minutes.

The process can also be used on other types of proteins as well.

While unboiling an egg is a neat trick, the real value in this discovery lies in its potential medical applications. One area that could benefit significantly from it is the creation of cancer-fighting antibody proteins that currently take large amounts of time and money to produce.Food production and biotechnology research could also benefit from the process.

"I can't predict how much money it will save, but I can say this will save a ton of time, and time is money," said chemistry and molecular biology professor Gregory Weiss.

Source: CNBC | Comments (29)

Tags: Egg, Boiling