Proper PB&J

Standard Operating Procedure

Overview: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are a tasty snack for any occasion and often even provide one with the satisfaction of a whole meal. However proper PB&J preparation can be tricky and therefore must be handled with the utmost efficiency and care.

Materials & Supplies:

·      Peanut Butter

·      Jelly (jam would also suffice; flavor is subjective)

·      Bread

·      Knife

·      Napkin (plate or any clean surface would also work)

Procedure:

1.    Spread out napkin on flat stable surface.

2.    Pick up to slices of bread and lay flat on napkin so that both slices are side by side.

3.    Unscrew the lids of both Peanut Butter jar and Jelly jar so that the jars are open and ready for use. Place lids to the side until end of sandwich preparation.

4.    Pick up knife so that blade is pointing away from the user, and with free hand pick up the jar of Peanut Butter.

5.    Place knife into Peanut Butter jar and using the flat side of the blade, in a sweeping motion, get a glob of peanut butter on knife. Set jar down.

6.    Move knife over one slice of bread and with a slight flicking motion, drop glob of peanut butter onto the open face of the slice of bread. Using a spreading motion, use the flat surface of the knife blade to smooth the glob of peanut butter evenly over the surface of the bread face.

7.    Clean off knife blade with water or extra napkin.

8.    Using the jelly jar and the unused slice of bread, repeat steps 5-7.

9.    Place knife to the side. Carefully pick up both slices of bread so that faces without substance touch the hand surface and faces of the bread with substance are turned outward.

10. Press faces of bread with substance together so that the peanut butter side of the bread is pressed to the jelly side of the other piece of bread.

11. Enjoy eating sandwich.

Quality Control:

·      Be careful not to press the sharp part of the knife blade to skin or to use knife carelessly so as to gauge anyone or anything.

·      Bread should not have any mold on it, nor should the peanut butter or jelly used be expired.

·      When putting sandwich together, be sure to align bread so that the shape of one piece aligns with the shape of the other.

·      Peanut butter or jelly falling out of sandwich is an indication of too much jelly or peanut butter.
Sandwich tasting dry or sticking to the roof of one’s mouth is an indication of not having used enough jelly. 

Phlogiston Theory

Early in the 90's, Captain Planet came to the rescue of many villainous ecological disasters with the help of the powers of his planeteers: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Heart. The concept that all of these basic elements somehow combined to form something great was not solely invented by Hannah-Barbara screen writers. On the contrary, this concept has been around since the early 18th century. In fact, after these basic elements were thoroughly examined scientists began to turn their attentions to one of the processes that these elements were often involved in: combustion.
Combustion, matter catching fire or rusting greatly puzzled scientists of the 18th century. They noticed that when Wood burned, the ashes it created always weighed less than the wood it started out as. Because of this, they postulated that there must be some element that left the wood. This element was termed "Phlogiston" and thus the Phlogiston Theory was born. The theory stated that when an object was burned, or rusted, that the material that left was Phlogiston and the material that remained was the natural essence or "Calx". Although this theory is now well known to be false, it did leave left a lasting impression on the scientific community and, apparently, even made its way to the cartoon community as well.

Scrabble Anyone?

Protein Formation has always fascinated me because of its detail and complexity. As a biology major, I could never fully wrap my head around how natural selection could develop something so specific and intricate, even over billions of years. The idea is a little like someone trying to win a game of Scrabble by pouring out the bag of letters over and over again until a word forms that's the language of the person doing the pouring. Then that same person keeps pouring out the bag again and again until they form a game of scrabble on the board that actually makes sense. Also, I was always confused by the fact that DNA can only be replicated through RNA, but RNA can only be made by DNA. To even make a protein, DNA must be read by RNA and then the RNA transcripted through ribosomal complexes made up of RNA and protein. The whole concept reminded me of the "Which came first? The chicken or the egg?" question. One portion cannot be made without the other. However, the concept of intelligent design discussed in the movie, Darwin's Dilemma, made the whole process make sense. If something, or someone, had set the process of protein formation and DNA replication into motion, the DNA, RNA, and protein could all work together and depend on one another from the beginning. The language of the nucleotides could be designated and the whole process work together concisely. This would make much more sense, just as if the person playing scrabble stopped pouring out of the bag, and started purposefully arranging the letters on the board instead.