Cookery and technological spices

Abstract

The aim here is to make the transition from cookery, where we are familiar with the need for trace additions of salt, herbs and spices (i.e. imperfections), to all other types of manufactured goods. Mentally, we rarely consider the presence of impurities and, even in cookery, ignore that our food sources always include measurable quantities of many impurities, even rat hairs from grain silos etc. This deliberate rejection of the thought of such impurities always conditions our thinking and inhibits our attitudes and understanding of all modern technological materials. Impurities at parts per million can have enormous effects but we struggle to deal with very large numbers, even when faced with biological changes caused by cells and viruses that may be just a billionth of our weight, but define all our biology and health.