Popcorn has been around for at least 6,000 years, James Gorman says at The New York Times, but French scientists only just discovered why corn kernels not only pop — it's been known for a while that heated water vapor inside makes the hull open with a popping noise — but "also vault into the air and somersault like an oddly shaped gymnast, with one puffy white leg." You can read the study by Emmanuel Virot and Alexandre Ponomarenko, published in the journal Interface, or Gorman's summary of it. Or, you can watch Gorman narrate the process in the video below. It will take about a minute, and the slow-motion popcorn ballet is pretty amazing to watch. —Peter Weber
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