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The science of cheese, and other niches ... it's your Free Thread
The papers Microbiota of Cheese Ecosystems and Cheese production revisited and Functional modulation of the human gut microbiome by bacteria vehicled by cheese may be of interest to people deeply interested in cheese science. But what's your niche, hobby, fascination, regular deep dive into the science? Or talk about anything and/or everything, or what's going on with you, as this is your free thread.
posted by Wordshore on Jun 08, 2026 at 12:04 AM
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My attaché from Berlin arrives in England at the end of this week. Logistics and diplomacy mean we are not meeting up until after another week has passed, but I'm super-excited about this.
posted by Wordshore at 1:34 AM
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Just a thought, before the MetaFilter police arrive and gleefully flag DOUBLE - why not just let both Free Threads roam at the same time and see where they go? People can add, respond to other comments, on either or both as they see fit. After all, this website continually has a hundred or so open threads on US politics at any one time, so it can manage a few open threads without drama.
posted by Wordshore at 1:41 AM
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Yesterday I joined the tiny (14 members, including me) community garden in my neighborhood. Apparently it started out as a federal (!) project for an "at-risk" area or some such. Then the money and support dropped off, the scope changed, and it was forced to become a nonprofit with no more extra money or support.
Still, I am excited about the group. People do not have their own allotments. It is a smallish, former grass lawn that has been broken up into various areas. I met Mitzi, the resentful leader who claims this will be her last year because it is not her neighborhood; Annika, who is my age or older; Karin, who works in tech and is younger; and Björn, who shared his coffee with me. It was the perfect size for me, only four other humans and plenty of weeding to be done. No one batted an eye when I moved to work in the shade after a couple of hours because the sun was making me sick.
By the end of August I will be retired from my regular gig of 9 years. This is the right move and also scary. Perhaps this small collective garden will help me with the transition. Well, during the summer half-year, anyway. Hoping to find a choir I can join to make the winters more bearable.
Why do you have an attaché from Berlin, Wordshore? Congratulations and enjoy!
posted by Bella Donna at 1:44 AM
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In less than 2 weeks, God willing, I move from Morocco to The Gambia. Why? Cheap, easy legal residence in a Muslim majority country. Morocco residency is far more complicated and expensive for retirees without Moroccan spouses.
I am both chuffed and apprehensive. I am looking forward to the year-round warmth, the calls to prayer whose style will differ from what I hear in Morocco, lots of open green space, diverse fish markets, and surprises I don't anticipate. And I'm apprehensive about electrical grid reliability and availability, how an old spoiled Western suburban lady like me who is used to a lot of creature comforts will fare in a country like The Gambia, and the malaria endemic to the area. (I plan to bring preventive meds with me and start taking them when the rainy season starts, God willing.)
I will be staying with a friend at first, then God willing I will rent my own place. Friend is host to a menagerie of beasts and birds and is a deeply spiritual person, and I pray that my presence there will be good for her as well.
I will miss Morocco, mostly my good friend in Marrakech, whose friendship has been a huge blessing for me. But practical budget and life matters mean that I need to move on, sooner than later, God willing.
posted by rabia.elizabeth at 2:34 AM
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Wishing you all good things, rabia.elizabeth, and may your move go smoothly! Moves are generally a pain but this one sounds exciting.
posted by Bella Donna at 3:24 AM
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Speaking of Functional modulation of the human gut microbiome...Here's One Weird Trick which I've been using for a couple of years: a couple of tablespoons of yogurt every morning and my partner no longer complains about a smelly bathroom.
posted by kozad at 4:15 AM
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The topic reminds me of Sister Noella Marcellino, a Benedictine nun and microbiologist, known as "The Cheese Nun" due to her passion for cheese-making. The documentary about her is worth watching if you can.
May all go well for you as smoothly as it can for you both, Bella Donna and rabia.elizabeth.
Community gardening can be challenging and yet still worth it. I have gardened for much of my adult life, about ten years of that in different community gardens. The words of Ross Gay and his exuberance for gardening often ring in my head. I've had my current allotment for about eight years iirc; last summer, a beautification plot next to mine opened up, so I took that on, too. My growing space has now tripled. I'm gradually removing the non-native plants and replacing them with hardy natives. It's fun to see what likes growing near a street, under the shade of tall cherry and river birch trees. Both spaces have lots of fragrant bee balm, cute little violets, peonies that thrilled me with their luscious blooms for a few short weeks, persistent dandelions that feed the plethora of hungry rabbits. I also tend two young paw paw trees that I planted nearby a few years ago with the community garden president, who is also my friend and neighbor. Grateful for my little green space in the city.
posted by wicked_sassy at 5:25 AM
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In another life if I hadn't graduated at the ends of successive economic downturns, cheese could have very well been on the pick list for a field of study for me. I took molecular biology and biotechnology in uni and fermentation and food and stuff like that was pretty prominent in the coursework I did. It's very interesting!
I've been feeling down lately. I've had a pretty awful back pain/SI joint flare up for the last 4 weeks or so. I'm on the mend, and have a plan with my physio and personal trainer, but at the stage where I'm impatient and any pain/discomfort is taking my attention away from the very real and significant progress I have made. I'll be happiest when this is resolved as completely as it can be. But for now I need to remember that when this started I couldn't tolerate walking for more than a few minutes, and on Saturday I did a Costco trip (not without pain but it was tolerable pain) and was able to recover from it pretty quickly.
So all that to say my usual hobbies aren't really happening - long stretches at the crafting table aren't great right now. Gardening is definitely out at the moment - though we bought a tomato plant from Costco that seems like it's fine staying in its pot for awhile. So I'm limited to some remote bird watching (robin nest cam is up, hummingbird feeder camera, Merlin app for bird sounds) and what bird watching I can get in outside before the mosquitos find me and carry me away. Hopefully in a few more weeks I'll be even better and can carry on with some of my interests with more vigor.
posted by eekernohan at 6:30 AM
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I've had a bunch of obsessions over the years, but the most ongoing is with Burnette Pletan, the fastest painter in the world (self-link). He used regular housepaint, painted on sheets of masonite or plywood, and would set up shop in some truck stop parking lot or city park and paint scenes while you waited. As such, he has literally painted many thousands of paintings, of which I own ten, which might be the largest privately-held collection of his works in the world. My biggest miss: a 4' x 8' painting that was for sale at an estate sale here in town. I failed to flip through all the pictures in the estate sale listing online, otherwise I would have been there on the first day, cash in hand, but I went on the second day of the sale and it was already sold. Where I would hang a 4' x 8' painting, I have no idea.
Film Student Update: Had the first meeting for a new feature film, with the producer/director/star and the casting director/producer. The script wasn't ready yet, it's in my inbox as of this morning. It's going to film in July and maybe August, and she has some audacious hopes for where we can film, but also there's zero budget so it'll be run-and-gun guerilla style filming.
Feature Film Audio Editing is progressing; didn't get as much done over the weekend as I had hoped, but I sent scenes 1-9 to the director and then continued through scene 14 of 24. I took the time to watch scenes 1-9 on my cellphone before I sent it, which revealed issues that in a nicely-tuned studio are less evident, so saved myself headaches later by fixing those before sending them off. Director gave me very few notes, said it sounded great.
Film update, but for for my dad: My father, in his 70s and loving the retired life, has been an extra in things I've been working on, and has worked his way up from 'that guy over there' to a featured extra, which got him an IMDB credit and a 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon number of 4. The casting director from that film reached out to me, would he OK if they asked him for an actual role in a film, with lines and all? I said it doesn't hurt to ask, he's not really an actor but he's always game. I was cc'ed on their text communication, and his ever curt and professional response: "I am interested. Let me know when and where"
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:30 AM
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I don't know if I have a niche interest in the sciences, so much as a general interest in the natural sciences overall. Not enough to make a study or career of it, but definitely enough to want to go see things like "ooh, there are some really cool birds in this park" or "huh, I never knew that beavers even DID that" or "dang, is THAT what Venus looks like?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:13 AM
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But what's your niche, hobby, fascination, regular deep dive into the science? Or talk about anything and/or everything, or what's going on with you, as this is your free thread.
Ok, going by this and the last few posts...Our posts in this thread doesn't have to be about niches/hobbies/fascinations only regarding cheese science?
posted by anoldfriend6 at 7:52 AM
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Our posts in this thread doesn't have to be about niches/hobbies/fascinations only regarding cheese science?
Yes, for the few members who have non-cheese related hobbies, we allow them to post about their niche interests as well.
posted by mittens at 8:28 AM
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Our posts in this thread doesn't have to be about niches/hobbies/fascinations only regarding cheese science?
I admit I read the prompt poorly and chose a non-science thing, but free threads are their own animal
*throws things around, kicks a garbage can*
THERE ARE NO RULES
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:30 AM
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I refuse to be cheesy for this thread or any other. Luckily, it's a free thread and I can do my own thing.
posted by Bella Donna at 8:46 AM
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I don't know if I have a niche interest in the sciences, so much as a general interest in the natural sciences overall
I don't really have deep-knowledge interests, but I do want to know "something about everything." These kinds of minor questions about history or natural science are usually "bedtime questions" in our house, when we lie in bed and have to grab a phone to do surface-level research about an idea that's popped into our heads. Last week it was the blood type system (the name of which I can't type here) and the blood transfusions depicted in Dracula (which are a major plot point). Turns out Stoker was just ahead of blood typing by a few years. Fun fact.
I think the reason I wasn't really ever really interested in college is that I don't really have a burning desire to know more than the very surface level trivia about literally anything. I'm wracking my brain trying to think of a single thing in which I'm an expert and I got nothing.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:56 AM
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it can manage a few open threads without drama.
Unless it's a thread about drama...
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:57 AM
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The most scientific thing I know about cheese is that I like to eat it! Had some nice Brie over the weekend at a friend's birthday party (And ice cream cake!!! Why shouldn't a 60th bday party include ice cream cake?)
I am sort of a "broad not deep" generally too. I have my day job, which I barely feel qualified to call myself an expert in but who cares? I make websites, snore.
My main other regular things right now:
Practicing Spanish cada dia!! (catorce meses de streak so far wooo)
Writing as many of the days as I can manage, cause maybe I'm going to try to be a (published) writer. Why not?
I have a bunch of armchair fascinations that are definitely science-adjacent:
Volcanos, earthquakes, plate tectonics, geology
Epidemiology, diseases, especially in their historical context
History: ancient/classical. MEDIEVAL, really just all the stuff, I love it!
Best of luck rabia.elizabeth with your move. I will look forward to hearing about your adventures in The Gambia, should you choose to share them.
posted by supermedusa at 9:14 AM
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I have enjoyed reading "A Cheesemonger's History of the British Isles" by Ned Palmer, which has a nice mix of anecdote and science.
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 9:22 AM
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Has anyone else noticed an uptick in spam email lately? My spam folder has over 3,000 messages from just the past few days. Hotchie motchie.
I'm finally reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance after having it on my reading list for 30+ years. So far so so good.
And people are playing my game Omiword, which is nice.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 9:39 AM
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*throws things around, kicks a garbage can*
THERE ARE NO RULES
This is Liberty Hall; you can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard!
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:53 AM
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I do have a niche/"hobby" in the science of gambling and casino life. Fascination back in the day, but now it's pretty much jadedness.
I'm not much a gambler, well not in the traditional sense. As much time I've spent in casinos over the years, I have gambled with very little of my own money. My family was/is into gambling. My grandparents, when they were living, would give me money to gamble with on family/casino nights. Ditto, one of my uncles and my dad's ex's mother. Also, whales...I will talk more about them. I've watched them light money on fire and I did not want to have the same fate. Yet, I wasn't shady enough to just pocket the money they gave me. And then there was money saved from birthdays, Christmases, work bonuses, income tax refunds, etc.
Between being friends with a huge math geek, several IT professionals, and a former professional poker player...and lots of experience on the floor, I gained the knowledge on how to greatly improve my odds of winning and minimizing my losses. If you're new to gambling and interested in having some fun and losing less money as possible, read on. :D It is my pleasure and I enjoy geeking out on stuff like this.
RTP
The most important first principle of maximizing wins and minimizing losses is understanding the science of Return to Player (RTP). Knowing the estimated, or if you're lucky, the actual RTP of a slot will keep you out of trouble.
Video poker games typically have the highest RTPs. What's also great about video poker is that you can figure out its RTP instantly with your naked eye. Look through the pay tables and find the full house to flush ratio. 9/6 Jacks or Better variation is best. A whopping 99.54% payback, if you use perfect strategy! You can find detailed info on VP payback tables on the internet. Fellow gamers told me, that back in the day they could receive Positive Expected Value (+EV), if they used their players card while playing, especially on point multiplier days. Casino loyalty cards give you small amounts of cash back. But the casinos quickly caught on to that and made it much slower/harder to rack up points. Also they lowered the FH/F ratios and payouts. 9/6 JOB used to be easy to find. Now we'll find 8/6 or 9/5 JOB at best. I think only Vegas casinos AWAY from the strip have 9/6 JOB. This practice casinos use is called "nerfing" games.
Finding slots with high progressive is the second best way to maximize wins and minimize losses. A high progressive can temporarily shift a slot's RTP. All progressives start with a "reset" number. Say a jackpot starts at $50. That's on the house, but everything added after that is from the customers. So if that jackpot reaches $200, $150 was pooled in by players. If you happen to pop that $200 progressive while playing, you have an extra $150.
Typically the higher the comps (room, meal, etc) and cash back amounts a casino has, the lower the average RTP on slots. And the lower the comps and cash back, the higher the average RTP on slots.
The bigger/fancier the casino, the lower the average RTP. The bigger/fancier casinos tend to attract tourists (opposed to regular gamblers) and those with deeper pockets. They tend to care somewhat less about wins, they're there for entertainment. Casinos will adjust their RTPs accordingly. Smaller less glamorous casinos tend to have more generous RTPs. They attract more regulars, who may or may not have gambling problems. And they aren't there for the Michilan restaurants or lush golf courses, they're there to satisfy an itch...or to pay rent. If too many regulars aren't winning enough money, they're less likely to come back.
Typical VP RTPs are usually at least 96%. Regular slots range 80% or 85% minimum (different slot techs have told me different things) to about 93% or 94% RTP. Typically, the higher the denomination the higher the RTP. The newer the slot the higher the RTP. That's to reel you in. You win bigger and more often. And then they nerf the shit out of the game. If you see one game shut down in a bank of identical games, that's probably ok. Probably needs repairing. If you see the whole bank shut down beware. They're likely in the process of being "upgraded". And in that process they lower the RTP in the settings.
If a casino is located near other casinos, expect the RTPs to be okay, at least. Maybe not high, but not low. There are exceptions. It's a competition thing.
You don't want to have a low ass average RTP and the neighboring one or more casinos have high RTPs. Not a good look. Casinos out in the middle of nowhere? Beware.
Tribal casinos are not required to have a minimum RTP. So, you can expect them to be lower. There's exceptions. I have found some pretty high RTP slots scattered throughout US tribal casinos altogether. They're also not required to post the casino's average RTP. In every state run casino, the average RTP is posted somewhere, typically near the entrance.
If a slot has a theme connected to a celebrity, Movie, or TV show (like Wheel of Fortune) expect the RTP to be lower. An extra cut of the money from that slot goes to that celebrity or Movie, and not your pocket.
Technically the house always wins, unless you play Texas Holdem poker or count cards in blackjack (and be good at it). You are competing against other people and not the casino. But if you minimize your losses enough, you can have a good time for very little money. Hell, maybe attract attention from certain whales (players with deep pockets who like to gamble big). Tell them your strategies. And when/if they win big jackpots they might just gift you a slice of their pie. ;)
posted by anoldfriend6 at 10:36 AM
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These days I walk around with ruminants right near the California coast, doing regenerative grazing with a herd of range goats who bring me great joy. But I started farming six years ago at a series of goat dairies and creameries. I miss making cheese; it's a very special artform, embedded (when you are doing it right) intimately within the seasons and local forage. I'd like to return to it one day, though I do like to remind myself that I have never worked so hard for so little money.
posted by youarenothere at 12:21 PM
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I want to run cheese meltability tests.
posted by pracowity at 12:42 PM
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I've been interested in prairies ever since I went to the Land Institute near Salina, Kansas, and since last year I've been growing prairie wildflowers in my yard.
There's so much that's fascinating to me about prairie ecology. But what I love about perennial wildflowers in particular is their root systems. They can grow up to five or ten feet deep. That makes many of them drought resistant; it makes them good at surviving wildfires; and it means that in the depths of winter, all of that carbon and all of that energy are sequestered in their root systems. On the surface, it looks like they're just dead. It looks like there's nothing happening. But when the ground warms up again, it happens SO FAST, and you've got a 3' tall penstemon and you're thinking, "Did I plant this last year? I thought it might have died."
And it's easy to see what a flower is supporting above the surface of the ground - bees and birds and so on - but there's also so much it's supporting that it's not so easy to see, under the ground - they feed soil microbes, they feed mycorrhizal fungi, they break up the compacted lawn clay.
I just think they're neat.
posted by Jeanne at 1:07 PM
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I want to run cheese meltability tests.
I often do such tests for lunch. Although I wouldn't call the results rigorously scientific...just tasty.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:12 PM
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I just opened a wheel of firm Italian-style cow's milk cheese with saffron and peppercorns I made in February. It's pretty good but will benefit from some more ageing. Which reminds me that I have a mustard seed Gouda that's about ready to eat.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 1:19 PM
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Two Wednesdays ago, my wife came home from work to find our 9 year old dog dead in her crate. It looked like she went in her sleep so at least it wasn't traumatic. My wife had only been gone from the house for 2.5 hours...
Last Wednesday, my wife had a minor hernia surgery that went well with no complications...she's healing well and quickly, maybe too quickly since I'm afraid she'll overdo it and reinjure herself.
I work in local government and the state legislature is considering passing a law that basically targets our county and a few other progressive counties. We're already reeling from Hurricane Helene damage and they'd rather kick us while we're down than actually help.
I'm so so tired.
posted by schyler523 at 1:26 PM
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THERE ARE NO RULES
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:32 PM
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I'm so sorry about your doggo, schyler523 :(
posted by supermedusa at 1:53 PM
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Wow, so many things in these comments!
I have a degree in Geology! Wish I had leaned a bit harder into Paleo, fossils are super cool.
Or, the science of Paleontology, (and also fucking volcanoes are cool, (Yellowstone is the coolest place on earth)).
I am a boardgamer, so there's a lot of math you often have to do to play well. I went to college and was going to be a math major. Then I took a class or two, and the professors I had were so terrible, that idea went out the window...
(See also: Economics, just ugh).
If you are near Seattle, and want to grab lots of old, terrible condition, games, free. Mountlake Terrace. Otherwise many are going into the recycling/trash.
Great post about casinos anoldfriend6>
My casino story...
So I had a job, on a filed project, handling dogs, (Pointers and Viszilas), looking for birds in fields that had been sprayed with something. Did that in northern Kansas, near Seneca, and then we moved down to near Dalhart, TX. And on one of my "two weeks off" trips I went back to Oregon, where I was living. But even though I was getting paid a fair bit for this gig, was out of money. Had maybe $20 bucks. Stopped at Wendover, to see if I could make enough money to rent a room for the night.
Playing cheap blackjack, I think the limit might have been $2. So I have been playing awhile, and I am pretty much still just at even...
Young guy sits down next to me. Clearly a Morman who has come over from SLC to gamble. His first bet is $26, and he wins! Lets it ride. Wins again. So he is up $50. Lets it ride. Wins. Ditto...
So now he is up $200. He pulls $100 back and loses. And then does it again, and loses again.
I did not make any money that night. Spent the night on some BLM land in the back of the car.
Kansas prairies?
(The Flint Hills are cooler, but)
When I was a teen, my father bought a piece of land outside of Perry, KS., He was a sailor, and had a boat at the, "Perry Yacht Club" relatively nearby, (not a "Yacht" as we think of that term now). Built a house on it, built a pond on it. But the cool thing was, it was always mentioned that it had never been plowed. And it felt like prairie. Was sold long ago, the new owners might have done stuff, think I don't want to know. My dad may have not been the best, but, this was a cool thing.
I enjoy cheese.
posted by Windopaene at 2:08 PM
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