Food Colouring

Food colouring is the substance used on food or drinks to change their colour.
It could be used in commercial food production and also in domestic cooking.

Food colouring is normally added to food or drinks for reasons like:
-to enhance the original colour of the food
-to protect the food flavours and vitamins which could be damaged by light
-to offset the original colour loss due to light, air, moisture and some other factors
-to relate the food with certain flavour

Food colouring used in modern days could be of natural or artificial.

Examples of natural food colouring:
- caramel colouring made from sugar, used in 1 of the most famous products in the world, Cola.
- Elderberry juice
- Saffron (a type of flower)
- Turmeric (a type of plant)

And examples of artificial food coluring:
- Brilliant blue FCF
- Sunset yellow FCF
- Allura red AC
- Tartrazine (yellow shade)

Other than applying it on food, food colouring can also be used to paint pictures.
It can also be used as dye for dyeing clothes, cotton and nylon.
Where red colour food dye can be used as theatrical blood, the 'fake' blood used when shooting movies or performing on stage.

However, recent studies shown that certain types of artificial food dye could cause Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) , a neurobehavioral developmental disorder.
Therefore, some of the countries like Norway have already banned the use of certain types of artificial food dye.

Silicone Lubricant

Silicone is not to be confused with silicon......
Silicon is the pure element in Chemistry, where silicone is formed by polymers consist of silicon together with other elements like hydrogen and carbon.

Silicone is well known for its thermal stability and also electricity insulator.......

However, it's popular in 'cubing' society because of its lubricating function.
'Cubing' actually refers to the activity solving the Rubik's Cube.


Professional 'cubers' would always try to improve their solving skills, to shorten the time needed to solve a Rubik's Cube.

Lubricate the cube itself is also another way to improve the solving time.



Silicone is able to reduce the frictions between the plastic surfaces in the Rubik's Cube.
Therefore it can make the turnings smoother, thus making each turning faster.
This is how fast professional cubers could go:


Silicone lubricant is made by combining silicone oil with thickener.
The most common silicone oil used is polydimethylsiloxane, and for the thickener is amorphous fumed silica.
Silicone lubricant is able to withstand high temperature as its highest temperature can be up to 400°C.

Silicone lubricant is also widely used for.......well.....during sexual intercourse....
This is because silicone lubricant won't damage rubber products like condoms.......
And it won't dry out so soon like water.

Besides, silicone lubricant is also used to lubricate mechanisms of fountain pen, and also for sealing waterproof watches since silicone lubricant has the waterproof property.

Other than lubricating function, silicone can actually be used for some other things.......
It can be applied to plugs and sockets to prevent oxidation, and also to battery terminals from vehicles to prevent corrosion.

It can also be used on remote controls:
Silicone grease is being applied to the spring area where the batteries are inserted to prevent the the spring from corrosion caused by leakage of the battery cells.