
I found this formation at the bottom of a bowl after beating a couple of eggs in it the day before (see Photo, right). The only additives to the eggs had been a pinch of salt and ground black pepper. The bowl base is 90 millimetres in diameter, and each of the yellow 鈥渟pokes鈥� is up to 1.5 millimetres wide, arching upward by about 1 millimetre in their mid-portions, leaving those darker clear-glass gaps between the spokes. Besides drying and contraction, what specific eggy or other factors may have determined the formation and proportions of this pattern (which remained unchanged for a week until I needed the bowl again)?
John Smaje, Manchester, UK