The Five Second Rule

Posted on October 4, 2007 in Nature

Drop a piece of toast on the floor. Grab it up within five seconds, no problem, right?

Wrong:

…while the 5-second rule remains a popular rule of thumb, there is no hard science to support it, says Glenn Chambliss, a bacteriologist at UW-Madison. In fact, if you dropped food in places harboring nasties like E. Coli bacteria, any contamination would happen instantaneously, the scientist says.

I’m not here. I’m in Arizona, still. Maggs and Bill the Lawyer should be running the show here. Treat them nicely until I get back, OK? In the meantime, check my Twitter.