 Highbridge, a division of recorded books, presents—did you just eat that?—two scientists explore double-dipping, the five-second rule, and other food myths in the lab, by Paul Dawson and Brian Sheldon, read by Matthew Boston. Prologue. Why write a book about the five-second rule, double-dipping, and other food myths? Well, because inquiring minds want to know. The truth is, we've always been puzzled and a little impressed by the faith people seem to have in catchphrases for a host of food-handling behaviors. Five seconds? Says who? And double-dipping. George Costanza from Seinfeld tends to be wrong about things. So could Timmy, the character who calls George out for this practice in a famous episode, be right? The more we thought about it, the more examples of questionable food-handling behavior came to mind. Some of them don't even have catchphrases yet. Whether it's the communal popcorn tub at the movies, or the ping-pong ball used in the game of beer pong, most of us don't think twice about what else, besides popcorn or beer, we might be putting in our mouths. Catchphrases will come in time, but we wanted to take a closer look at what's really going on. That's why, together with our undergraduate students from the Creative Inquiry Program at Clemson University, we conducted bona fide scientific research in a faculty-mentored team environment. This was our way of introducing the scientific method to students who at first may not be interested in research, and getting them to look at common, everyday topics and beliefs about bacteria and food. The questions raised captured our participants' interest in their own and their classmates' behaviors. What we found amazed us, and we decided to share our findings with a wider audience, including you, the listener. After a series of research experiments, we hatched the idea to compile a book on these topics for the everyday reader. In each chapter, we present results from our original published research, along with research by others, on how bacteria are transferred and survive on foods and contact surfaces we are exposed to in everyday life. We hope this audiobook will both enlighten and entertain you. So how should you enjoy this audiobook? After the introduction, which gives you some basic information about the mysterious microbial world, the chapters are grouped into three parts covering how bacteria spread on, one, different surfaces, two, air and water, and three, food transport mechanisms. In each chapter, we first share some trivia and background on that particular topic, then describe do-it-yourself experiments we have conducted to answer the question po- Sample complete. Ready to continue?