Hey, I'm Flora Lichten, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today in the podcast, pondering a burning late summer question.

All ice cream will melt, but does all ice cream collapse?

That's the real, real question.

It seems like summer just got started.

We're not ready to let go of those days at the beach, the backyard cookouts, and the ice

cream.

Not only do we love ice cream here at SciFri, obviously, we've also done many stories over

the years about the science of this frozen treat,

so we're pulling a few out of the back of the freezer for you. Back in 2015, Ira sat down with

Maya Warren, an ice cream expert, who was at the time a PhD candidate in food science at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her task, help us understand a summertime food science

mystery that made the evening news in Cincinnati. Christy Watson's kids love ice cream,

but one recent morning she saw an uneaten ice cream sandwich sitting on her patio table.

I noticed that my son had left his ice cream sandwich outside, and I was wondering, why was there still

ice cream there?

Yes, why, after sitting out for hours in the summer heat, did the ice cream sandwich appear

to be largely intact, just slightly melted, if at all?

Was there some unnatural ingredient packed into this frozen treat that helped it withstand 80-degree temperature? What gives? That's what we wanted to know.

Did this ice cream sandwich really melt, or not melt? You know, the ice cream sandwich

actually melted.

I haven't heard of anyone at high, high temperatures that they can have ice not melt.

...