Was reading in the print edition of Wired this month about the 42 Biggest Questions we still don’t know the answer to, and just saw they just put up much of it on the web as well. You should really check it out, I think my favorite questions were Why Do Placebos Work and How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?

Licking machines built by engineering students at Purdue and the University of Michigan hit the chewy center in an average of 364 and 411 licks, respectively. But robot tongues aren’t the most efficient. Tests involving actual people have determined that it really takes 252 swipes at most.

JG