Video: How Popcorn Pops (in Super Slow Motion)

The team behind the forthcoming six-volume, 2,200-page tome Modernist Cuisine show us exactly what happens to a kernel of popcorn when it's heated—at 6,200 frames per second.

Since a popcorn kernel is about 15 percent water, heat turns that water into steam, creating pressure inside the hard, non-porous hull. Then, at about 135 psi, it explodes and the starchy endosperm unfolds (via the Modernist Cuisine blog).