Wilbur Scoville Google Doodle Marks 151st Birthday Of Man Behind The Scoville Scale

Today’s Google Doodle is a nod to the man who figured out a new way to measure just how spicy a pepper really is. In 1912, American pharmacologist Wilbur Scoville developed an organoleptic test to determine the pungency of peppers.

Now standardized as the “Scoville Scale,” Scoville’s test uses human testers to gauge the spiciness of a pepper – relying a person’s palate and mouth heat receptors.

“The doodle team thought his work in this field – and the development of his eponymous Scoville Scale – deserved some recognition,” claims the Google Doodle blog of the food scientist and “The Art of Compounding” author.

Designed by doodler Olivia Huynh, the interactive doodle includes an animated Scoville, pepper facts and a game pitting an ice-cream cone against different pepper types.

“Spiciness is somewhat of a universal, comical experience, which I think opened the door for us to do something we usually might not be able to, like a fighting game,” says Huynh who developed storyboards for the doodle, while engineers built out prototypes for the game.

Google shared early drafts of Huynh’s art work for the Scoville doodle:

Google’s Scoville Doodle leads to a search for “Wilbur Scoville” and includes sharing icons to post the doodle on social pages or send via email.

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