What would Greta and I be doing if we weren't doing this?

This week's Ask a Scienceblogger inquires about our other research interests:

Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?...

We talked about this one over the weekend, considering all the important lines of research we could have gotten involved in: solving world poverty, curing cancer, stopping global warming. It's all quite overwhelming. Besides, we've just gotten comfortable with this gig, where Greta serves as the fountain of knowledge about things cognitive and I'm its editorial arm.

We decided that the responsibility of Saving the World Through Science was simply too great. Instead, we'd prefer to devote our scientific efforts to a more managable problem. While it may not save the world, it does have the potential to impact millions, even billions of lives.

We'd like to develop the perfect pizza crust.

You see, Greta and I met in Chicago, home of amazing deep dish pizza. The early years of our marriage were spent in New York, home of amazingly large and greasy flat pizza. Needless to say, we spent much of our free time in New York trying to duplicate the Chicago-style pizza we'd grown to love. Now that we live in North Carolina, we're starting to develop an appreciation for flat pizza with a thin, flaky crust. I think the ideal pizza crust might meld several of these qualities.

Pizza-crust research could benefit tremendously, we feel, from a scientific approach. Since time and money would be no object, we could hand-build several different types of ovens, determine the ideal temperature and humidity levels for dough-rising, and travel the world to find the ideal flour and yeast strains.

Once the ideal recipe had been found, we'd share it with the world so everyone could enjoy the fruits of our efforts. Then we'd invite 5,000 of our closest friends to the world's largest pizza party.

Buon Appetito!