What does PHF stand for?

Q: When I check the sanitation report cards of restaurants at the Health Departmen's facility rating website, I keep seeing the acronym PHF as one of the listed violations. What does PHF mean?

A: PHF is a term used by food-safety organizations to classify foods that require time-temperature control to keep them safe for human consumption. It stands for potentially hazardous foods.

The FDA has identified the following as PHFs:

* Meat (beef, pork, lamb)
* Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck)
* Fish
* Shellfish and crustaceans
* Eggs
* Milk and dairy products
* Heat-treated plant food (cooked rice, beans or vegetables)
* Baked potatoes
* Certain synthetic ingredients
* Mushrooms
* Raw sprouts
* Tofu and soy-protein foods
* Untreated garlic and oil mixtures

The restaurant or eatery that received a PHF citation probably had at least one of these foods lying around at room temperature when the inspector came by.

Bacteria that grow at room temperature are usually assumed to be killed by high heat. But if the food is not thoroughly cooked or if the dish or end-product is raw-based, then the practice of leaving PHFs out in the air could prove sickening, even lethal.

What is the world's strongest laser?

Q: What is the world's strongest laser?

A: The world's most powerful laser is known officially as the National Ignition Facility. The super laser was created to help keep tabs on the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile while also studying the heavens. It is located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about 50 miles east of San Francisco.

The NIF is the size of a football field and consists of 192 separate laser beams that travel 1,000 feet in one-thousandth of a second to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.