In January 1994, 'The
Economist1' magazine reported that one of Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary's success stories about government research scientists hired out for
civilian2 business uses was the Argonne National Laboratory's
helping3 McDonald's to find a way to speed up french frying. A team headed by
physicist4 Tuncer Kuzay, who interrupted his work on advanced photons, placed
sensors5 inside the frozen fries and was able to design special frying baskets to deal with the effect of steam created by melting ice crystals and to cut 30 to 40 seconds off each batch's frying time.