This morning, Margaret Thatcher died at age 87 owing to complications from a stroke. One of the lesser-known accomplishments of Britain's first female prime minister is her role in the creation of soft-serve. Thatcher, an Oxford chemistry grad, supported herself financially in the fifties by working at food manufacturer J. Lyons and Co. There, she became part of a team of chemists that developed key emulsifiers for ice cream. By increasing the amount of air and making it possible to churn soft-serve out of a machine, Thatcher paved the way for Britain's Mr. Whippy trucks. Her work also had financial...
