By now the Easter dinner leftovers are long gone, but what about those uneaten Marshmallow Peeps? The pastel-colored, chick-shaped confections may be a little harder and more difficult to chew, but Fortune magazine recently reported how the popular candies may be adapted for other uses. According to Fortune, consumers buy 1.2 billion Marshmallow Peeps a year. About a third of those Peeps "are bought not for eating but to be used in science experiments, arts and crafts and rituals." The arts, crafts and ritual uses are comparatively easy to understand, but the idea of using chick-shaped candies in the name of science is — much like a three-year-old Marshmallow Peep left on a shelf — hard to swallow. But it’s true. In the late 1990s, two professors from Emory University did extensive research on the Peeps and found only one liquid, an industrial-strength chemical solution, that could dissolve the candy chicks. On April Fool’s Day 2000, NASA launched five Peeps in a balloon from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Unfortunately, the candy chicks were lost when the balloon ruptured. Dissolving and astronaut-wannabe chicks aside, there must be other scientific uses for Marshmallow Peeps. For example, the chicks might someday be part of an important dietary study. One test group would be fed nothing else but leafy, green and yellow vegetables for one month. Another study group would be fed only Marshmallow Peeps. At the end of the study, the vegans will undoubtedly be lean, physically fit and eager to run the First Annual Marshmallow Peep Marathon Race. The Peep eaters will predictably be high strung, due to their high sugar intakes, and overweight. It all sounds very simple, but that’s how many dietary studies become bestseller books. The Peeps could also be used for longevity studies. It’s a commonly accepted fact that the candies have a shelf life of at least 25 years, which anyone knows is equivalent to 180 human years. Perhaps the physical makeup of Peeps could be adapted to humans. Should our skin be dyed bright yellow or pink so that we resemble them? Should we all be rolled in sugar in order to receive protective coatings against the elements? Military scientists at the Pentagon might consider the curious results of Peep jousting matches, the latest Peep torture shown on various Web sites. Peeps armed with toothpicks in their tiny beaks face each other in a microwave oven and as they expand from the radiation, their lances move closer. The first chick to strike a blow wins. This would be a perfect way for the Pentagon to observe the effects of radiation on military might and soldiers’ aggressiveness and willingness to go into battle. With a few graham crackers and a couple of chocolate bars, the discarded results of the experiments could become s’mores, a tasty treat for the weary scientists. The Peeps will not have melted in vain. Nursing students could practice giving injections to Marshmallow Peeps. They (the Peeps, not the nurses) are, after all, soft and pliable like many humans, but they won’t yell out when they’re in pain. Doctors in training could use the Peeps as they practice making first incisions for future surgeries. Perhaps the scientific uses for Marshmallow Peeps aren’t all that difficult to imagine after all.