The team of egg-sperts from the University of Naples and Italy's Institute of Polymers dubbed their technique as the “periodic” method. The method claims to cook the yolk and whites inside the shell evenly, while maintaining a higher level of nutritional value than other cooking methods.

So, how does one boil a “periodic egg”? I’m so glad you asked.

Over a beer with a colleague, Ernesto Di Maio, Foam Lab's director and study co-author, pondered whether he could transfer his experience as material scientists to solve the age-old question of how to cook the perfect egg.

The scientists cycled the egg, weighing 63 to 73 grams, every two minutes between boiling water and a bowl of water at 30 degree Celsius. They repeated this process for 32 minutes total and voila, you have a perfectly boiled periodic egg.

According to lead author Emilia Di Lorenzo, a food scientist from the university's Foam Lab, the optimal temperature for cooking egg whites is 85C while for the yolk it's 65C.

"The cooking of an egg is basically a problem of energy transfer," Di Lorenzo said.

In a plot twist no one saw coming, Di Lorenzo doesn’t actually like eggs that much, however, for Di Maio, the periodic egg is heaven.

"It was a pleasure to squeeze it with the teeth and have it in the mouth because of the good balance of texture and flavour," he said.