After some 100,000 miles traveled, 250 pizzerias visited, and 12,000 individual pies created at a food lab in Bellevue, Washington, chefs Nathan Myhrvold and Francisco Migoya quite literally have pizza-making down to a science. They present their findings in Modernist Pizza (The Cooking Lab), out this week, a comprehensive three-volume opus dedicated to one of the world’s most beloved foods. It’s the latest in a highly respected series of books produced by Modernist Cuisine, a collective founded by Myhrvold, in 2011, that challenges researchers, machinists, engineers, and other experts (including Migoya, who serves as head chef) to make and think about food in new ways.