Bonus: My girlfriend's sweat doesn't stink (and other questions)?
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. Bonus extended edition quarantine way longer than we ever thought.
Melissa:Yeah. We're still recording from home.
Jam:Yeah. Which, like, it's weird how we kinda got a new groove of it. I don't love that. Obviously, I'd Rather be back, in person, something like that, but it has worked. I mean, we're we were able to figure it out, which I'm sure that's there's some podcasts who are like, Alright.
Jam:We're on break until we can get back together.
Melissa:Yeah. I've been thinking about that and how scared I was to have to take on the recording responsibilities, but How we haven't had a ton of scary hard things as a result of recording remotely.
Jam:Yeah. It was, like, working out the kinks at the beginning, but now it's like, okay. Melissa, just do the same thing you did last time, And then send me the file, and then don't worry about it.
Melissa:Yep. It's been working out great. Well, I'm very excited for this bonus episode. We had some great questions this time.
Jam:Dude, I'm very ready. For some reason, it feels like it's been a while since we've done this even though it actually hasn't, but I always love when we get to do the bonus episodes.
Melissa:Yeah. I also love these. I don't know why. Maybe because there's less preparation, but it just feels fun.
Jam:Yeah. It's like the same. I mean, you don't have to do as much ahead of time, which is great, but it also just kind of fun, relax. It doesn't feel like we I guess it's partly because we're not doing one Cohesive, like, lesson or whatever?
Melissa:There's no pressure on you to learn. You know? We're just like it almost feels like we're hanging out with our listeners.
Jam:Totally. Yeah. We get good to hear from them and talk back to them, which is awesome. So I love it.
Melissa:Me too. Now that we've talked about how much we love it. Yeah.
Jam:Okay. You ready?
Melissa:Ready.
Jam:The first question is from our very inquisitive, Steven h. Does sunlight fade colors the same way as bleach?
Melissa:My answer to that question is sorta.
Jam:Moving on. Alright.
Melissa:So So exposure to UV light can initiate radical reactions, basically break some bonds. It just makes electrons move and makes things happen. The light's being absorbed, and then they're coming back down, and that plus oxygen can really break things down. So in our lab, we make these Molecules that specifically can absorb light, but that means that a lot of them break down in the presence of light or oxygen.
Jam:Mhmm. So
Melissa:we would have to evaporate all the liquid. It was not allowed to be dissolved in anything and cover them in foil and sometimes purge them with nitrogen to just get to where there was no exposure, or else sometimes they they would be this beautiful brightly colored thing, and you'd found it, and you'd done what you're gonna do. And if you left it Just sitting out overnight or whatever in the lab, you could come back and it would have turned brown. Totally broken down. So, Essentially, sunlight does cause reactions that will break things down, which is which is what bleach does, but it's not exactly the same reaction.
Melissa:Right. Also, just as a fun aside, I went and looked up The reactions of UV light just for fun. I didn't have to for these episodes, but I like doing that. And I found out that UV can even break down some plastics Sticks and polymers. And I found that some companies put in stuff in polymers to keep the light from degrading.
Melissa:Like, They'll put something that will scoop up the radicals or they'll put in a light a UV light blocker or something so that it Can protect these things that are susceptible to the UV light breaking down. UV light is just, you know, pretty powerful.
Jam:Wow. It's weird. But, I mean, it makes sense because there's so many things about it, like sunscreen and whatever else, like, that are a big deal. So
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:It is but that's just weird, dude.
Melissa:I know. It is kinda weird. Science is weird, you know, and also beautiful. So for once, we do have references here on our bonus episode.
Jam:Nice. You know, the most beautiful things most beautiful things in life are are a little weird. Nah. They gotta be.
Melissa:This is so true.
Jam:Okay. You ready for the next question?
Melissa:So ready.
Jam:This question's from Harry b, And he says, I have this soap that when you put it on and wash the suds off, your skin becomes hard to rub against. I was wondering if you had any idea what might be happening. I think the oils are being bonded to and removed, but I'd love to hear what an actual chemist has to say.
Melissa:Okay. Harry, that's a great question. I have 2 theories. 1 is that it's very effectively stripping the oils from your hands. So there's not that oil that sort of makes the like, lubricates your hands naturally almost?
Jam:Oh, gotcha.
Melissa:Or it's leaving behind some kind of residue from whatever extra fragrances or whatever they put in the soap. So we've talked about soap before. It's actually made with sodium hydroxide and fat, and Basically, just mix that together and heat it up, and then you add in fragrances. The more solid you want it to be, the longer you heat it up, the less solid the more liquidy it'll be. And so in this case, I think it's possible that it is Just really getting a lot of those oils off your hands sometimes.
Melissa:Cheaper soaps can have more of the sodium hydroxide, side which is kinda caustic left behind, and it can leave your hands feeling dry. Alternatively, I think sometimes the things they put in there that smell good can just leave your a little bit of a residue behind, and they just feel kinda weird on your skin. That's my theory. I don't know for sure. I'd have to, you know, look at it, investigate, but that's kinda what I'm thinking.
Melissa:I'm I'm leaning towards the first one that it's Stripping your hands of oils very effectively.
Jam:Nice. And that was what his theory is too for the most part. So
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That's sweet.
Melissa:Right. Yeah. So good job, Harry. Good guess. That when I read that, I was so excited because that's what I want people to be thinking about.
Melissa:You know? Like, he is washing his hands or whatever and thinking, wait. Why do my hands feel this way?
Jam:Is
Melissa:it Because of this Mhmm. How interesting. I'm gonna write in about it. Like, using its brain, thinking critically, problem solving. I was so excited to read that.
Melissa:So, Good job, Harry.
Jam:Nice. Okay. This next question is from anonymous. What's your name?
Melissa:Dun dun dun. That's one
Jam:of the names you should not hear very often. You know, it's obviously a beautiful name, but Okay. So, yeah, it says, my girlfriend's sweat doesn't have a scent when she works out, But it does have a scent when she's anxious or worried. What does that mean? Dude, woah.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:I know. That is a real thing. Okay? So I don't think it means anything in particular other than, You know, this is just part of her body chemistry, and she's lucky. So there is a paper that states that There is a percentage of the population that just they don't have sweat that smells.
Melissa:So whatever it is about their chemical makeup, maybe it's Ultra salty or something about the way they sweat doesn't get processed into something that smells by bacteria.
Jam:Weird. So the bacteria might still eat it or whatever, but it just doesn't smell somehow?
Melissa:I tried to look more into it, and there was not as much on the bacteria side. If I can find something, this would probably be worth its whole own episode. So it's likely that that's why when she works out or whatever, hers she doesn't have much of a bad smell. Just she's part of that percentage of the population. But as we mentioned in the episode, Your emotions can affect your body odor.
Melissa:So I found a paper this time where it talked about how humans, When they're happy or fearful, emit different things, and they gave those scents basically to dogs and tested how the dogs reacted. And dogs reacted differently to the fear odor than the happy odor.
Jam:Oh.
Melissa:So your emotions can affect how Your sweat the chemical makeup of your sweat.
Jam:And and you mentioned the service dogs, being able to tell things going wrong in that episode.
Melissa:Right. So you really can have a different composition of your sweat when you're anxious or stressed or fearful than you would when you're working out and have a lot of endorphins or you're just sweating from that kind of thing. So
Jam:It's
Melissa:a real thing. I don't think it means anything. I think she's just lucky that she doesn't smell most of the time.
Jam:Yeah. Sometimes it there's things where you're like, You know, just just enjoy it. Don't ask any questions. Just be like, man, this is this is nice.
Melissa:Also, one of the papers said that The same gene that controls your body odor seems to also control the moisture content of your earwax. So people who weren't smelly also often had drier earwax. Like I shouldn't say like there. So the chances of that happening those 2 things happening together at random were super, super small. The combination was High percentage likely.
Melissa:If you have dry earwax, you also don't have body odor.
Jam:Wow. That's crazy.
Melissa:Or you don't have that kind of body odor, I should say.
Jam:Right. Man,
Melissa:that's a good one. Weird. I know. There's a whole world behind smell chemistry I'm fascinated by.
Jam:Okay. You ready for the next one?
Melissa:So ready.
Jam:Okay. This one's from Nikki n. He says, fun fact for women, your body odor can get really bad after giving birth, probably hormonal. Not sure the cause. This helps the baby smell you and turn their head toward your armpit slash breast so they can nurse.
Jam:Crazy. Right?
Melissa:That is crazy. Nikki unsubmitted that, and I was mind blown. That's amazing.
Jam:And I was just like, what?
Melissa:Yeah. That's nuts. Amazing. So much cool stuff about Bodies and sweat that we just,
Jam:you
Melissa:know, don't know about. It's amazing.
Jam:Yeah. It's crazy. Sorry, babies, that you guys are having to use use our sweat to to smell the fine stuff, but,
Melissa:hey, it's
Jam:better than nothing. Okay. You ready for the next one?
Melissa:I'm ready. Wait. Actually, can I do the next one? Yeah. Okay.
Melissa:So I'm gonna ask the next Three questions because I think that's fun.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And the first one, we got this on our Instagram story. SD replied and said, are popcorns polymers? And when I saw that, my mind was blunt. I was like, what is popcorn? Why do these colonels just Turn inside out when you put them on heat.
Melissa:That is insane. Yeah. And how did we figure that out? I mean, I have so many questions, and I wonder about a lot of things. And I eat popcorn constantly.
Melissa:I have this popcorn bowl where you can put kernels in oil Mhmm. So it's a little bit healthier and put it in the microwave still. So it's easy, but a little bit healthier. And I eat popcorn probably every day.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And I have never thought of this. So good job, SD. Can't wait to research this and find out what the heck popcorn is.
Jam:Yeah. It's awesome. Just the other day, I put my phone Camera on slow mo when I was making popcorn on the stove, and it's hard to see because it starts to splash the we have clear lids to our like, glass lids to our pots Like a lot of people do. And, it got harder to see over time because oil little bits of it were splashing up under the glass, but it is kinda cool. So I'll show it to you, Melissa, and see if you think it's cool enough to throw on the story for just for kicks.
Melissa:I think it's worth it. I love throwing stuff on our Insta Story.
Jam:Okay. So you're you're in charge still?
Melissa:You're Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. You're moved.
Melissa:Okay. Abby h submitted a question that made me so excited. She said, my coffee routine is bored. How can I spice it up to give me some excitement in quarantine days?
Jam:Oh, dude. Oh my gosh. Oh, baby.
Melissa:Such a good question.
Jam:Great question. Abby, thank you.
Melissa:So should we let the coffee expert go first and then the basic coffee girl, or what do you think?
Jam:I feel like You should go first because,
Melissa:if Then you can tell me how wrong I am?
Jam:Well, no. But, Yeah. I don't know. Why don't you yeah. Why don't you go?
Melissa:Well, here's what I've been doing. Number 1, I use agave in the raw instead of sugar because I feel that gives a little bit of a caramelly flavor, almost like a simple syrup, Without having to actually buy the simple syrup or make it or whatever. There has been a big trend of whipped coffee that my roommate did where you put instant coffee and sugar and water, and you whip it up with a whisk and put that over milk, and it was delicious. Very good. Big trend, super basic move, but It was very good and exciting and fun, and I loved it.
Melissa:And this has been my Own thing. So I do cold brew coffee. Abby and I have actually talked about how she doesn't have a cold brew maker. Maybe I'll get her one for Her birthday because she deserves it. But I take my cold brew coffee right now and pour it into ice cube Containers Mhmm.
Melissa:And freeze it. And then the next day, I put that and a little bit more cold brew and a little bit of almond milk And a little bit of agave and blend it up Yeah. To make almost like a blended coffee Uh-huh. That is Delicious. Mhmm.
Melissa:And so good on a hot summer afternoon. So Those have been the ways I've been mixing up my coffee game lately, but I'm sure Jam has all kinds of opinions about everything I just said.
Jam:Well, the opinion. I'll just start off at this, and then I'll just say what I would normally have said. So I don't Okay.
Melissa:I don't
Jam:believe in diluting, Coffee or sweetening it. I'm a black only guy. And so but the tips I'm gonna say, I think, would make any Coffee tastes better. And just know the best move you can make is going toward no sweetening, no diluting.
Melissa:If you
Jam:can get there, that's the best move. That's what then you're tasting the natural thing that occurs in nature.
Melissa:To each his own, I always say.
Jam:To each their own.
Melissa:Oh my gosh. You're so right. To each their own. Their own.
Jam:But I will say, I don't believe, in this case, Teach Their Own about adding stuff to coffee. I think it's just like I just can't can't believe in especially, the first tip I'm gonna say is to just get some really good coffee, especially at a local coffee shop. If you can, buy some freshly roasted Coffee from a nearby shop. 1. It's great because it supports something local.
Jam:And a lot of them also have really good practices about trying to buy at really fair prices from, farms and plantations around the world. And so your your dollar is is It's really worth it there for the local aspect and the the farmers who need it. And they work really hard to Get a really nice coffee plant that has a lot of uniquenesses to it. And that's why I can't support sweetening and and adding milk, because, What they already do and and work towards, especially if you're buying really nice coffee, is just great to taste what it is that they accomplished. But I'll say that, I think anyone would would really benefit from buying some better coffee if they can afford it.
Jam:Not everybody can, so maybe just do it as a treat for yourself. Have that as a cup of coffee, you have that, you know, that nicer coffee once a week or something like that. But look for a local coffee shop. Look for something that is a single origin roast in in by medium or light roast. Single origin just means it's from one specific farm in a specific country.
Jam:And, it's not as hard to find that stuff as it used to be. And I I do think that A local shop would be really, would really benefit from your business. So that's the first thing.
Melissa:Well, that's that was beautiful, Jim. You made it about Something so much deeper than just coffee on the surface.
Jam:It starts to get cool too because when you start having coffees from different places and you're like, oh, I like this one. You could you feel like, dang. This is cool. Whatever they're doing over there, I like it. And this is kinda amazing.
Jam:So that's that's you kinda get more connected just by Naturally, you get more connected to where it's from, and and it's kinda cool to know that stuff. The next thing I'd say is that, to buy your coffee whole bean, not everybody has a grinder, but, You can actually buy really cheap hand burr grinders conical burr grinders on Amazon. And it takes a little bit of work because you're doing it by hand. You're just cranking a little thing. But the nice thing is that freshly ground coffee, is, like, So nice, and it it makes a big difference in the taste.
Jam:So you could take a a not even great coffee and have the preground version of it versus the The version that you grind and then brew it immediately after. And I think most people could tell the difference. That's my firm belief. So Whether it's great coffee by the shop, which definitely be a strong difference, or just the coffee you're already drinking or used to drinking from a store from a the grocery store. If you go grab, like, a 10 to $15 hand grinder from, Amazon or wherever you want to, that'd be an easy place to get it Safeler, you don't have to go anywhere.
Jam:That would definitely spice up your coffee game, and it's pretty fun to do. You get an arm workout a little bit, and you kind of might get tired of it if you try to do it, Multiple times a day, but I'd say that's a good, that's a good tip.
Melissa:Well, if you wanna be basic like me, you can go with one of my options. And if you wanna be deep and meaningful and have this beautiful relationship with coffee that's about Supporting farmers and being better than the rest of us, and you can be like, jam. Okay. The very last question are you ready for it?
Jam:I'm ready.
Melissa:The very last question is also from Harry b, and he said, what is your favorite element? So I have an answer, but I wanted to see if you had 1 first before I give mine.
Jam:So I was trying to look because I remember being assigned an element Once in school at some point that I had to do some sort of report about and, like, what it was in and what it does, stuff like that. And I thought I remember better, but I am pretty sure it's zinc. Do you ever know like, have you ever had, like, a school project that You did forever ago, and you always kinda have an attachment to that thing or that topic. Like
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:You had read about this specific explorer back in the day or this founding father. You always kinda like that one more just because you had to do research in 4th grade or whatever.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:So I'm pretty sure it was zinc. And so I've always kinda liked zinc. I like How it sounds, I like that it starts with the z. I don't remember tons about it, honestly, but I've always liked zinc. And I've also always liked mercury because It's cool because it's
Melissa:Dude, yeah.
Jam:You know, liquid room temperature. And when I was in high school, I was a Teacher's aide for the chemistry teacher, missus Pitterd. She's awesome. I did it not because I liked chemistry a lot. No offense, missus Bitter, but it was cool, and I needed, you know, a a teacher's aide, Like, period that semester or whatever.
Jam:And I was like, obviously, miss Pitter, that'd be the best. So, I logged all the chemicals in her, like Like, storage unit or whatever, storage room. Mhmm. And Right. Made an updated, log of the amounts of them, Which would took a lot of trust for her to let me do that.
Jam:But Yeah.
Melissa:As a high schooler, I would never let a high schooler touch anything. Yeah.
Jam:And I was like I mean, I wasn't
Melissa:Just kidding. High who are listening. I was just being funny.
Jam:I I trust you. And I was not about to start messing with some chemicals I didn't understand. That seemed like a good way to, get in trouble and also potentially hurt myself. So but I had to log how much mercury there was. And so I got to at least just handle the mercury in the, like, container that it was in.
Jam:And it was just kinda crazy to, like, Be moving it around and be, like, just observing it. And that was the ultimate I ever got to do that. But I just have always been, like, man, it's it's as cool To me, it's as cool as it always seemed it was. And so I like Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Jam:What about you? I'm, like, very interested to hear what a chemist's Favorite elements would be you've, like in some sense, do you have to, like, love them all equally because you're a chemist? Or is that
Melissa:I know. I have so many stories like the ones that you just Told about so many different elements. I remember the 1st time I saw Mercury and the 1st time I laid eyes on it. I remember So many things. So many, like, weird stories of memorizing things or writing about them or learning about them.
Melissa:I have a book of the elements in my office where it Goes into every single element, and sometimes it has little interactive things where we used to record in there, jam, slip through it a couple times.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could think I like to think of the the first time you saw Mercury as be it being like, you see it from across the room, and then In your head or out loud in the ring you're in, it just starts playing. You're just too good to be true.
Jam:Can't take
Melissa:my eyes
Jam:off of you.
Melissa:Yep. That's exactly what happened. That's it.
Jam:And then, like, the camera gets all kinda, like, Blurry on the edges, you know, as you look Mhmm.
Melissa:It zooms in. Little hearts? Yeah. Like the there's an Instagram filter that does that thing?
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Go on.
Melissa:Well, so I was trying to think, and I think as an organic chemist, you know, I'm supposed to pick carbon.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:But I thought carefully and decided that actually what I really love It's a combination of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. So each one of those by themselves is fine, But those 3 elements, just 3 almonds, can do so much. It's incredible. The smell of vanilla are those 3. The smell of fresh baked cookies.
Melissa:You know? You're smelling just basically carbon and oxygen and hydrogen. Or
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Also, those elements make up the smell of vinegar. Just so much stuff comes from those things. Weird. Carbon is in every plant. I mean, just the different rearrangements of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen makes alcohol and makes Different arrangements of alcohol to where some are safe can to consume, and some are gonna kill you if you consume them.
Melissa:And Just all kinds of stuff is basically just carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. Every once while you can throw a nitrogen in there or a fluorine or whatever, but I feel like it's incredible to me that I can just take Carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen and do almost anything.
Jam:Yeah. It's kinda like these other elements have, like, a flashy thing that might be what people think of for them. Like, oh, it's liquid at room temperature or it's like Mhmm. Oh, it's used in microchips or whatever. And then Those are kinda, like, the pop music, pop star elements.
Jam:And you're like Mhmm. But what about these, like, Tried and true steady elements that make up everything that we couldn't we could not do anything without. Like, That's kind of how it seems to me as a nonchemist.
Melissa:I think that is just kind of how it feels. I was thinking, You know? Oh, I should probably pick carbon because I'm an organic chemist. And then I thought, that's not just carbon. I mean, carbon by Self is an organic chemistry, but the things that you can rearrange and work with and do all the stuff with is carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
Melissa:And they're just insanely versatile, and There's so much chemistry associated with them, and it just feels like it makes everything possible to some extent. And I just think that's really beautiful.
Jam:Dude.
Melissa:So
Jam:That's awesome. Now you have the deep answer.
Melissa:Me about my field, you about yours. Yeah.
Jam:If only they call coffee like my field. It's more like a hobby.
Melissa:You're you're a coffee expert, I would say. I'm a chemist. You're a coffee est.
Jam:Coffee est. I sometimes say coffeeologist. Coffeeologists. That's good.
Melissa:Well, that's it for the questions. We wanna take a minute just to say thank you guys so much for submitting those questions. It really is so fun. Like we talked about at the beginning, to hear from you and to feel as if we're having a conversation with you is just really enjoyable for Jim and I, so Thanks so much for that. And then we'd also like to take a minute to thank Shail for donating on Cofi.
Melissa:Shail's killing it. She writes questions. She emails us, and she's supporting the make production of our show. Good job, Shail.
Jam:Yeah. Thanks so much. And we still have the somewhat interesting but good problem of Our listenership increasing over time, and so we are still going to end up needing to upgrade to the next level of our Hosting fees to, be able to handle more people downloading the show, which we obviously wanna be able to do. Wanna make sure people can Still have access to the show. People can download it for their own, enjoyment, for their own learning, share with others.
Jam:And As we've had recently, some classes using it to to have a kind of outside different source of science lesson in their curriculum or whatever. So, we are excited about that, and we wanna make sure that we can still keep the show going. And so, when you guys do give on Cofi, it really helps us cover costs of making the show. And we're still trying to reach the point to where we can cover that next level of our hosting fees. Just wanted to be transparent about that with you guys and ask you all to consider giving and and helping us keep the show going.
Jam:If you have been listening for a while and you haven't, donated or considered donating, we just wanna ask you to to do that and consider helping us keeping the show going. We wanna keep doing it, and we love that you guys love it.
Melissa:And we do wanna say that Jim and I are committed to keeping this show open access and available to everyone Because we're passionate about helping people learn, we really think that podcasts are a great way for people to learn who Maybe don't have additional access to educational resources. So if you're not able to donate or if you're just Now coming and figuring it out, we don't want there to be any pressure at all. We just would like to ask you guys to consider. If every single person who's listening right now gave Just the cost of a cup of coffee, we'd be covered. But even if 1 tenth of the people listening right now gave the cost of a cup of coffee, those hosting fees would be covered.
Melissa:So Yeah. We just want to consider asking you guys to help us cover the cost of this so that we can Keep making chemistry available for more and more people to learn and even maybe try out some different things. If we have additional resources, we can Try making new content for you guys. So but we love this. We are committed to keeping the show going and to keeping it open access for anyone.
Melissa:We don't want any paywalls to keep anyone from listening. We want everyone to be able to have access to all the resources that we put out.
Jam:And we just can't thank you guys enough. We love you all. Thanks for making this such a fun experience and for listening. And, yeah, we just we enjoy it so much, and y'all, Make it all possible.
Melissa:You really, truly are helping me reach my chemistry dreams. It's incredible. This episode of Chemistry Free Life was created by Melissa Collini and Jam Robinson. References for this bonus episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. And we'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.
