Bonus: Does gunpowder explode? (and other questions)
Hey, everyone. As the listener base of Chemistry For Your Life has been expanding, Jim and I have been brainstorming new ways to keep the show growing. Right now, our limiting factors are honestly time and money. So far, we've covered the cost of hosting the show for 1 more year, which is very exciting, and that is totally thanks to you guys, buying merch and donating online to our. However, if we wanna expand To be able to devote more time to the show, to try new things, or bring on special guests, even just to maintain our audio equipment, we need to have the financial flexibility to do those things.
Melissa:Ultimately, with Jam being a freelancer, a lot of things are vying for his time. In this podcast, having some kind of income will really help it make a priority for him. The same thing is gonna be true for me. As I look to graduate in the next year or so, I'm trying to decide what career I wanna have in my future. We would both love for this podcast to become less of a hobby and more of a career, and that would let us dedicate more time to making content and interacting with you guys.
Melissa:It also help us keep all of our chemistry content open access and free of charge for anyone who wants to learn about chemistry no matter what resources they have.
Jam:And one way that we've come up with to do that is by making a Kofi Gold. So a few people have actually asked us about something like this. It's similar to Patreon, But, essentially, you can subscribe monthly at any amount, even $1, and you'll get special perks for doing so. Melissa and I don't wanna put any chemistry content behind a paywall, but we will do some special non chemistry content with our Ko fi Gold subscribers, Such as give bonus icebreaker episodes or even a live Zoom q and r. And starting now until the end of May, if you subscribe be a monthly supporter on our COFA Gold at any amount, Melissa and I will send you a custom sticker and a handwritten note in the mail to say thank you.
Jam:No matter where you are in the world, we will send it to you. We're going to try to do a little something special with our COFIN Gold members a few times a year so the fun will just keep on happening.
Melissa:To support our show and get your sticker, go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life. Subscribe monthly at Any amount and send us a private message on with your mailing address so that we can mail you your note and sticker. We are so excited to do this.
Jam:Thank you guys so much for listening and for your support. We literally could not have the show without you. And now on to today's episode.
Melissa: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 that helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. Bonus edition.
Melissa:That was the first time I've ever done our intro without reading it.
Jam:Woah. Really?
Melissa:Yeah. I just happened to not have it pulled up, so I just went free freestyle.
Jam:That's crazy. I don't think I ever read the intro. Just the outro.
Melissa:I always read it. Well, Jam, it's chemistry question time.
Jam:Oh, yes. It's been too long. We didn't do one last month.
Melissa:Thank you. Of the Texas freeze.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Weird to think about that because now it is warm in Texas. It is getting up to almost 80 degrees today.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. It's very, very warm. And just just a little bit ago, it was very, very not.
Jam:So
Melissa:Too weird.
Jam:Like Amarillo right now, I think, or somewhere up in the panhandle got some weird super cold weather last night. I don't know if you're
Melissa:aware of that. Kinda cool.
Jam:Yeah. Very strange. Texas is a weird place, guys.
Melissa:It really is. Well, I'm gonna say this. I posted a little Instagram Story where I asked if anyone wanted to drop their questions, and we got a ton of responses. Nice. They were all really fun.
Melissa:We got questions like, what's air fryer chemistry, food packing chemistry? How does dye work? How do reusable notebooks work? Why is chocolate delicious? Why does iron turn wood black?
Melissa:What's polymer clay? How does paint stick to things? It was amazing.
Jam:Wow. That is a lot. Those are some of them sound like good episode ideas rather than just Questions.
Melissa:Yeah. That's kind of a problem. So even though we got all those and they're really good, I'm adding them all to our episode idea list, and only A few of them will be answered in our q and r today because we try to keep q and r's less complicated, but I loved those responses. And keep them up, and I'm going to Definitely add them in.
Jam:Nice. Very cool.
Melissa:Also, what is air fryer chemistry? You know what I'm saying? That one got me. I was thinking, I have no idea. That's don't even know how an air fryer works a little bit.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. I've experienced them when my roommates had 1, and I probably would have never been interested in them before that. But I started using it some, and then I don't live with that roommate anymore. And now I'm like, man, actually, I kinda miss having an air fryer.
Jam:It's kinda cool. It's, like, easy and, yeah, it does seem a little bit magical, so I can see why that person asked about it.
Melissa:That Yeah. That was a good question.
Jam:I'm curious too. Well, are you ready for the questions that we can talk about now that aren't just a good Episode ideas that we can't do till later?
Melissa:Yeah. Let's do them.
Jam:Okay. This first question is from Jessica p. It's a it's a heavy hitter. Okay? How are you guys?
Melissa:I love that question. Thanks, Jessica. I asked her if she wanted to know specifics about how we're doing or just in general. She said just in general. She wanted to know how we're doing.
Jam:Okay. Nice.
Melissa:I'd say I'm doing pretty good, actually. Thanks for asking, Jessica. I got my COVID shot, which you'll hear about as a happy thing for a week soon. Mhmm. But I got my COVID shot, so that was exciting.
Melissa:I've started roller skating instead of ice skating, which Instead of ice skating, which I love ice skating, but this is a really good stand in. I feel like it's been helping me at work. Things are just going really well all around. I think I'm in a in a lighthearted stage the last few weeks, and I hope it kinda lasts for a little while.
Jam:Nice. I'd also say I'm doing pretty good. I think coming off the heels of Some stressful stuff I was ready to be done with, like moving, just, you know, everybody knows, not super fun. Yeah. And so I think I'm still feeling like, You know, we're not a 100% settled yet.
Jam:We still got stuff to do and things to unpack and sort through and stuff. And so That is kinda stressful and not super fun, but it's getting easier. With everything, we cross off the list, so that's good. And I'm in, like, the 3rd month of my new part time job, which I've talked about a couple times working for our church. And so that's been really cool.
Jam:I've enjoyed that a lot. It's certainly been different, but I think, Been really good, and I feel like I'm getting more used to that. So that's cliff notes of how I'm doing.
Melissa:I do think it also feels light in some ways because it feels like the insanity of COVID is maybe with the widespread use of vaccines and people's Wearing masks and stuff, maybe it's starting to recede a little, and maybe we're starting to get a handle on things.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So that feels pretty good. Thanks, science.
Jam:Yes. Thanks, that oh, I also got my 1st dose vaccine, which I talked about a couple weeks ago. But So Melissa and I are both half vaccinated, which is cool.
Melissa:Yeah. And we're hoping to maybe record in person again someday.
Jam:Mhmm. Wouldn't that be awesome?
Melissa:Is Insane to think about. I don't even know how to do that anymore. So our next question isn't really a question. It's just a fun fact From a friend of the show, Pedro, he worked in a job where there was a lot of firearms. And if they had excess gunpowder, they had to burn it out.
Melissa:And so he was confirming for me that if you light gunpowder on fire, it just fizzles out. It doesn't explode because we talked about that in the episode Fireworks.
Jam:Right. Okay. Cool. Cool. Nice.
Melissa:There's actually another update similar to that. I talked about how it seems crazy to me that household chemicals doesn't don't have a requirement that on their labels, it has to disclose what's inside them.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:So my brother told me, actually, that he used to have I don't remember what it was, but some Chemical container that on the ingredients label, it said chemicals partially unknown, and he saved it for a long time because It was so insane to him that they would publish that there were chemicals partially unknown.
Jam:What the heck? That is very weird.
Melissa:Know. So those were some of my fun updates.
Jam:Interesting. Okay. This next one's from John d. Regarding the dog breath episode, like, we talked about seeing our dog's breath when it's cold outside. Yeah.
Jam:As pilots, we learned before we're licensed that when dew point and temperature are close together, clouds form. Isn't dog breath a cloud which can quickly disperse depending on ambient conditions?
Melissa:So I would think, yes, that probably the way we visualize our breath, both dog breath and when we breathe out and can see it in cold air, is very similar to way that we are visual clouds vapor. I think that's a good way to think about it, and I didn't talk about it from the Perspective of dew point, humidity, I wanted to talk about it from the molecular level of when we're breathing out these molecules, there's not enough space for them to be dispersed in the air as gas, so they hang his vapor or mist for a moment, and then they're dispersed away. But I think that this is a good way of thinking about it. It's Like a tiny cloud in front of your face that then disperses quickly. Also, very cool that your pilot John, there's so much I don't understand about how plane works how planes work.
Melissa:So Yeah. If you've got any other fun facts for us, hit us up.
Jam:Absolutely. This next one is from Estee, and she said regarding the CABG chemistry at home experiment, that made me wonder, when we eat food, Does it turn different colors in our stomach? That is fun.
Melissa:So what she was talking about was when Jam did the chemistry at home episode, and he blended up Cabbage juice and porter and a bunch of different things. And honestly, Estee, I don't know, but I hope it does. Estee is a chemist too, so I think She just has that curiosity, that scientific mindset. But I don't know what happens to the food inside of our stomachs, but I kind of hope that it does change colors. I think the only people who would probably know that would be coroners who do autopsies and see the contents of our stomach, and I don't Know that I really want confirmation from them.
Melissa:Mhmm. So Yeah. This is kinda fun to think about.
Jam:I guess you have, like, gotta have, like, stomach surgery or Have your stomach pumped? Yeah. Pumped during a colonoscopy, you'd see some of that. Right?
Melissa:I don't know, but the lighting in there would be kinda weird.
Jam:Yeah. That's true. Okay. This next one's from doctor Moon. Dark hair has more melanin, which is a sunscreen.
Jam:That's the reason why blonde hair bleaches more than darker hair.
Melissa:That is very interesting. Doctor Moon sent us a lot Little voice messages, and they're really fun to listen to. And so I just wanted to include this tidbit. She does a lot creates a lot of content materials, so Go check out her Instagram, doctor Kristen Moon. We love her.
Melissa:And I thought that that was good to know because we did talk about not knowing why bleach Blonde hair was more bleached by the sun or not. And so I guess melanin can absorb the UV rays without taking on any damage.
Jam:Nice. Interesting.
Melissa:Oh, and I also remembered something that I wanted to add in from The episode about dryer sheets, and that is I think its 7th generation has a dryer sheet that's made of paper.
Jam:Oh, cool.
Melissa:So that's exciting. Yeah. It is not recyclable because for a good smell, they put essential oils on it, but you could compost it and have a compost. So if you're someone who has a compost, who really loves dryer sheets? Who doesn't wanna get rid of them but hates plastic?
Melissa:You could use a paper dryer sheet and then compost it.
Jam:And even so, wouldn't that be a little better in a landfill than a plastic sheet, basically? You had to
Melissa:Probably so. Yeah. Darn it. Know.
Jam:Yeah. For sure. This next one is from Nicole p, the question we've all been wondering and asking for a long time. How long has Melissa been in school?
Melissa:Nicole, when I read this, I laughed out loud. And then I immediately thought of that Sandlot scene. I don't know if this generation has seen Sandlot, but where the guy says forever. And then I thought of that that gift from Titanic where it's Rose, and she says, It's been 84 years. That's that's where I'm at in school.
Melissa:No. I've been in school for a long time. If we don't count elementary and high school, we'll start in college. Mhmm. So I spent 4 years in college, and then I spent 2 years doing an internship with my church, so I was taking classes, but not for credit.
Melissa:So those are iffy.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. And
Melissa:then I spent 3 years getting my master's. I was originally going for a PhD and switched over, so it took longer than masters normally do. It was a great Choice. I'm really glad, actually, that I did that. It worked out really well in the end.
Melissa:And then I've been in my Current PhD program for 3 more years, so that puts me at 12, and I think it'll be one more. So by the time I graduate, I'll have spent Roughly 13 years as a student beyond high school.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:But 2 of those You know, it could be 11 years of formal education beyond high school.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:I've been a student for close to half of my life.
Jam:I
Melissa:mean, I guess if you talk about I've been a chemistry student for more than a third of my life.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And if we're talking school at all, I've been in school for more than 20 years, more than 25, I think. Wow. So a lot. I've been in school for a long time, and that's why it made me laugh out loud, Nicole. But there is an end in sight.
Melissa:My current program is getting to the point where we're almost finished collecting data, and I just have to write up my dissertation, and I think it will only be about 1 more year. It could be a year and a half, but it's definitely close. I definitely will be out of school by the end of 2022.
Jam:Nice. The end is in sight, everyone.
Melissa:Very exciting. And then you'll be able to call me doctor Colleen, hopefully, unless something goes terribly wrong.
Jam:Okay. This is a fun one. From Carol the English coach, who is your favorite Avatar character?
Melissa:Okay. I think my favorite Avatar character is Appa. Nice.
Jam:I was super worried you're gonna say the one was gonna say and I was gonna be kinda mad because you haven't finished it yet, and then I was
Melissa:gonna feel
Jam:a little bit like, that's not fair. But you said, which
Melissa:is okay. Okay. What were you gonna say?
Jam:I was gonna say uncle Iroh.
Melissa:Oh, he's good.
Jam:Yeah. He's awesome, dude. So cool.
Melissa:He is really good. He seems like a just kind of a silly old man, but he is really hardcore, actually.
Jam:Totally. And, like, had that whole warrior passed and became a much more kind of peaceful person, but is still very capable and so wise and sticks with his nephew and guides him and stuff.
Melissa:Even when his nephew doesn't deserve it.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah. Dude, it's he's great. He I only liked him more and more as things went on.
Jam:I I remember kind of being Like, not totally getting him at first because there there'd be some kinda silly things he'd do, and I wasn't really sure. Is he meant to just be comedic value, or what's he doing? And his value as, like, a wise, you know, presence for Zuko became way more obvious. So I think he's one of my Babes.
Melissa:What's the brother's name? Sokka. Blanked. Sokka. Okay.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I do love the uncle. Sokka is probably my least favorite character, but I do appreciate that in the very 1st episode, they acknowledge that he's a misogynist, which is advanced for a kids' show.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:In the very 1st episode, he says some Stupid thing. And his sister says, you're misogynistic and all these other things, and I was pretty impressed because He really kind of is, but he grows over time.
Jam:Yeah. He's not my favorite either, for sure.
Melissa:So If you love Avatar, you could write in and tell us who your favorite character is.
Jam:Yes. Please do.
Melissa:And that question was from Carol, the English coach. She has a podcast and an Instagram where she teaches English, and she has the most soothing voice. So definitely go check Yeah.
Jam:And
Melissa:I really like her content. And she does chemistry stuff. She does all kinds of stuff. I really appreciate her Instagram.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. It's a lot of variety. Yeah.
Jam:Mhmm. But all all with the thread of of teaching how to speak English and pronounce certain words, know how they're used, and And it's another slang too, which is cool. So Yeah. Okay. This next one's from Harry b.
Jam:He asks, what's our favorite plant?
Melissa:That's like trying to choose between my children. It's pretty rough.
Jam:I was gonna say, Yeah.
Melissa:I think I have to say this one. So I have a lot of plants that I really love, but there's one kind of rare variety called Haworthia The, coupere that I have.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Or coupere. I think it's coupere. And I it was my 1st succulent. Somebody gave it to me because they were leaving UNT, and they didn't wanna deal with it. And I took it, and that's how I became a plant person.
Melissa:And I was worried because I'd repotted it, and it wasn't doing well, but it was when my mom was really sick.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I literally looked at it 1 morning and said, I know you need help, but I can't help you right now. So please just stay alive while I deal with What's going on in my life right now, and I'll fix you later. Uh-huh. I said that's my plan because I speak to them. And then I drove away, and I was buying groceries for my parents at that time and because they had so much going on.
Melissa:You know? And while I was at Kroger in their town, I found That exact variety of plant on clearance, which is very it's a very, very rare plant.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It was left over from Valentine's Day. It was on clearance for, like, $3.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:And I sort of took it as a sign that everything was gonna be okay. And I brought it home with me, and it flowered, and it's thriving. And it also happened that day. Something really hard happened with my mom, when she's Battling With Cancer. And so it sort of made me feel like everything was gonna be okay even though it was really hard
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That day. So that's a little special plant that I have is very special to my heart, and it's really cute also. So I'll take a picture of it and post it. But I have a lot of other plants that I love, and all my plants have fun origin stories or have been gifts to me. And so I can spam you guys with plant pictures on Instagram if you want.
Jam:That's a good answer. I do not have that given answer at all. Oh, maybe I should have let you go first. It's okay. I like yours.
Jam:I'd rather know it and then go into mine and just know that it's not gonna be as good. You know what I mean? So I have always loved ivy type of plants ever since I was a kid. I think mostly because my grandmother had a lot of those, and she was totally, like, an amazing she had an amazing green thumb. She was the person that people would dump their plants and be like, please, can you breathe back to life?
Jam:Or can you help this not be, like, yeah, on the verge of death? And so and she loved doing that. She always had so many plants, but she had just a lot of room for them, and none of them looked bad. It was kinda amazing. And she had a really Cool porch too.
Jam:So when the season was right, she had, like, tons of plants out there that were able to be in the, you know, outside, but not in the direct sunlight and stuff. But, I've I was associated, like, different ivy type of plants with her, and so one of my favorites is English ivy, because it's green all year round. And I even tried to plant that in our 1st house. Mhmm. Our rental house twice.
Jam:Two 2 different times I heard of plant it, and it would not take the 2nd time was because a well meaning friend accidentally weed eated it while he was Just being nice and
Melissa:Aw.
Jam:Taking care of our yards or or that was the 1st or second. I can't remember if it's 1st or 2nd time I planted it. But, so that was a bummer, but then the house I lived in after that, the 2nd house I lived in, had tons of English ivy already. And I was like
Melissa:I love that.
Jam:All about it. It was everywhere. It was awesome. And then the house we live in now that we just moved into last month has Also English savvy. Not as much, but it already has some.
Jam:And so I'm like, okay. Sweet. These next houses, I already have it. I don't have to plant it. Yeah.
Jam:It's good to enjoy its presence. So I truly like it. It kinda makes these walls of, like, green. It's a nice, like, dark green color, and I just like it.
Melissa:That's really sweet. I didn't know that you felt that way about English ivy. I was gonna guess your favorite was Pothos.
Jam:Oh, nice. I also do associate with that with my grandmother, but, Yeah. I like, yeah, I like them both.
Melissa:That's sweet. I like that. I like the nostalgia there.
Jam:Mhmm. This last question comes from at run offert on Instagram. No idea. Sorry if I'm totally botching that. Any more merchandise coming?
Jam:Really enjoyed the 1st set. Good question. No. There's not gonna no more merchandise. Just kidding.
Melissa:So I think our plan right now is to have another merch run-in the summer.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. I think
Melissa:we're generally gonna do one somewhere around summer and somewhere around The holiday season
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Every year is kind of our plan for now until we until we have enough consistent demand to just have a shop open year round. But as of right now, I think it makes the most sense to do sort of batches of merch.
Jam:Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:And then also we talked about this a little at the top of the show, but right now, if you go subscribe at TOBARCOFI Gold, We are giving away stickers designed by local artist Nikki Newell of Thimble and Brush Co. So you can check her out on Instagram. And she's the same person who made our chemistry chemistry chemistry sweatshirts at Christmas time. So she's a local artist that we love to work with.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:She's making some stickers for us to send out for anyone who subscribes to our Ko fi Gold. That's our merch update as of right now.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Speaking of Ko fi, there are a few people that we wanna give shout outs to. But before I do that, wanted to let you guys know, after popular demand, I finally started to make practice problem videos and put I'm on YouTube. So this is not chemistry free life type content at all. Mhmm. This is Videos that I make for my students in my class, I have a YouTube channel where I just make videos of me solving practice problems for them of my class material.
Melissa:So it's just literally me running through organic chemistry practice problems, and I've started posting those on our chemistry for YouTube as well. So if you enjoy listening to me talk about chemistry and you're one of the people who's asked for some videos about Traditional organic chemistry practice problem stuff, I have some on there. It's not the best content we've ever made, but A lot of people asked for it, so I just figured I would also
Jam:share those videos on our YouTube page as well. Nice. And so since last time we were able to do some Ko fi shout out, we've had 4 people donate a cup of coffee To Melissa and I, which is just our way of saying, they've given a little bit of dollars to help us keep the show going. And so we wanna thank Chris p, Cassie, Maria p, and Devin g, thank you guys so much for being generous and for Helping keep the show going. We could not do this without you guys, and you guys help us keep the show going and keep the chemistry content free For anyone to listen to and learn about chemistry.
Melissa:Thank you guys so much for supporting us on Cofi, and thank you guys For listening, for all of our listeners, we literally cannot have this show without you. And it's so fun to hear your questions and interact with you. The more I hear from our listeners, the happier I am, and the more I know that we are actually reaching people. And I'm getting to live out my science communication dreams, and you guys are making my dreams come true. So thank you so much.
Jam:Yes. Thank you guys so much. This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by and we'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.
