Bonus: How do candy colors not mix? (and other questions)
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist. And I'm not. And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast that helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Bonus edition. There we go.
Jam:I had kinda forgotten. That was perfect situation. You stepped right in.
Melissa:I had a feeling I had a feeling you weren't gonna Be on top of it. Okay. I'm so excited to read some questions. I always love bonus editions because it just feels like we get to chat about science.
Jam:Absolutely. And as always, if you guys had not heard this before and had wondered kind of how these episodes work, it's that you guys send us some questions.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:We try to group them together. And if you send us 1 right after this, we'll try to hold on to it and hang on to it until the next question and response.
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:And the questions can be about chemistry, and they also could be about anything else if you want. If you wanted to ask us something that I think we're gonna have some of those today that aren't necessarily chemistry related, then it is okay. We have room in these episodes for For some kinda icebreaker, get to know you questions. So let's get going. Are you ready
Melissa:Get To it.
Jam:For your first question, which is worth $100.
Melissa:I'm ready.
Jam:Why does red fabric Turn dark red when it's being heated, but other fabrics don't. This is from 2 different people.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:One named Randy and another one named Anne.
Melissa:Yeah. What are the chances someone messaged us this and replied to our q and r, like, weeks apart?
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:So I got this question while I was sitting at a table with 2 other chemists, and we had a long conversation about it. And we read a few unofficial sources that said something like the moisture is being removed, and so then the concentration of the dye is higher, but that Doesn't seem right to me.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:So as we were kind of discussing it, what we decided was all molecules, you know, absorb energy and then re Emit that energy. Uh-huh. So they take energy in and then they put it back out. Mhmm. And sometimes that's in the form of heat or light or whatever.
Melissa:In this case, I think there's something happening when the dye absorbs the energy from the heat, and this particular type of dye must have some visual impact when it reemits the heat. So as it's cooling, it's reemitting the energy
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And it goes back to a normal state.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:And that to me sounds like we are visually seeing something change in the excited electrons.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So that was a great question, and that was the best thing I could come up with. There's no official Nothing official on it. Yeah. Yeah. But that's what me and the 2 other chemists I was sitting with think is the best Answer.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So
Jam:Cool. Interesting. This next question is from a listener of ours named Bobby who is a pharmacist, And he said, for the onions episode, I heard that another way to prevent your eyes from watering when cutting onions is to use a sharp knife Because it causes less trauma to the onion.
Melissa:Yeah. I think that makes sense. A lot of the things I heard like, oh, you take out the core of the onion. Well, that would only make sense if there's more of that enzyme concentrated there on the core, which I'm not sure there is. That just seems like you're wasting.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But the enzyme is released. The reaction starts to happen when The onion feels the the hurt. You know? When the cells are damaged, that's when it happens. So if you're damaging less sells by using a really sharp knife.
Melissa:That makes sense to me. Oh, yeah. But dunking it in water, just having a bowl ready to go where I throw my chopped onions has worked great
Jam:Each half in hot water after I cut it in half.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:I don't know why that works so well, but it's like, I haven't tried any of the other things that we've kinda heard about because The rinsing in hot water after I've cut it in half has worked great.
Melissa:So It probably just quenches the reaction. Yeah. Who knows?
Jam:Who knows? But anything to keep me from crying
Melissa:Amen.
Jam:Involuntarily. This next question is more of a comment, also from Bobby, the pharmacist. He said, you mentioned that the way soap works is that it has a both polar and nonpolar activity. This allows it to attach to a dirt particle whether it is water based or oil based. One thing I would add is that soap also lowers the surface tension of water.
Jam:This allows the soap to penetrate into the deeper layers of your skin, like the tiny ridges of skin and folds in your hand. This allows the mechanical process of washing to remove the dirt. Furthermore, just a fun fact, in pharmacy, we use Surfactants as medicine is the active ingredient in over the counter stool softeners. They work by drawing water from your intestine to your stool making it softer.
Melissa:That is really those are interesting fun facts. I did not know that about the stool softener. Mhmm. And the soap Breaking the surface tension of the water makes sense because they have to interact with each other Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:To get that surface tension. The water molecules have to interact with itself, Other water molecules to be able to get that surface tension. So if there's something in there breaking it up, that makes sense to me. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:I thought that was interesting.
Jam:Yeah. That was interesting.
Melissa:Pharmacist Bobby had a lot of different ideas or comments that he shared, but I really wanted to save some of them for later because there's so many.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:You might be hearing some of his thoughts come up in later episodes as well. But One thing I did wanna address is he asked about the definition I use about organic chemistry. So the definition I say generally of organic chemistry is It's a study of compounds that contain carbon, and he thought that didn't feel quite right because there are some carbon containing molecules that don't seem organic to him Uh-huh. Like, carbon dioxide. And I wanted to address this because I've heard that also on Wikipedia.
Melissa:They have some A definition of organic chemistry that excludes certain molecules. But, really, the definition I use is the one from my organic chemistry textbook And the one from the American Chemical Society, and it is word for word the study of the structure, properties, composition, reaction, and preparation of carbon containing compounds. And then they go on to say that most carbon containing compounds have hydrogen and other elements, but they don't have to. And originally, organic chemistry was just they just studied compounds of living organisms. Mhmm.
Melissa:But now we've broadened it to include even manmade substances that contain carbon.
Jam:I see.
Melissa:And so I kinda wanted to say, I know this comes up as things don't feel organic, and Maybe there's a gray area that you could try to argue. You know, I had a conversation with some other chemist, and they're like, I could kind of see arguing some things like the simple salts that are carbonates or Oxides or whatever not being organic molecules. But by definition, if they have carbon in them, they fall under that category. Mhmm.
Jam:And
Melissa:that is how I see them because we use things like carbon dioxide in our classrooms. And Yeah. Carbon dioxide is dry ice, so that doesn't feel like an organic molecule, but We use that in the organic chemistry lab. You know? So that's just something I wanted to touch on is it is really all about the reactions of carbon containing molecules, and that's where I got those definitions from.
Melissa:And I try to be really precise. I mean, sometimes, you know, I'll Say, I'm gonna kinda take a guess or I'm not positive, but I always try to let you guys know when I do that. So Mhmm. I try to be really precise in my definitions and not go into those great areas because, you know, that's not really what the textbook says. And I wanna be true to the definition of chemistry and give you the best Lesson about chemistry that I can give you.
Jam:Right. That makes sense. And I think that's interesting too because I guess in some way, as a layperson, that Definition of organic chemistry seems really a lot more broad than I would've normally expected.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:But it is interesting that that's probably been that way for a long time. Like, Those kinda distinctions, the different kinds of chemistry are probably not new and have been been kinda set for Earl. A long time.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But we obviously now have weird associations with the word organic which is so hard just as a regular old dude who Advise organic milk or whatever. It's like, alright. I gotta change my view these as totally different words for a little bit. But, Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. And I think there is a lot of overlap too. You know? There are some plastics that are carbon based, so you could call those organic molecules. But a polymer chemist would say, no.
Melissa:Plastics are polymers, and they'd be right too. So there are some gray areas here, but I just wanted you guys to know that definition I use is As accurate as it can be. That's where I that's what I try to aim for in all of these all of these episodes. And I really try to find references that are from peer reviewed journals and that are trustworthy sources so that I know that I'm giving you guys the best and most accurate information possible. And If there's a topic that doesn't have really good references, I don't do it because I don't feel comfortable teaching something that I don't know for sure is right.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Or I guess that I don't know for sure is the best definition that we have for it right now. You know? We've talked about chemistry expands on itself. Something could seem right at the time, and then we find out more information. But I'm gonna try to give you the best information I can find right now.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. This next question is from Melania, and she asks, how do hard candies Keep their separate colors and not get mixed.
Melissa:Okay. So what Melania is talking about is those hard candies, like, you might see the ribbon candies or we always watch This YouTube channel about Hercules candies where they make that old school kinda candy.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And they'll have stripes of other colors, But they don't have it's not like the red and white mixed together and make pink in a candy cane.
Jam:Oh, I see what you're saying. Gotcha.
Melissa:Right. So she asked how they keep the separate colors, and what I think is that it's the chemical idea behind this is the heterogeneous versus homogeneous mixture. So a heterogeneous mixture has different amounts of things mixed in at different points, and homogeneous is the same all the way through. So if you mixed Red and white together and mixed it to the point that it was a perfectly homogeneous mixture, all through that, you'd have the pink. And the same amount of red and white would be everywhere making it pink.
Melissa:But if you don't mix it thoroughly and it's something that can kind of keep its molecules together like candy because it's sticky
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It's got a lot of intermolecular forces. You'll get a heterogeneous mixture. So some parts will have more of 1 color and other parts will have more of another.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:The quintessential example of that in chemistry textbooks is, peas and carrots. There'll be more peas in 1 spoonful and more carrots in the other, And that's a heterogeneous mixture.
Jam:Oh, I see. Okay.
Melissa:I could just picture the peas and carrots in my gen chem Yeah. Textbook.
Jam:So Interesting.
Melissa:And then a homogeneous mixture would be something that's perfectly, equally all the way through. Everything's mixed in well together. Yeah. Can't think of one of those off the top of my head. The peas and carrots example really stuck.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Okay. So this next question is from Steven, and he asks, egg proteins. If both the uncooked and cooked egg has the same molecules and is held together by the same IMFs. Remember that? Molecular forces?
Jam:Nice. Nice. Impossible missions force. IMFs, why doesn't the egg revert to its uncooked form when the heat goes away? Is this an example of denatured protein
Melissa:that you've referred to recently? So the denatured protein is when the proteins, they're all balled up, and then Because of heat or something else, the bonds that hold them, the intermolecular forces or the bonds within the molecule that hold The protein all balled up start to break and they stretch out. So I think when we talked about this, We talked about the Christmas lights, when you put all your Christmas lights in a tub or all your wires in a tub. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And if they're all balled up, They are they're nice and organized, and you can grab out 1 wire and then grab out another wire, and they're not gonna really mess with each other. Yeah. But once they've come unfurled and they're no longer in their nice, neat coils
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They'll interact with each other and get really tangled up, and then you pull out a whole mass some wires instead of just 1.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So that's what happens when you cook the egg.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:The denatured protein is the uncurled wires, the ones that aren't, and they're nice, neat coils.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But the reason it doesn't revert to its uncooked form after the heat goes away is so when they, you know, spread out and start interacting with other proteins that are also denatured, new bonds form to hold them together. The new Big massive wires is all together. Yeah. And to revert it back to its original form, you'd have to put more energy in to Separate all those bonds, break the bonds that are holding the the uncurled proteins together, and then you'd have to figure out how to perfectly fold them back the way that they started, And that's not really possible.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So you really need more energy to reverse that reaction. Uh-huh. So it's not gonna change just because the heat goes away.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:And as humans, it's very difficult for us to know how to fold proteins back. So that's why it doesn't revert to a non cook form. That was a great question, Steven.
Jam:That is a good question. Dang.
Melissa:I never would have thought of that.
Jam:This next question is from Chelsea, and she asks, why does water pool around my salt lamp? And does this mean that it's slowly dissolving?
Melissa:Okay. So I think I had to ask some questions. I think a salt lamp is that big literal chunk of salt with a light in the middle of it.
Jam:Oh, okay.
Melissa:And so I had some questions like, is the Salt cooler than the surrounding areas. Is it very humid? Etcetera. And here's what I came up with. I did not look this up.
Melissa:My guess is that salt raises the boiling point. That's not a guess. That's a fact.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Salt does raise the boiling point, which means it also Raises the condensation point, I think. So I think it would more easily condense on the salt. And then if it condenses on the salt and is rolling down and pooling around the base of it, then your salt lamp might be dissolving slowly.
Jam:Oh, I see.
Melissa:Also, if the salt lamp is just cooler than the surrounding area, sometimes, you know, like, if you feel something metal, it's cooler than everything else in your house or whatever. Uh-huh. If it has that same thing where it's a little bit cooler, maybe it is also causing the water to condense and pool around the base of your salt lamp.
Jam:Mhmm. Those
Melissa:are the only 2 things I could think. I know nothing about salt lamps. I had to look up what it was. Yeah. Thanks.
Melissa:And so that was my best guess based on knowing about salt And not knowing about why what conditions would cause it to pull at the base. I would think it would need to pull on the salt itself. Mhmm. Or, like, beat up on the salt itself. So investigate, see if it's beating up on the salt itself, kinda check it out, and then let us know.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting.
Melissa:Chelsea also shared that she thought of an analogy for the bacteria involved in making cheese. Her idea
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Was that the bacteria is like a vending machine, and the money is lactose, And the vending machine turns your money into something positive like a snack or a drink, the lactic acid. So the bacteria is the vending machine that turns your money into Something positive.
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:That was a pretty good one.
Jam:I like that a lot.
Melissa:We also have one more exciting thing for Chelsea today.
Jam:Oh, yeah?
Melissa:And that is to let Chelsea know that she's the big winner of our 100th episode giveaway, and Chelsea gets To read the end credits for an episode of chemistry for your life.
Jam:Yes. So, Chelsea, when you hear this, make sure to reach out to us, and we'll get that Go in and and figure out how to do that with you.
Melissa:And we are so excited. Chelsea's been with us since for a long time. I think since the beginning, she reaches out Yeah. On Instagram a lot, shares a lot of thoughts and questions, and so that was really exciting to get to share that with you.
Jam:Totally. Yes. Congrats, Chelsea. Okay. We've got some of the kind of not as chemistry y Fun questions to wrap up.
Melissa:Lay them on me.
Jam:This first one is from Samantha, and she asks, what is your favorite animal? And what's funny, Samantha, is we got this question about I don't know how long ago. It was maybe about a year plus ago. It was Our 65th episode, or or, like, whatever the q and r was near there.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But I thought we could see if anything's changed.
Melissa:Well, I don't think I don't know what I said last time. Uh-huh. But when I read this question this time, I turned to my husband Mason and said, What's my favorite animal?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then he started talking about his favorite animal, so I don't know. I I like penguins. I think they're cute and fun and funny, and they are on the ice.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:I think deer are pretty majestic.
Jam:Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:Kinda crazy. But, honestly, like, my favorite animal is probably my plants.
Jam:Well, you're a scientist, and you know that that's not an animal.
Melissa:I also like birds a lot. I've been noticing the cardinals and the Climbing birds around my house a lot more ever since my mom passed away. So that probably is really are birds animals?
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:Okay. Yeah. I don't really remember what all falls into the purview of animal, but that probably isn't my real answer as I notice birds all the time because they make me think of my mom Ever since he passed away. That's probably my real answer.
Jam:That's a good answer. The answer I gave last time, I remember, is a peregrine, type of falcon that's, like, long been one of my favorite animals.
Melissa:Why?
Jam:Because I think I said this last time, but because they're the fastest animal
Melissa:Oh, yeah.
Jam:Period. They kinda cheat because they dive bomb. Kill and eat and stuff. But
Melissa:Is that still your answer?
Jam:I think it still is, but I thought I might try to dig down deep and come up with a second favorite.
Melissa:Okay.
Jam:That would be lower than a Peregrine Just to give another answer. So I think if I had to pick a second favorite animal, it hasn't really been one I've been fascinated with or interested in in for, like, a long time. But I have seen them in person in their habitat, and that made me Kind of suddenly more interested in them, and that is elephants. Woah. I just realized when Looking at them and watching them do their thing, that they are super interesting and very different from other animals.
Jam:There's not really anything else like them.
Melissa:Also, I've never seen an elephant in its natural habitat. Yeah. But on the TV shows, when they step, It's always like the boom.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And I was listening recently to a podcast about audio engineering, I guess, and they said That actually elephants are very quiet when they move, and that's an engineered sound. Would you agree?
Jam:Yeah. I mean, I I definitely heard, like, Hard hoofed animals way more.
Melissa:That's They're soft?
Jam:Yeah. So and elephants aren't moving super fast, at least not when I was around them, but, Obviously, they can. Maybe they'd be loud in that situation if they were, like, running.
Melissa:Or running. Yeah.
Jam:But just watching them, like, use their trunks in these really interesting ways. There's nothing no other animal has a trunk like that.
Melissa:And they're pretty cute.
Jam:Yeah. And their ears are massive and really flappy Yeah. And stuff. There's all these things that are, like, just so fascinating about them.
Melissa:So And they're, like, really friends with each other. Right? Like, they really stick to each to each other?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're they can become Yeah. They have their times when they become troubled and are not welcome in the group.
Melissa:Dang. That's crazy.
Jam:There's interesting things about how how they work. I know, like, lots of animals are probably like that, but,
Melissa:yeah. A good one. That's a good second favorite.
Jam:And lastly, I think probably a lot of people have heard this fact, but I think it's so true that elephants are the only animal that have 4 knees.
Melissa:We hear.
Jam:Mhmm. So think about a lot of other animals that are on 4 legs. Their back legs bend the opposite direction and aren't really, like, a knee in the same way. Woah. But elephants, all their legs been the same direction and are have a knee to them.
Melissa:Dude, that's crazy. Ain't that weird? You just blew my mind. Thanks for that question, Samantha, because I never would've all that about elephants otherwise.
Jam:But that I mean, you might need to fact check some of that stuff. You know? Who knows? That's just Who knows? Yeah.
Jam:Okay. This next question is from Melanie. She asks, what's your favorite chemistry memory?
Melissa:Melanie, that's a hard one because I have so many chemistry memories. But the ones that came to mind was in high school, I had miss Molisch. She's my high school chemistry teacher, and she helped us do really cool things. But before I was in her class, my friend, Brenlin, showed me a lot of the cool stuff that they did.
Jam:Oh, nice.
Melissa:And that's what made me wanna take the class.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And then also, I, I also really enjoyed doing research. Just seeing things change colors and that I made something new out of Something else new is really fun. I think starting this podcast is one of my favorite chemistry memories
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And getting my master's degree.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Those are all pretty big ones. I don't know. Chemistry memory is so vague because so much of my life is chemistry. You know?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Think those are some of my favorites. What about you, Jim?
Jam:So I certainly have fewer chemistry memories than you, so maybe it's a little bit easier to pick. But one of the first ones that came to mind for me, which gives gives me some wiggle room in case I think of another one I like later Mhmm. Is I've talked a few times about my high school chemistry teacher, miss Pittard. Mhmm. She was great.
Jam:I really enjoyed her class, And I ended up becoming her teacher's aide my senior year
Melissa:Nice.
Jam:There, and I got to help her Log everything that was in her, like, chemical closet storage closet thing
Melissa:Nice.
Jam:And log the amounts of them of what was all there so she could know what to, you know, need to order for the next year and stuff. And I just was it was so interesting to see just how many Chemicals she had
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:For all these different things, including things that are, like, cool that you don't really come by naturally, like mercury.
Melissa:Yeah. She
Jam:had some safely stored mercury that I got to look at, and and that was just very interesting. So
Melissa:Yeah. A lot of
Jam:fond memories of my high school chemistry class
Melissa:and That's a good one.
Jam:Miss Pitterd. So, miss Pitterd, this is for you. I'm raising my coffee mug for you.
Melissa:Miss Bitterd and all the chemistry high school chemistry teachers out there that let you do really fun stuff like that.
Jam:Yeah. Yep. Our last question for this month is from Harry b, And he's one of our most regular, fun, kind of icebreaker y question
Melissa:Yeah. Listeners. A lot of this.
Jam:But thanks for this one, Harry. It is just, what is your favorite random fact?
Melissa:Well, Harry, my favorite random fact is all of this podcast. We basically started this podcast because I wanted to tell everyone all of the random facts, especially the margarine versus butter one. I don't know. There's not a lot of other random facts that I know that I'd haven't told you guys about.
Jam:Man. This is a tough question. Well, I guess I used it a little bit too early, but my one of my favorite random facts is that the the elephants are the only animal that have 4 knees. So I just said it a little too soon, but I kinda want that to be my answer because I can't think of anything else, and I've definitely used that random fact many times.
Melissa:Yeah. So That's a good one. Yeah. Also, just, you know, a random fact is that dinosaurs literally lived on the earth, and that is wild.
Jam:Yeah. It's not as random, but it is super cool.
Melissa:I feel like I kinda forget that that's true sometimes. You know? They kind of get lumped in with the other monsters. You know?
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:Dragons and things that aren't real, but dinosaurs are real, and they lived here. Yeah. And there's evidence of that. Mhmm. It's crazy.
Jam:And they weren't, honestly, that different from us. You know?
Melissa:I'm not sure I'm not sure they weren't that different from us. We like
Jam:some of the things that we liked. You know?
Melissa:Maybe.
Jam:Pretty relatable.
Melissa:Like eating.
Jam:Yeah. We
Melissa:like eating. Walking. Walking, nature,
Jam:outdoors. Sleeping, I'm pretty sure.
Melissa:Pretty sure. Yeah. That's a good one. Good question, Harry. Thanks for asking.
Melissa:Thanks actually to all of our listeners who sent in questions and engaged with us. We absolutely love to talk about chemistry with you guys and to hear your thoughts and your questions. It's so exciting. Every time we get a new email, even if it takes us a while to respond, We're excited about it. So thank you guys so much.
Melissa:And also thanks to the people who make our show possible, our Ko Fi supporters. And that's for this month. We've got support from Nicole B, from Steven B, from Chelsea B, all the bees.
Jam:Yeah. The bee family.
Melissa:Christina g, Robert Hunter r and Jacob t, thank you guys so much. You guys are giving us the resources to consider what ways we can expand the show and How we can bring you guys even more exciting content and other new things.
Jam:Yes. Absolutely. And helping us cover the costs we already have, like the platform that is able to deliver the podcast to this many people and everything like that that we Right. We absolutely have to have. So thank you guys so so much.
Jam:Y'all make this show possible.
Melissa:And for those of you who are monthly supporters on Ko fi, we have written your thank you notes. Your cute stickers are in the mail Headed to you as we speak.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:This episode of chemistry free life was created by Melissa Collini and Jam Robinson, and we'd like to give Special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.
