Bonus: Is rain just like sweat for the earth? (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. I'm gonna run out of things. I mean, like, I can't think of anything to say there.
Melissa:Like That's okay. You can just say bonus Edition.
Jam:Bonus edition. Q and r. Do
Melissa:it better.
Jam:Mhmm. There you go. Q and r eleven.
Melissa:Okay, Jam. I'm so excited because in real life, our merch just launched yesterday.
Jam:Dude, yeah. Seriously, in real life. And it's only, like, a couple days ago in episode time or whatever. Mhmm.
Melissa:Yeah. So So that's really exciting, And I wanna buy literally everything on that shop because it's all so cute. Yeah. Props to you designing it. Good job.
Jam:I mean, it's just our logo, but, we did learn a few things from doing the T shirt giveaway last year. And so Mhmm. It helped that we'd had that experience. But, yeah, I also wanna buy everything except for the tank. I'm not a tank guy, but I would buy basically everything else.
Melissa:See, I would go with the tank over the T shirt because I love to work out in a good tank.
Jam:Good point. Good point.
Melissa:But I think I'm gonna limit myself
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:To the big sweatshirt. I love a big sweatshirt to ice skate in.
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. It's right. Mhmm. Remember I used to ice skate? You know?
Melissa:Mhmm. Yeah. But I I don't really anymore because it's not safe, so I haven't ice skated in a really long time. But But I love a big sweatshirt for ice skating. So Yeah.
Melissa:I'm holding out hope I can do that again.
Jam:I, also love sweatshirts. My wife already bought 1.
Melissa:And Yeah. She bought it right away. She was our 1st purchase. Yeah.
Jam:1st purchase. And she obviously had a little bit of a heads up, but still, she was like, let's do it. And I was like, I wanted to get the same one in color and everything. And so I talked to her with her yesterday, and I was like, should I just get the other gray color. In that way, we can just you know, I can swap out and trade out.
Jam:Because we're like, the chances of us pointing where at the same time are probably slim, so we shouldn't get 2 of the exact same size and color and everything. And that seemed a little excessive. So I think it's what we're gonna do, and then we'll, like Nice. You know, trade out sweatshirts here and there. But I'm also way down with the sweatshirt, And I love, gray T shirts, and all the T shirts are just kinds of gray.
Jam:It's like super light gray, medium gray, Dark charcoal gray, so that's gonna be hard to pick. But, also, I have to get a mug. You know, cannot have a chemistry for your life thing to drink coffee out of.
Melissa:Yeah. I'm definitely getting a mug. I'm so excited. So when you guys get your merch, I think it's all gonna ship out in one shipment once the the campaign ends at the end of this run. So when you guys get your merch, Post cute pics of you in it, and we'll retweet them and share them on Insta because Yeah.
Melissa:I'm so excited to see what it looks psych and how everyone's wearing them. And we heard from someone in Switzerland, Ayla, I think, is her name, that she'd already ordered the sweatshirt and was so excited to in Switzerland, and I'm really, really excited to see our merch go all over the country and the world and everywhere. It's so exciting.
Jam:Yeah. It'll be really cool. We got to select, you know, the types of fabric and styles and all that stuff, but we will also see the, like, finished product. We'll see you some samples, I think, a little bit and get to before it fully prints, get to approve things, but we will also be receiving our stuff when you guys receive it. And so it'll be all 1 batch, so it'll be exciting for all of us to get it at the same time.
Jam:So
Melissa:Yeah. I'm so excited.
Jam:We've got about a week and a half left of time for people to buy merch. Right?
Melissa:Mhmm. I think it ends on August 1st.
Jam:August 1st. Okay.
Melissa:Or 2nd.
Jam:So don't wait too long. This is a limited Deal, so don't miss it. All these cute photos are gonna be posted. People wearing their cozy sweaters and their and their cool teas drinking Kaveh out of their mugs, and it'll be like, oh, man. I missed it.
Jam:So don't be that guy.
Melissa:I think we probably will if we don't open a more permanent merch store later, we're not 100% sure, but we might also do some Christmas merch, which will be Fun and, holiday season merch, I think, will be really cute. Yeah. So
Jam:Yeah. You can get it for for friends or family or just for yourself. Yeah. It would be very
Melissa:exciting. Okay. Let's dig in to these questions. What do you have for me?
Jam:Okay. So Our first question is from our very inquisitive friend, Steven h. And this this is hearkening back, I think. Wait.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:This is, hearkening back to the does carbonation have a flavor episode, I think. Right?
Melissa:Yes. It is. Yes.
Jam:Okay. So If our c o two receptors are merely mimicking the feeling of bubbles bursting, do we even know what bubbles bursting feels like? That's a great question, man.
Melissa:My answer is I think we don't. I have not tried this Since this episode aired, but if you poured carbonation on your skin, carbonated water, doesn't it just feel like water?
Jam:I haven't tried that either because I love carneal water too much, and I don't wanna waste it.
Melissa:Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Sometimes I can feel bubbles, like, in a pool, Like, if there's, like, a jet of bubbles or something?
Jam:Totally. Totally.
Melissa:I don't have a satisfying answer for this question, Steven, but I think it's possible that our tongues don't know. Right. I don't know.
Jam:Are I mean, honestly, it begs the question. Are our tongues really good at feeling things anyway? That's good.
Melissa:I have no idea.
Jam:I mean, I would say they meant for tasting and move it around a little bit, but I feel like our hands would be much better at Being able to tell the textures and feels of stuff like that. But think about, like, putting a piece of bread in your mouth. You can feel the texture way better on your hand than you can, like, once you put it in your mouth.
Melissa:I I know. I think if there's any biologists out there who study carbon dioxide Receptors, and they wanna tell us what's really happening. Do we can we even feel a bubble bursting? We're opening this up for you guys. I think maybe we don't.
Melissa:Yeah. I think we know maybe on other parts of our bodies, but I'm not sure we know on our tongues.
Jam:Right. Yeah. Interesting question. Dang, dude. Wow.
Melissa:So weird to think about. Just we're just stretching the brains of our listeners here today. Are you ready
Jam:for the next one?
Melissa:I'm ready.
Jam:K. This is a long one. Also from Steven. Regarding the manufacturers Using color changing dyes before they knew the science, it seems to me like that's how so many things have worked throughout history. Like herbal folk remedies or certain ways of growing crops, bring beer, etcetera.
Jam:They're almost art or mystique until they the science was discovered. One fascinating example. There's some evidence that Vikings may have forged weapons by combining iron with ash the bones of their ancestors believing it would infuse the weapons with more power. Little did they know they were they actually were making stronger weapons by Combining iron and carbon to create a primitive form of steel. Holy.
Melissa:Isn't that amazing?
Jam:Gosh. Dang. Wow.
Melissa:My the reason I wanted to leave this in, it's a comment, not really a question. I think it's super interesting, but also I think Some people and I think this is more true of people newer to the field and not so much of researchers and stuff can kind of Poo poo, oh, essential oils or this or that, you know, is it's not science based. Mhmm. But These 2 I think they're microbiologists, but these 2 biologists who were also big fans of history and war reenactments and stuff
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Found an old remedy book. I remember learning about this, I think, on an episode of Radiolab Mhmm. And brewed up this potion thing that was supposed to cure something. And they tested it in their labs on bacteria, and it did kill bacteria.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So people have figured out ways to keep themselves healthy with natural products all around them for a very long time. Or the same thing with capsaicin that we learned, It really does have a scientific mechanism to ease pain. Mhmm. But people didn't know that when they were using it before to do that. You know?
Melissa:So there are things in nature that we maybe don't know the science behind them or the science Backs up their function, but people are just kind of it seems kinda woo hoo. So it's always good, I think, to To stop and investigate before you make judgments about what stuff is legitimate and what stuff isn't. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. It's like the jury's still out on so much stuff. You could discover scientists could discover some big stuff about home remedies some point or not. Like, it just, like it could go either way on so much of that stuff, it seems like.
Melissa:Yeah. Definitely.
Jam:Man, Interesting. That's very fascinating.
Melissa:Yeah. I think it's so cool. I think the episode of Radiolab was called Staff retreat, like s t a p h.
Jam:I remember that one. I remember listening to it in that in that title.
Melissa:I think that's what it was. Mhmm.
Jam:Dang cool.
Melissa:So
Jam:Chat at Radiolab. Love you guys.
Melissa:It's been a long time since I listened to that. I think it was probably in 2015 or something. So
Jam:We'll make sure to link the correct one in the show notes either way. Whether it's that one or or not, we'll find the correct correct one and Link it so you guys can listen if you want. Okay. This next one is from Mason k, and he asks, what makes a jalapeno not as hot as a habanero. Is it like the amount of capsaicin in the pepper?
Melissa:So the answer is that the answer to that is yes. Less capsaicin or capsaicinoids, which are just basically capsaicin like compounds. Mhmm. The less there are, the less hot The pepper will be. So Wow.
Melissa:Yeah. It's pretty simple.
Jam:That's interesting. That's weird to think about there being a specific thing that there's more or less of that makes it spicy. Mhmm.
Melissa:Good guess, Mason.
Jam:Man. Okay. This next question's from Anthony c, and he asked, why does casein make it not hot?
Melissa:So casein is the the thing that's in milk that helps to make the jalapenos feel less hot in addition to the fact that it's nonpolar.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I looked into that. I looked to try to find something that described it's what's known as the binding affinity, so how well something binds to something else.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Just what it sounds like, but I couldn't find anything about that at all. It really just seemed that the casein does bind to the capsaicin and inhibits it from actually activating those heat receptors because it's bound somewhere else. That's the best I could come up with.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. This that whole thing, the fact that there happens to be something that binds so well to capsaicin in milk. And I was wondering, was the casein named after the capsaicin Oh, yeah. How did that happen? But I couldn't really find very much information on it.
Melissa:So
Jam:You know what's funny too? Is it, like, I'm just like, man, why is it not in water? Like, be so convenient. There's so many things that, like, you might eat that are really spicy. It's like, man, I don't wanna drink milk with this.
Jam:Like, the idea of, like, Wings and milk. Mm-mm. It just does not sound good to me.
Melissa:Or could you get a Like, you know how they have those lactose pills, lactate pills? Could you get a a casein pill to dissolve in your milk or to dissolve in your waters? Yeah. Yeah. It's like a tablet
Jam:or something, like a Alka Seltzer.
Melissa:Okay, scientists. Get on that.
Jam:Yes, please. That'd be awesome. Okay. This is from Abby h. Is rain just like sweat for the earth?
Melissa:This was so funny because
Jam:I know. It's so meta. But she I
Melissa:don't know if meta is the right word. She said she was walking outside and walked by some sprinklers, and the air around those sprinklers seemed a lot less hot. And so I'm just gonna say evaporative cooling works on a number of different substances. So I would assume that if water was hitting that concrete, it was probably taking in some of that heat and evaporating off as as water vapor molecules Wow. And taking some heat away with it.
Melissa:So I think the answer to that question is probably yes. So rain is like sweat from the earth. It does evaporative cooling on the earth to make it less hot.
Jam:Wow. Yeah. That makes sense, actually. I did not think about that at all.
Melissa:Pretty interesting. That's that's also true of my bicycle. Whenever I poured the water on the hot bicycle
Jam:Dolly d, and she said, I'd like to hear about the chemistry of face masks. Talking about COVID. I mean, obviously, this episode's gonna be out for a long time. So during COVID, just talking about the face masks that we're wear wearing right now.
Melissa:Right. So there's not a lot of what I would say chemistry specifically in the face mask I think there's some chemistry and things getting aerosolized and all of that, but I think it would be more considered biology, Unless you have a special kind of face mask. But what I've learned, and I learned this based on interviews with some of the scientists who helped make the decision to Have face mask, be a part of the World Health Organization's decision. And then, Also, a page that I follow on Twitter called Open Academics did a really cool visualization That kinda backs up what a lot of these scientists are saying. And it's basically that virus particles are Smaller generally than the size of the holes in your face mask.
Melissa:That's some people's arguments against face mask.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But The viruses can be expelled in larger particles initially or in droplets in your, like, saliva and stuff before it becomes aerosolized.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So having a mask can stop those particles from getting out. But, also, the CDC and the World Health Organization specifically recommend multilayer masks because if you have pools of multiple sizes. For example, 1 mask I have is cloth, and then you can put a coffee filter, and then it's another layer of cloth. The filter sort of goes in between it. That's a lot of different overlapping different sized holes that it's gonna make it harder for a virus particle to get out That.
Melissa:Mhmm. So that's one thing that I've seen. There's also just seems to be evidence that the places where there are masks Being worn, instances of the virus are less. So be really careful. Keep washing your hands, social distancing, all of that, but masks do help.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:But I don't know that there's a ton of chemistry specifically in that. That's just what I've learned from the World Health Organization, the CDC, and then we can link to that visualization that kinda shows why multilayer masks are helpful. Yeah. It's from a Twitter account, so I can't verify their source, but it was backed up by everything that the scientists also said. So
Jam:Nice. Awesome. Good question.
Melissa:Yeah. That's a good question. Definitely.
Jam:This next question is from our friend, Estee. She asked, how do we prepare each episode? Do you write a script? Is there a lot of postproduction?
Melissa:I think we sort of talked about this before, but I realized I've never talked about if I write a script or anything like that out, I don't think. Yeah. So I pick a topic every week usually based on what people have messaged me in the last week or 2 that think would be interesting and that I also think sounds fun.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then I do all the research. So the initial phase of me writing a episode is, Like, maybe 20 tabs open to all different kinds of scientific journals, and I have to use the library proxy because I'm Not on campus, so Mhmm. It's just tabs, tabs, tabs, tabs, tabs of all these scientific research articles. And if I'm also doing something a little bit maybe more basic, I have organic chemistry books just out in front of me. So that's the initial phase.
Melissa:And then I pull out the information from the articles that I is relevant, and I have to kind of sift through. My in instinct is to go really deep. Mhmm. And then I realized I have to pull back because doing a shorter episode, and it's chemistry of everyday life. It's not we're not trying to get into the nitty gritty.
Melissa:So, usually, I go deep, and then I pull back out, and then I put it together on my notes app on my computer of all places. And then I look through to make sure that it's linear, and it makes sense, and it tells a good story. And so I write out bullet points kind of of what I wanna say. It's not a full script. I don't have everything I'm gonna say scripted because I wanna be able to respond to Jam and what he is thinking and questions he has or if he Seems like that didn't really make sense.
Melissa:I wanna be able to kind of give different options of explanations, and I just leave it at the bullet points
Jam:and
Melissa:don't really have everything written out. And I have I try to have the facts and everything that's very I'm gonna quote this exactly in that page as well and all my references in that page. And then we meet up remotely, and, we record the episode. And then I'm gonna give the rest it to Jam because he does the back half of everything.
Jam:Yeah. So we record. And since we've been recording remotely, I'll sync up our, our audio files and make sure they're aligned up correctly and then edit them. Sometimes we don't have a ton of editing, and sometimes we do. Like, we had some, You know, bathroom breaks were like, oh, hey.
Jam:Like, especially with Moses' former computer, it was like soon as we'd be waiting on something to load, or, we might a couple times had the recording stop or whatever. But for the most part, we'll have just editing out some Umms and ahs or some flubs or mistakes or sneezes or coughs and stuff like that. And, occasionally, we'll realize as, as we're going, like, most might be like, oh, I actually forgot to tell you this part, but it makes more sense to put it earlier. And so she'll tell me it later, And we might change up the order of it in editing. I'm still finding out all the information live, but it just makes it more make more sense for the recording and for you guys Learning it as well to hear it in a certain order.
Jam:So it just depends, but it takes about for however many minutes of recording, it might take about A minute and a half to edit. That's my my general estimation when I'm editing. So if we record for 30 minutes. Usually, maybe more like 40. It would take me time is 1.5 to edit it.
Jam:Then we we have some friends and interested people that we send the recording to to review it. And, also, Melissa reviews it for any errors and any The things that maybe didn't make sense and and stuff. Because it's kinda hard to self filter why you're talking, and so she gets to hear it back and be like, oh, yeah. That did make sense. Or I really said that thing wrong.
Jam:We need to we need to change that or whatever. And then we have some people who are friends that are kinda like a test audience listen to episodes as well before You guys hear them? So that's the kinda whole back half, at least, of the audio side and then all the social media stuff. But it doesn't sound Super cool, but it's fun. We love doing it.
Melissa:And I think that could seem like there's a lot of postproduction. I don't think that we do a lot of changing from What we record and then what you guys get, it's pretty close.
Jam:I definitely think that helps because their style of podcast is conversation. There's definitely, you know, podcasts that are a lot more like we're bringing you more like a journalistic kind of very prepared, arranged, You know, news stories or they're you're cutting in interviews or whatever, and ours is not like that.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:I also do a lot of effects and stuff just to try to, clean up the audio, and that depending on the recording and if there's any sounds that came through or, like, air conditioning sounds, sometimes I have to fiddle with that for a while. But At this point, now that we've been doing it for a year, I've definitely gotten down some some good settings that that mean I don't have to spend a ton of time on that every time. So
Melissa:It's pretty fun. I love it.
Jam:Thanks for asking about the inner workings SD, and sorry for anyone who's that was interested in the nerdy Behind the scenes stuff, but the next question is from Nicole p. And she says, how much calculus is actually used Inorganic chemistry.
Melissa:Thank you for asking, Nicole. None. None.
Jam:No calculus is used in organic chemistry. Calculus doesn't even come into chemistry until physical chemistry.
Melissa:I did not love that subject. It was interesting to learn the theory. The math is really hard. No really math of much at all is used in organic chemistry, and that's probably part of why I love it. So Nice.
Melissa:Good question, Nicole. I was so excited when I saw that. She's taking in a calculus course right now, and she's Wondering how it's gonna apply to organic chemistry, and it doesn't. But it does apply to physical chemistry. So
Jam:That is nice. For any people who love science but don't love math, I guess it's perfect.
Melissa:It's that's me. That's perfect for me. I do like algebra and stuff, but I do wanna do a few shout outs before we wrap up.
Jam:Sweet.
Melissa:One is that Shannon, who's at right in front of my face on Twitter Mhmm. Shared a picture of the chromatography artwork she did with her kiddos, which was really fun.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:That was Really cool. I retweeted it and put it up so you can go check that out. And if anyone else wants to share the pictures of experiments that they're doing with their kids, you know, we would love to share those on our page. It's always fun to see people getting excited about science. And, also, in Children doing science.
Melissa:I was very excited because one of my friends told me she was listening in the car, And her son was in the car with her, and I was talking about something being hot. And her son, who's about a year old, said, And
Jam:I was so excited because she realized he's listening and processing what I said. He was trying to
Melissa:say hot with me. So that
Jam:was really cool. Yeah. That's awesome.
Melissa:Yeah. So that was cool. And my nephew, I heard back from my My sister-in-law, Yessica, that Mhmm. My nephew laughs anytime. Jam laughs on the podcast.
Melissa:And, also, when he and my brother got in the car, he pointed to the phone and said what he can't say my name, so he calls me Mimi, but Uh-huh. Said, Mimi and pointed to the phone, and then when the they started the podcast, he said, Mimi, when the jingle came on. Oh, nice. Dude, that's, Oh
Jam:my gosh. That's so cute.
Melissa:So cute. Lots of baby activity. I love the idea of him laughing when you laugh. He'll do that when a group of us laughs. He laughs too even though he doesn't know what's on.
Melissa:So just imagining him laughing because you're laughing is really cute.
Jam:Dude, that is awesome.
Melissa:So those are our babies for your life update. And then Tori also had a really good question. Tori Em writes into us a lot with really good questions, and a lot of them are complicated. And as a grad student who's working on Getting through qualifying exams, I pick the easy fruit. So I've not been able to do a lot of them, but Tori has a great question about Honey, and that's gonna be the first one we do after this episode, mosquito series ends.
Melissa:So don't worry, Tori. Loved your question. We're gonna talk about it.
Jam:Dude, awesome. I'm excited about that. Yeah. She's an old friend. I've known her for gosh, dude.
Jam:I can't even tell you how long. I can't remember. Probably at least since 6th grade, we were both played alto saxophone together.
Melissa:It seems like she's become my friend too. That's What's fun about this podcast is we've made a lot of new friends from people messaging us and commenting, like Shayelle and Estee, and Just people who seem really excited that it's fun to have gotten to know them.
Jam:Dude, totally. Yeah. You guys are our friends. So, and that's open to anybody, basically. Like, you write in and comment and share stuff or whatever.
Jam:You're a front desk for sure. So
Melissa:Yeah. It's really fun. We love, love, love hearing from you guys.
Jam:Speaking of friends, we wanna give some shout outs to some people who've donated to us through our Ko fi, Our digital tip jar kinda thing. So in the past month, Jeff c, Joey h, and Hannah from Germany have all given on our. And we just wanna thank you guys so much. That means a ton to us as we've been right getting ready to kinda finish this 1st year of the podcast and Go into our 2nd year. It's been just so cool to look back and see how many people have supported us, not just by listening and and sharing, which has been awesome, but also So those of you who've given makes a huge difference, helps us cover the fees that we have keeping the show going, and, we just really, really appreciate it.
Jam:And that's a big motivator for for starting the the merch, like we talked about at the beginning of this episode, to try to just try different ways to to keep The show going and have ways for, y'all to do that that are also exciting to you and interesting to you. So
Melissa:Also, Jeffrey c wrote a really funny little message about how Jam's dad jokes really crack him up, and I thought that was great. So
Jam:Jeff,
Melissa:I'm now that Jim is a dad. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:I was gonna say, Jeff, I think they're gonna keep coming even if I don't want them to. So, I'm glad that you appreciate them, and I definitely have fun trying to make make them. So I'm glad at least at least somebody out there likes them, so I'll keep them coming just for you.
Melissa:Well, thanks so much. This was a fun one. I really appreciated it. So the questions. It was a fun episode.
Melissa:So keep them coming, and, let us know if you have any thoughts or questions that you want us to look into?
Jam:And don't forget to check out our merch. Grab a coffee mug, a T shirt, a sweatshirt, or a tank.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Coleeni and Jam Robinson, and we'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.
