Bonus: How does gel nail polish dry under UV light? (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. A bonus edition.
Melissa:Bonus edition and 1st edition back. I know. Yeah. I think it's Been more than a month since the last time Jim and I recorded a podcast together.
Jam:Yeah. It has to have been at least 5 weeks.
Melissa:Definitely.
Jam:Maybe more. I don't know.
Melissa:It feels like a little out of practice, but this is a fun q and r inaugural episode back.
Jam:Yes. And we didn't see each other for quite a while either. Yeah. But what's weird is that I was still editing episodes and putting them out each week. Yeah.
Jam:So I was hearing you. I was hearing us, Which is always eerie, because it's like, oh, I haven't actually seen Melissa in a while.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But I've been conversing with her in my mind. Yeah. A lot replaying the actual conversation we've had. So it's nice to be here for real, though.
Melissa:It is nice to be here for real. So do you wanna do a quick life date before we get into the q and r of today's episode?
Jam:Sure. Let's do it.
Melissa:Alright. Great. Well, I can start off Because I went to the, biennial biennial chemistry education conference
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:UMBCCE, And that was so fun. I really, really had a great time. I met so many people. I wanna shout out especially, I met Taylor and Nicole And Melissa who all already use the podcast in their class, and I even got to talk about mister Hollis and how he uses the podcast in his classroom. Nice.
Melissa:Adele. Actually, Nicole might or Taylor, I think, maybe didn't use it in her class, but was just a fan and also a teacher. So Okay. But it was just so nice to meet so many people, and then I also caught back up with doctor Ryan who has been on the show before. So That was really, really cool.
Melissa:I had a great time doing that. And, yeah, I'm just so thankful for all the people we met, and got to connect with the American Association of Chemistry Teachers. That was cool too. So I just met a lot of people, and it was really fun. So
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Yay chemistry.
Jam:Yay chemistry. That sounds awesome.
Melissa:And then we also met one of the founders of Transistor at a different conference.
Jam:Yes. And that was kind of our 1st hangout since we've even back in town, and I've been back at work and that kind of stuff, which is super cool.
Melissa:So shout out, Justin. And Transistor is the the website that hosts our podcast. And the only reason that Chemistry For Your Life is as Manageable as it is is because of the website and product that they've created. So we're really thankful for them to making chemistry for your life possible.
Jam:Yes. Definitely. And it was at the podcast movement conference, which we didn't get to attend the sessions for.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:But sounds and looks really cool, and I think a lot of Of it might be something that we wanna go to in the future.
Melissa:So Right.
Jam:Yeah. That's the kind of thing that you might see us at if we can get our stuff together and know about the school conferences that happen. So, anyway
Melissa:I'm not sure I would have been able to go anyway because right after I went to the conference, as you all know, or the Conference, I went to Canada, and that was really fun on a big trip to celebrate graduating.
Jam:Woo hoo.
Melissa:And then I immediately got COVID for the first time in my life.
Jam:Dang it.
Melissa:Less woo hoo, but so I was pretty worn out by the time I got back to the United States.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And we pretty much just slept for a week. So Gotcha. But it was all actually, it was nice. I got to spend a lot of time with my husband. I'm so thankful that it wasn't serious with COVID.
Melissa:And, yeah, we just rested and watched TV and laid on air mattresses in front of TVs.
Jam:How many days ish should I attend to a candidate before you got, got COVID?
Melissa:Well, it was I think I I actually didn't know that I had it because I have really bad allergies, and it started off very similar. Yeah. So we enjoyed it for a few days, I think, maybe when I had it. But luckily, we were all outside.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Nice. So and we'd worn in 95 masks on the plane and everything, and we're, You know, double vaxxed and boosted, so it was kind of surprising. But Yeah. We got just over a week, and then we had just over a week where we were kind of locked up. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. So that was kind of a bummer. But Yeah. We got to do the big things we really wanted to do. We got to go Hiking on Lake Emerald Emerald Lake in Lake Louise, and we got to do a sunrise kayak and a nice hike.
Melissa:And so that was really fun.
Jam:That is awesome.
Melissa:Now what's your break been like, Jim?
Jam:Well, mine's not been like that at all.
Melissa:No. Totally different. No COVID. No Yeah. No vacation.
Jam:No COVID. No vacation. But we, things worked out fine in the sense that we planned to get ahead, and we did get ahead. And then while you were doing conference stuff and going to Canada Mhmm. It's kinda perfect how things synced up in that way.
Jam:Yeah. But we had our 2nd child. Yay. So got 2 boys now. Double trouble.
Melissa:Double trouble.
Jam:And so I got some time to To step back from work and, just get used to, you know, having 2 kids, and and our family had to all used to it in our own different ways. You know?
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:But it's it's been really good. I mean, I didn't it was not a break, and I kept I wasn't able to get ahead enough on editing. Yeah. So I thought I'd, like, take a little bit of time here and there to, like, keep up with podcast stuff and whatnot. But Yeah.
Jam:That was a little bit nice Though too, because I think it kept the days from feeling like they're all the same and all
Melissa:Too monotonous.
Jam:Yeah. 2 blending together and that kind of stuff. Yeah. It was, like, oh, I need to work on something that I'm good at and can do and have done it a lot. Everything else in my life right now is completely new and turned upside down, I can retreat to, like, the safety and, you know, comfort of this thing that I've done hundreds of times.
Melissa:Yeah. It was kind of weird to think about the last time we worked that hard to get ahead was when we had first started the podcast, and Jim and Emily went on a 3 week vacation to New Zealand.
Jam:Yeah. That's right.
Melissa:And I was thinking about how different our lives were at that time. You know? I Wasn't married or even dating my husband. Maybe we had just started going on dates, I think.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And the podcast was brand new, and Em had just Gotten pregnant, I think, or was, like, in the beginning stages of pregnancy with the 1st child and now sort of bookening that with our big vacation. And now I'm married, and now there's COVID, and now there's a new baby. Yes. So much has happened. Yeah.
Melissa:And it was kind of fun to reflect on how much has happened in that.
Jam:Yeah. And you finally got to go on your own cool long trip too, which is awesome even though COVID happened. But
Melissa:It's still amazing. And, also, it's not like, know, I'd been working a lot a lot up to that point, so it was nice to even just lay in front of a TV and hang out and do nothing with my husband for a while. Even that part, I mean, I wouldn't have God indicated I didn't do it, but that's a nice vacation too. Yeah. So it's just funny to think about how much has changed in that time and How much our listenership has grown and how many people we've met and where the podcast has taken us is Yeah.
Melissa:Very cool.
Jam:Definitely. Definitely.
Melissa:So that's our life update. And now do you wanna hop in on the questions from our listeners?
Jam:Yes. I'd love to. And thank you guys for being patient. We obviously haven't been able to do a q and r in a while Mhmm. Like, one where we actually answer questions about episodes.
Jam:And, of course, that makes sense because we're recording so far ahead. So we are excited to get back into the questions you guys have had. They all always have good ones. So this first question is from Jacob, and Jacob says a bit, and ask questions in between. So I'll just kinda read all of what he said first.
Jam:Hi. In one of your bonus episodes, there was a question which caught my interest. It was something like, why does my hot tea spill more than my cold tea? Is it because molecules are moving faster? I don't know if you ever came back to it because you had no answer.
Jam:I think the reason is because the heat lowers the viscosity From around 1.308 millipascals Mhmm. To Per
Melissa:millipascals per second. Right?
Jam:Per second. Okay. To 0.315 millic Pascals per second. I just wanted to tell you my tip for that answer. I really do podcast it's a small tech at the end, bonus episodes, double episodes, books bonus, etcetera.
Jam:Thank you. I love the time we get to spend with both of you, Jacob.
Melissa:It might just be a millipascal seconds, actually. I'm not a expert in viscosity, but I did like that because It makes sense that the viscosity would be lower because if we're putting more heat
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Into a substance, Then the molecules are moving around more and more. Right. And then that would mean that the viscosity would be lowered Because there's more energy to overcome those intermolecular forces, which are what puts viscosity into place
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Or part of it, I guess. So that's what I like the connection there between is it because molecules are moving faster, and then, yes, it changes the viscosity, so it's more likely to move around and spill. Right.
Jam:And it makes sense because we know that those changes with the molecules moving about have to happen for a bunch of different things
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Including also just Something going from solid to liquid or liquid to gas. But it makes sense that, like, even when it's still just a liquid, that there would be a lot of differences in a cold liquid and a hot liquid Yes. And how they might behave even though it's still liquid.
Melissa:And I actually saw I think it was a video that our friend Grant sent to us.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:But, basically, if you have your eyes closed and you listen to hot water and cold water pouring, the majority of the time, people can guess Which one's hot and which one's cold?
Jam:Oh, right. He he did send that to us. Yes. Been a while. But yeah.
Melissa:I think I forgot to ever respond to that, probably because I have ADHD. But I I think it's the same kind of thing is the molecules have more heat in them, so they would likely be moving around more. Mhmm. So they probably sound different to us. And on a very Subconscious level, we've picked up on those subtle differences.
Jam:Totally. That makes total sense. Man, interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. That's a really good one.
Jam:This next statement is a piece of feedback from Kaiba kind of related to the 1st episode we had about tattoos and tattoo ink.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And it being suspended in there.
Melissa:And he's a scientist. Remember, he's a a biochemist or biologist, I think, in Brazil.
Jam:Okay. Yeah. So he said, I usually think about something suspended in a liquid as something that can be filtrated. Like, you cannot filter A sugar once it's been dissolved, but you can filter an ink that's just been suspended in liquid.
Melissa:Yes. Like, the pigments that are suspended in the liquid, those can be filtered out.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's a really good distinction. It was I was having a hard time talking about the molecules being suspended in liquid versus them being fully dissolved and Surrounded by solvent and how you can differentiate that. And I I like that description. I think that's a really good one because You know something what it looks like for something to filter or if you let it sit for a while, how some things will settle out in the top of the liquid will be clear, but that doesn't happen with sugar if it's dissolved. That was a really good one.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. K. Bay also sent us, I love it so much, an image that he made. So he said, Regarding tattoos, I read about it last year for a course, and I did a little scheme to represent it.
Melissa:I believe we read some of the same papers, so it probably makes sense to you. So he sent an image that's so cool. I'm gonna show it to you right now, Jim, and then I'll go ahead and just put it on our Instagram. But he has a picture of the tattoo gun pushing the ink into the epidermis layer, and then the macrophages coming in surrounding that ink.
Jam:Wow. Okay.
Melissa:And then he also even represents we had talked Briefly about how the macrophages may be dying and releasing the ink and then a new one coming along.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And he even represents that in this image as Wow.
Jam:Dang. That is interesting. How cool is that?
Melissa:Yeah. So he made this in a, a program called BioRender, And he told us we could share it, so that'll be fun.
Jam:Nice. That's awesome. That is so helpful to have an illustration that specific.
Melissa:It look it It helps to see so easily what's going on there.
Jam:This next question is from Caitlin r, and she said, hi. I have question for an episode. I was getting my nails done the other day and wondered what kind of reaction is taking place with the gel under UV light.
Melissa:Okay. This is a really fun question, and I get to do a little chemistry off the cuff because I try not to do any research on these Q and R episodes So that we can produce them easily and and get them done as fast as possible. So I get to just wonder aloud about these. Mhmm. And I didn't come across any peer reviewed journal articles about this when we were doing the nail polish episode, so this is kinda fun.
Melissa:So what Caitlin is talking about is there's a few different types of nail polish when you go into, like, a salon to get your nails done or if you're buying them at the store. There's some that you just paint, and they just dry by the solvent evaporating.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then there are some that are fake nails that they apply onto your actual fingernail. And then there's a I don't know if it's new. Maybe the last 10 years Has gotten more popular, a gel nail polish or sometimes called shellac that is painted on, and then you put it under the UV light to Cure. And what they mean by cure is make it hard, essentially. So it dries it.
Melissa:And it's nice because it seems to dry faster, And I've noticed that it lasts a lot longer. And I've wondered about this myself too. And one thing that I thought, since nail polish is making a polymer on your nail is perhaps that the gel nail polish is initiated by A radical forming. And so maybe that UV light breaks a bond and it breaks, homogeneously, so each side gets a radical, And then that creates a chain reaction. And we've talked about this briefly before, but it'll get initiated, and then it keeps reacting and making more and more radicals, Adding, like, similar to a necklace, adding 1 bead at a time.
Melissa:Each time it sort of reacts with another radical, to make a long necklace of these Repeating beads. Similarly, a polymer is a long chain of these repeating molecules. So my suspicion is that there is possibly a polymer that forms that's initiated by the UV light. I don't know for sure. That's just my guess.
Melissa:But I haven't studied that or anything. That's just like if I had to guess right off the top of my head, that's what I think is happening.
Jam:Nice. Interesting. I've heard of that. Of course, I'm not as well versed on the different types of nail polish, stuff like that, but I've heard about that and always been like, that's kinda cool because Yeah. Obviously, it's frustrating to leave a nail salon and have to worry for a little while about whether you're gonna mess up what you just paid for.
Jam:That's kinda nice that there's an option for like, hey. Just put it under this light, and this will fix it. That's kinda cool.
Melissa:And you can also buy that at home. Have these little tiny UV lights, and you can buy the gel nail polish so you can get yourself a manicure that's long lasting at home too.
Jam:Nice. Nice.
Melissa:That's a good question. That was fun for me.
Jam:This next one is kinda cool. It's the times where we get An analogy suggestion from somebody. Mhmm. And this person, someone that Melissa and I both know is her husband, Mason. And
Melissa:And I totally forgot that this happened until I was looking in our inbox for q and r emails, and I had told him to email me about it because I was going to forget.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:And I'm glad I did because I was pleasantly surprised Yeah. To find an email from my husband.
Jam:And it's, like, 5 weeks later, so it's even More like likely that you would have forgotten otherwise. It's like
Melissa:Absolutely.
Jam:So, Mason, this is regarding the ice floating In water episode?
Melissa:And how water becomes less dense when it freezes?
Jam:Right. And so Mason said, imagine a pool with a bunch of people in it. Water freezing and getting less dense would be like all the people in the pool using a floatie, like some sort of flotation thing, like a ring or who knows what. You would not be able to fit as many people in the pool if they all had floaties.
Melissa:Yeah. And it probably you also wouldn't be able to Move as fluidly, which is part of why I liked this because when there's more people in the pool, but they're not in a flotation device, they can more easily move around each and navigate just like water molecules when they're not frozen. When they're in the liquid state, they can easily navigate around one another. But when they're in the solid phase, it is similar to being in this isolated space that's much more difficult to move. You can spin and wiggle.
Melissa:Yeah. And that's what the molecules are doing, but they aren't able to slip and slide past each other as easily if it was just a person Swimming or walking around in a pool. Yeah. So I loved that analogy. I thought that was really, really good.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. It's perfect. And it's also cool because even though it's really more about the being able to move. Mhmm.
Jam:It also has the benefit of being literally about things floating in water. Yeah. So it's like an analogy that Also, yeah, looks visually similar and feels similar to what we're talking about too. Yeah. Definitely.
Jam:On the macro level already. Mhmm. This next one is a response to one of our episodes from Danny e about Clouds and moist and cool air and all that kind of stuff. So Mhmm. He said, I was driving down the road listening to the cloud episode, and I heard you say moist air is less dense the dry air.
Jam:And I started thinking how wrong you were. Then I listened more, and you explained it, and I had a major moment. Water has a mass of 18 grams per mole, and nitrogen is 28 grams per mole. Even after teaching chemistry for 27 years, I can learn a thing or two.
Melissa:Danny, that really made me laugh. First of all, because I often sit around thinking about how wrong I was too. And sometimes I was wrong, and sometimes I was not. So that made me laugh. So what actually also made me laugh about this is We had included the mass of the air initially or the mass of water and nitrogen initially in our first recording of the episode.
Melissa:And I misspoke and just said nitrogen was 14, which is true of 1 nitrogen atom, but 2 nitrogen atoms together are 28.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And nitrogen typically exists, in 2 nitrogens, in 2 bonded together. And so I wasn't even thinking, and I just said nitrogen was Fourteen, and water was 18. And then I realized that that was misinformation. And so I when I was listening back before we the episode, I realized I misspoke, and I didn't wanna spread that misinformation and that it was not congruent with what I had just said even in the episode. So We had to edit that out.
Melissa:There wasn't any time to rerecord that part. And so I think that gives good insight, and I like that Danny brought this up into how many moving pieces there are in the podcast because so often we accidentally misspeak and don't realize it until we do the listen back or we're on a time crunch, so there's not a lot of time to go back and edit. And so Danny said had suggested to include those numbers in the episode, and I was like, oh, Danny, if only you knew, they were in there and then They were out.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So, I thought that was a fun little anecdote to share.
Jam:Yeah. That's so funny. And it was funny too is that, like, there's so many times where me being the layperson, I'm just not gonna notice that stuff even if I'm like, Doesn't make sense to me exactly, but there's there's so many things coming at me that sometimes numbers, especially, are something that's gonna be totally lost on a person like me. Just realizing from a lesson like that, like, oh, the nitrogen is more dense Right. Than the water molecules or whatever
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Is, like, kinda all I need, and that I can understand. Yes. You know?
Melissa:But Yeah. And we do have to think about our audience too when we're doing those things. And if Jam feels like there's a lot coming at him, than other people do too. So we do try to sometimes scale some of that information back, but I thought that was a fun little tidbit to share when Danny noticed and we Had that same moment.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny.
Melissa:So that was a shared moment that we had, Danny. And even in the moment, I stopped and thought, did I just say, is nitrogen more dense? You know? Like, I had to go back and double check that. And so, Definitely, those are fun little anecdotes that you guys don't always get to see where I'm thinking of those same things, or we have to do some behind the scene editing to make Sure.
Melissa:I'd, misspeak, didn't give misinformation. And that's an interesting challenge about teaching that I've wondered about we started doing the podcast is I noticed how often Al accidentally misspeak, and I correct myself on the podcast because I'm very aware. But when I'm teaching, I think I do those same misspeaks, and I don't catch myself as much when I'm teaching in the classroom. And so I've wondered if I've confused my students Yeah. By doing that same thing.
Melissa:So I've it's definitely made me more aware and try to be more careful, and I always Try to tell my students to interrupt me if they're confused or if I misspeak because I know that we can just so easily do that. We know what we mean, but it doesn't always Come out of our mouth.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Well, those are pretty much the big questions that I had wanted to address today, but I also wanted to share something that's really made me feel so happy is we've heard so many people give feedback about the episode where we shared about ADHD, And that has meant so much to me because it was really life changing for me to get diagnosed. And knowing that me sharing my story has helped Other people feel empowered to go get themselves checked out or to go easier on themselves or have more grace for themselves. It really, really encouraged me. And so I've I've also been trying to learn more about these ADHD, different symptoms, and different techniques you can use to manage it. And I recently came across an episode of Ologies.
Melissa:Actually, it's a 2 part episode on Ologies, and a newer podcast called Living with Lost Keys. And all of those were really, really good resources for me. And even on Ologies, they Interviewed an expert in ADHD who's done a lot of the scientific research. And then in the 2nd part, they did more experts on Helping people manage their symptoms.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:And so it kind of took 2 different approaches. 1 was a more practical episode, and one was more of the science behind it. And he shared information that I hadn't even learned in my, researching for the episode about other medications that aren't stimulants that sometimes work to treat the symptoms, and it was really cool. I found it really interesting. So I wanted to share that with those listeners who have been impacted by that episode that There are other resources and to go seek those out because they've been really helpful for me to, 1, feel seen like, oh, other people have these Experiences too.
Melissa:And then 2, to equip myself with the tools I need to help manage the symptoms of that.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That's good.
Melissa:So I wanted to share about that, and just thank you all so much for reaching out. I can't tell you how much that's meant to me. And more than one of your emails has made me teary and Very emotional for how much I know the weight can be lifted off your shoulders.
Jam:Yeah. It's also been a little bit since we've been able to thank our Ko Fi supporters because we haven't recorded in a little while, so we wanna Take a chance to do that. These are folks who either are regular donators and and help keep our show going on a regular basis every month or people who have just gone and given us a one time tip in the past, you know, month and a half since we've thanked you guys. So those people that are special indeed to our hearts this month are Avishai b, Jacob t, Hunter r, Melissa, different Melissa.
Melissa:Yeah. Not me.
Jam:Christina g, Brian k, Chelsea b, Emerson, Steven b, Derek l, Timothy p and a mysterious Go Fi supporter, anonymous, you know who you are.
Melissa:Thank you so much for coming and supporting our Go Fi. We have some exciting things coming to y'all in the next few months as we are recovering from our time away, and we've been able to Sort of invest some time in the podcast, so stay posted for fun, new, exciting things.
Jam:Yes. Yeah. Things that are current supporters and just current listeners and new listeners all across the board, there's probably something in our Scheming, planning that will be exciting to you.
Melissa:Yes. I think so. So thank you all so much for being such amazing, Consistent, supportive listeners for the past 3 years. You literally make us so excited to do this and wanna keep Pursuing this podcast and sharing the world about chemistry.
Jam:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Clooney and Jam Robinson. We'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson who reviewed this episode.
