Do mosquitos bite some people more than others?
Hey, all. Okay. So I know you're probably surprised to see a rerelease in your feed because maybe you don't keep track. But if you do, usually, we do new episode, q and r, new episode, rerelease, new episode. But something unexpected and exciting happen, which is I was sent an article about new research regarding mosquitoes.
Melissa:So we wanted to prep you a little bit. So we're rereleasing this episode, and you can go back and listen to other previously released episodes about mosquitoes if you want.
Jam:Yeah. This one's perfect because it's about whether or not mosquitoes bite some people more than others.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And then the new research that most is gonna share with us next week, delves into new stuff about that exact topic. So me and you and everyone being reminded about The original, research that we talked about about that topic was is great to be reminded about and then layer the new stuff on top of it So that we can be, yeah, caught up and Mhmm. Remember what even happened last time. So
Melissa:So we wanted to prepare you. So we're going a little bit out of order, but then you'll get a brand new episode about the new research that's just come out next week.
Jam:This was fascinating. You're gonna love it, and then, hopefully, you'll be really pumped for the next one as well. So
Melissa:Yeah. Okay. Great.
Jam:Happy listening.
Melissa:Happy listening. 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.
Melissa:Jam, are you ready for mosquitoes part 2?
Jam:Dude, I'm very ready. Left me on the edge of my seat last time. I knew a little bit more than I did before, but there's still so many questions, so many things I wonder about mosquitoes. It opened up so many doors. Thought you'd been waiting for a week trying to just not think about it.
Jam:You know what I mean?
Melissa:Yeah. I guess, normally, you just have no idea what's coming next, and now you know.
Jam:Right. Exactly. Normally, it's just, like, totally in the dark. But now I knew a little bit. Got a little bit of a tease.
Jam:Add more questions, At the end where you were like, we'll talk about that later. And I was like, gosh. Dang it. Gotta wait a week, maybe 2 before that topic happens.
Melissa:Well, it might even be 3 because I think there's enough information on mosquito repellent that that That one itself might have to be a 2 part episode.
Jam:Dang. Dude.
Melissa:And that's the one I'm most excited for because that's the most chemistry heavy. I feel That a lot of what we've already talked about has been biology heavy. So Yeah. And what we're gonna do today. So I'm really looking forward to how mosquito repellent works And then also talking about what new things scientists are looking into for potential future of mosquito repellents.
Jam:Nice. Okay. Sweet. I'm pumped.
Melissa:I've got 2 updates from last week.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:My sister, who is trained as a biologist but now works in sea level rise science communication. Mhmm. Check out our episode on sea level rise called, is this is this sea rising, and should I be scared? Mhmm. To hear more from her.
Melissa:She messaged me and said that I made a mistake. I said that carbon dioxide sensing, when that ability is taken away, it affects the ability of mosquitoes to move.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But, technically, we don't really know if it's ability or if it's desire. So I said ability, but It just affects their movement, period. I don't know the causation.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:So and that gets Gets us into a theme for today's episode, which is correlation does not equal causation. Mhmm.
Jam:You may
Melissa:have heard that before, but it basically just means Just because 2 things seem to go together doesn't mean 1 causes the other.
Jam:Right. Dang. Interesting.
Melissa:Yes. So She pointed that out, and I said, you're so right. I do not even I did not even think. And she gets up really early and works out, so I was reading this groggily in my 1st phases of the morning and then realized that she was right. So that's That's the risk of me being a chemist and not a biologist as I accidentally attribute things to causation rather than correlation.
Melissa:And the other thing was we wanted to do a follow-up on how many people's mosquitoes kill each year.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:Yes. You had mentioned that you wanted to hear that statistic, so I dug in a little. Wikipedia came in with a whopping 1,000,000 people a year die from mosquito transmitted diseases. Dude.
Jam:Yikes.
Melissa:And I couldn't I know. And I couldn't confirm that a 100%. I couldn't get access to the journal they referenced in their, the Wikipedia references. Mhmm. But harvard.edu quoted a number above 1,000,000 a care.
Melissa:And the CDC said that mosquitoes are one of the most deadly animals or the most deadly in the animal kingdom. Mhmm. And in 2017, just malaria killed 435,000 people. So that's
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:That's, like, half a1000000 right there, and that's just malaria, but mosquitoes also transmit West Nile, yellow fever, Zika, and a few other ones. So I think that actually that million a year number is not wrong.
Jam:Yeah. Dude, that's crazy. Yet and malaria alone is no joke. I mean, like, obviously, all those are serious, but, man, that was just like a regular, challenge in a good chunk of the world where it's just like, yeah. We just got the it's like anytime I could get this.
Jam:It just I'm, like, 1 mosquito bite away at any moment from getting malaria. Just like a Yeah. A thing. That's nuts, dude. Gosh.
Melissa:And I think that number, that 1,000,000 people a year number shows me why there's so much research. Everywhere I looked, I was need more information that I've had to really narrow it down about mosquitoes. And so and there's I just typed in Mosquito repellent chemistry, like, the chemistry journal that everything gets published in, and it just went on forever. Yeah. So there's a lot of information, and I'm trying to hone it in, but it just makes sense because so many people's lives are at risk because of these things, these nuisance Yeah.
Melissa:Mosquitoes. Okay. Where we left off last week is. You asked why some people get bitten more than other people.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. And how people, like, have overheard Multiple conversations where people are theorizing about why. I mean, just random guesses or jokes like you were saying.
Jam:Like, moms will be like, oh, it's because you're so sweet and stuff. So anything from that to people theorizing that it's, like, blood type and all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of theories out there.
Melissa:Well, I wanted to confirm first that that even happens scientifically, statistically, and the answer is yes.
Jam:Uh-huh. Interesting.
Melissa:Definitely some people or some factors in people attract mosquitoes more than others. And this goes hand in hand with what you talk we talked about last week. Do you remember the 3 things that attract mosquitoes to people just in general.
Jam:Carbon dioxide. Mhmm. And it was like acids and stuff. Mhmm.
Melissa:Do you remember what those acids there's a special word I said for those acids.
Jam:Hey, dude. That's rough stuff, folks.
Melissa:They're Lactic acid. The vol Oh, volatile. Yes.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Volatile.
Melissa:So lactic acid is right. That was one type that we specifically talked about, but they're volatile. So they become an odor that the mosquitoes can smell.
Jam:Got it. For For some reason, there's only 2 things I can remember. You said there's 3. Dang it.
Melissa:The third one was hard. It was remember, there was the blood that they kept, And in one state, the blood never attracted any mosquitoes.
Jam:Oh, temperature.
Melissa:Yep. Yeah. That's exactly right.
Jam:Right. Okay. So
Melissa:So you you see correlations there.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:There's a correlation to the factors that attract mosquitoes and the factors that attract mosquitoes more to some people than others. Mhmm. So that's your your volatile compounds, your carbon dioxide, and then your body temperature.
Jam:Mhmm. Right.
Melissa:There is a correlation between certain type of bacteria and attraction to mosquitoes to land. Mhmm. There's also a correlation between the carbon dioxide that you exhale, which then that says maybe the higher your metabolic rate is, you're exhaling more CO 2 or if you're working out or Something like that, you're going to be more likely of a target. Maybe you're working hard, mowing the lawn.
Jam:Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Just or it could I I guess that could even be, like, change from day to day.
Jam:Like, where 1 person today for those reasons is more attractive with somebody else or something like that.
Melissa:Right?
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I didn't find any specific studies that showed that a higher body temperature increase mosquito attraction, but I did find one crazy thing. Yeah? Pregnant women were found to be twice as attractive to mosquitoes.
Jam:Dude, that is crazy.
Melissa:And the way they did this study was they had 4 women in Identical huts sleeping under a net, and the number of mosquitoes were counted the next day. And Twice as many mosquitoes in the 2 pregnant women's hut than in the 2 nonpregnant women's hut.
Jam:Dang. That's crazy.
Melissa:The thing is pregnant women exhale 21% greater volume, which means a greater percent of carbon dioxide. And their body temperatures are higher.
Jam:They're just breathing harder, I guess.
Melissa:I think they just have larger volume of of breath, which could be I know their blood volume increases.
Jam:Right. Right. Even if you even if you just breathe, like, slightly more rapidly, then that would mean The ear because, obviously, your lungs aren't gonna get bigger, something like that, but, like, you
Melissa:might feel faster.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. Well and their body temperatures are higher, so they have all of that.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:The one thing they did note was the pregnant women had to leave to go to the bathroom throw more often, so that also could have attracted more mosquitoes. Mhmm. But so we don't know for sure. Again, the correlation, but not necessarily causation. But pregnant women have more factors.
Melissa:And then also when you're pregnant, you've got all kinds of hormones going on, so it's possible that your volatile compounds are more attracted to mosquitoes at that time.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. I remember one time so it's not about mosquitoes, but about ants. M and I, She seems to get bit by ants quite more often.
Jam:And so we looked up something after we had some ants actually, like, Come into our house at night? Like, somehow they got into our bedroom at night and been
Melissa:I remember this. Yeah. They, like, surrounded her on the bed. Yeah.
Jam:So we were looking at some stuff, and there was a thing that It wasn't like a scientific paper, but she found this thing that said that there's a theory that that when you're pregnant, you get bit by ants more. And she was like, Am am I pregnant?
Melissa:We weren't we weren't, you
Jam:know, trying to have a kid yet or anything like that. And so it was like, we had a scare basically just because we read that thinking that, like, Maybe that was the case, and it wasn't. But, it was really funny for as a story later on to be like, I thought we're pregnant, but mainly it's just because she was getting bit by ants, not because we had any other proof.
Melissa:That's so funny.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:That's real. It's real. Pregnant women are more attractive at least to mosquitoes.
Jam:Interesting, dude. That's crazy. Any bummer Mhmm. Is if it's not already hard enough to be pregnant. Jeez.
Jam:Come on, Missy. That was cut them a cut them some slack.
Melissa:I appreciated that that also reinforced the correlation and causation thing because there is a correlation, but we don't know if it's because they're pregnant, because of their blood volume, because of their exhaling volume because of their body temperature. We don't know. But Yeah. That's just further proof that some people are more attractive than others to mosquitoes. And there was another study that showed that humans are more attractive to mosquitoes after drinking beer.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:Like, the same person would drink alcohol or I think it was beer specifically Uh-huh. And they had a higher percent of of landing. So it wasn't bitten, but it was they're more likely to be landed on after they drank the alcohol.
Jam:Which then affords more opportunities to The mosquito tube bite if they're landing
Melissa:Right.
Jam:On the same person more often.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That's really weird. Is do they know why or have a theory of why?
Melissa:They had some theories, but it didn't seem like anything was super clear.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They They controlled for body temperature because some people can have increased body temperature when they drink alcohol, and it was not that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I don't know.
Jam:Dude, that's crazy.
Melissa:Maybe it has something to do with your metabolic activity. Maybe it has something to do with When you breathe out, there's a greater amount of something. Who knows?
Jam:Yeah. Weird, dude. Interesting.
Melissa:So that's The answer to your question about why some people get bitten more than others. But I have a question that I wanna answer next.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:My question is, it seems like I'll be around my friends, and we're both maybe getting equally landed on. Mhmm. But, for example, I was out with my roommate all day one day. We were in all these different locations, and then we came home. And don't worry.
Melissa:We're social distanced and safe and everything. Not from each other, but from
Jam:Others.
Melissa:Yeah. We were doing, I think, photo shoot stuff. I can't remember. Mhmm. And she had welts all over her legs the next day from the mosquitoes, and I had nothing.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:So then and she was itchy, and I was nothing. So then my question Did
Jam:you have I was gonna say so Did you feel like you had a similar amount of bites, but did each They weren't as re reactive? Your body wasn't reacting as strongly to it? Or did you or does it make you also have fewer bites?
Melissa:I don't know. Okay. And that's where I kind of was wondering about what's up with that. So to answer that question, we had to dig into why do Mosquito bites itch.
Jam:I well, I have a sort of a theory, but it's more about the body reaction, not about the Not with the mosquito side themselves.
Melissa:Okay. What do you think it is? Well, I
Jam:know that because I'm allergic to a lot of stuff, I've had been subject to more allergy stuff discussions and information than I probably ever wanted to know. What? Just just the presence of histamine in the body, as a reaction to external things, whether it be, like, Plants or grass or animals or insects or whatever as a, if that's the body's reaction to those things. And so that's why you take an antihistamine to try to subdue your allergies because you're trying to tell your body to, like, chill out. That's more about your body reacting to the thing rather than the thing causing your skin to flare up or whatever.
Jam:It's more like your body's kind of Causing that as a reaction to the presence of that thing. And that's the only theory I would have about the mosquitoes.
Melissa:Well, that's right.
Jam:Dude.
Melissa:It is it's an immune response to the foreign proteins in the mosquito bite saliva.
Jam:Oh, there's saliva. Interesting.
Melissa:That's that's how it was put in 1. The other one was just that foreign proteins introduce into your body when the bite occurs or whatever. So I don't know if it's technically saliva. That's biology again. But, essentially, when the bite happens, foreign proteins are present in your skin that shouldn't be there.
Melissa:Mhmm. And Your immune system reacts as an alert saying something's happening that shouldn't be here.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And what's amazing to me about that is that matters because This these particular creatures, when they bite you, can give you a virus that could kill you. Right. And there was 1 study that investigated. There were some people that didn't have the interest itch response to mosquitoes Mhmm. The way I seem to not really have it.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And there were some people that did, and they tested. And the people who didn't have a niche response We're more likely to acquire this specific type of virus than people who do have an itch response. So that could be because whatever Medically allows them to develop an immunity to the mosquitoes also makes them more susceptible to the virus, or it could be because They don't have an itch response, so mosquitoes don't bother them so they don't avoid mosquitoes.
Jam:Right. Woah.
Melissa:They They don't have The warning system.
Jam:That's crazy. So it's not really a blessing to not be as itchy and bothered and stuff like that. It could turn out if you're being Bit by that infected mosquito or whatever that's carrying something to be a huge downside. Dang, dude. That's crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. It's interesting because it's another thing that could shows the correlation and causation thing.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:There's a correlation between people who don't have an interresponse being more likely to acquire this virus.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But that could be for any number of reasons, but it seems that it's possible that because they don't have that warning system, they're more likely to be infected. And I've seen that in my own life. I don't have that warning system, and people think people will say to me, I don't wanna sit outside where I'm gonna get eaten up, and I think I don't really care.
Jam:Yeah. Right.
Melissa:So I would choose to be around mosquitoes, which are so dangerous because I don't get annoyed by them.
Jam:Yeah. Right. Right. I'm the same way. I'd I mean, temperature would be a good reason To not set aside for some reason?
Jam:For, like, depending on what if you're eating outside or hanging out with people? That's my only real, factor that I consider. But bugs and stuff is not really it. It has to be really bad for me to care. It just doesn't end up bothering me as much.
Jam:But also, I hate I know we haven't gotten into this Yeah. But I hate bug spray. So I'm also just Yeah. If I am gonna hang outside where there's mosquitoes, I'm also just not gonna put on repellent at all.
Melissa:Right. So Yeah. I can remember all the times we've sat outside this summer with COVID nineteen. The only way I'll see people is 6 feet apart outside.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I have been bothered by the number of mosquitoes one time, and I had a few bites the next day. A few. That's it. Yeah. So I'm kinda with you, but that goes into another thing.
Melissa:Now some people seem to develop an immunity to the itch response. They just don't have an itch response to the bites. Mhmm. But there have also been studies that investigate using antihistamine to treat that itch response in children. Mhmm.
Melissa:And it just so happens that one of the medicines they use, it's not the most effective one according to one study, but one medicine that Can be used to treat mosquito bites is the medicine that I take every day for my daily allergies. Do you take medicine? You said you have allergies.
Jam:I do. I, don't take it daily. I take it Basically, seasonally. So, like, I'll take it every day, like, when spring starts, basically, every day when I guess kinda when a lot of leaves start falling in the fall, I kinda get another flare up of allergies, but I do not take it every day on the whole, just when my allergies flare up.
Melissa:Well, it's possible that part of the reason I don't experience as much Irritation at mosquitoes is because I'm taking allergy medicine for other stuff, and it's treating it.
Jam:Man, interesting.
Melissa:It's just over the counter. It's off brand Claritin is what I use.
Jam:I use off brand Zyrtec.
Melissa:So it seemed like Zyrtec was the most effective at treating it of this Uh-huh. This one study tested 3, a gen generic ZYRTEC, Claritin, and another one I never heard of. Mhmm. And I think ZYRTEC was the most, and Claritin was the least. Mhmm.
Melissa:But another study just looked into Claritin, and it was effective to some degree in reducing the itch Interesting. Response.
Jam:Mhmm. Dude, that's great.
Melissa:So it's possible that Some people get bitten more because of all their physiological factors. Mhmm. But it's also possible that you've developed Itch response immunity or you've just built up an immunity against the proteins, and it's possible that Your allergy medicine is suppressing that itch response.
Jam:Interesting. That makes sense. But wow. I wouldn't have initially just thought about that, But that makes sense.
Melissa:Wow. Right. And next time you're gloating about how you don't really get bitten by mosquitoes, just know that that makes you more susceptible perhaps
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:2 viruses. Yeah. Specifically, this 1 virus. But I would say if you're not avoiding mosquitoes because you don't have a bad response, Seems like you'd be more likely to be exposed to something. Yeah.
Jam:Dang. That's that's rough. That's serious stuff.
Melissa:That's crazy. So that's what I have for you today. K. It's kind of a lot. So I'm gonna let you decide how you wanna tell that all back to me.
Jam:Okay. So the factors we talked about last week that attract I'm just curious, in the 1st place of c o two, volatile acids, and temperature. And then those can be factors in Then picking 1 person over another.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And, like, having maybe more c o two than somebody else, or Maybe higher temperature than somebody else or maybe more presence of, volatile acids or something about bacteria as well can make you more favorable than the next person depending on Mhmm. Situation or, Even weird things like being pregnant Mhmm. For maybe potential number of reasons, but, larger presence of c o two could be one of the bigger ones. Or if it's something weird like drinking more beer Mhmm. Like, The same person, doesn't get bit only gets bit a certain amount, drinks beer and gets bit more On the whole?
Jam:Like,
Melissa:that's landed on more.
Jam:Landed on. Sorry. Landed on more, which gives more opportunity for a mosquito to bite them.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:So it seems like there's, like, a lot of weird reasons that a mosquito could bite somebody more than somebody else.
Melissa:Right. And I think a lot of it is that it's there's so many factors that it's hard to know for sure what one thing is causing it, but it seems like All these things play a role.
Jam:And that makes sense. That it makes a lot more sense that it'd be, like, potentially a combination of a Few small things, then, like, one easy thing. Because, I mean, not to think that then we would have, like, figured out. It it seems like if it was something like, one small thing, One simple thing, we would have easily found a way to curb or prevent mosquitoes from landing on us. So it makes sense that it's like a A lot of small potentially small things in combination in any number of ways.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. I wonder if they realize the mosquitoes had some kind of response to the CO two. They were thinking, no problem. We're just gonna disable the CO two receptor, And then they won't bite humans anymore. They did that, and they saw reduced activity in the mosquitoes that didn't have the c o two receptor, And they thought we're done, but then they put those mosquitoes in real life with a human being, and it was Almost no effect.
Melissa:And so you just have to think that they were ready. They were they were Thinking they'd had this huge breakthrough in mosquito repellent, life saving science, and then it was. Yeah. Nope. Mhmm.
Melissa:Mhmm. And so I just feel like that's a good picture of science's little pieces that get built on and on and on to find something new. So
Jam:And then the other side, the we talked about about people reacting then to being bit. Mhmm.
Melissa:Some
Jam:Some people will definitely have a really strong, itchy reaction, big, like, raised skin, redness, a lot of it tends itching. Others don't have as much of that, and that that's the body's reaction to a foreign protein from the saliva of mosquito bites. Mhmm. And that it's in general a good thing because your body's recognizing something that's not meant to be there. Mhmm.
Jam:Responding to it to try to prevent it from getting in the body or whatever, and that seems to help prevent Maybe people from getting the different viruses and and diseases that mosquitoes can carry, that people can get, both by being a deterrent for those people to spend time In mosquito heavy environments?
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And it does it also just have a chance of preventing The person from being infected even if they do get bit? Or they're just about
Melissa:think we don't know. So they would not make that statement. They just said It in this study, it was found that you're more likely to acquire this virus if you did not have a history of an itch response to mosquito know bites. Okay. So it's just about
Jam:likeliness likelihood. Right. Not not about, like, Your body's able to fight off malaria or whatever.
Melissa:Right. We just don't know. It could be that, or it could be because of the avoiding mosquitoes thing. We just don't know. That was definitely correlation, not causation, which is the theme of today's episode.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Gosh, dude. That's nuts. Man.
Melissa:It really is so cool.
Jam:Yeah. Did I miss anything?
Melissa:No. I think that was great. We did talk about how your allergy Medicine could be suppressing your rich response. But I do think, overall, this is such a fun topic. This has been really interesting.
Melissa:I've been reading a lot of scientific papers that aren't my usual chemistry papers. Uh-huh. But I'm really excited because next week, we're gonna dig into what's up with mosquito repellent, What's the best kind of mosquito repellent that's on the market now? What information can I find about that? And then what are all these These scientific studies telling us about the next generation of mosquito repellents and what we can do in the future.
Melissa:I think it's gonna be really fun.
Jam:And finally, the question 1 question we've all been wondering is what even is DEET? Like, okay. What the heck is it? Why is it on all the bottles? What is DEET?
Jam:Why is
Melissa:the tell you how many people have asked me that exact question.
Jam:Stupid DEET. What a stupid name For whatever it is, I can't wait to find out what it really is.
Melissa:Okay. Well and that's all very chemistry heavy. So I think that's gonna be 2 episodes. Who knows? It could get crazy.
Melissa:It could be 3. Who knows? I could be able wanna fit it all in. It could be 1. We're gonna see what happens, but I'm really happy living here in this mosquito world.
Melissa:I've learned a lot. There's so much research, And I'm excited to do the chemistry part next week.
Jam:Me too, dude. Yeah. So tune in next week for all the details.
Melissa:No. How did I not see that coming? Okay. Well, Jim, now we've talked about mosquitoes. You've done your science Listen, do you wanna share something that has happened in your week, a good thing that's happened in your week?
Jam:Yeah. Absolutely. I have had a really hard time getting back into the work mode, Okay. After having a kid. I'm sure that anyone who's had a kid is, like, try having 2.
Jam:You know? Like, That's just what comes with the territory. But, so that's been tough. But this week, I did finally kinda get into a little bit more of a groove, later in the week and finished a so almost finished a project, like, submitted a first draft to a client of this, design for a magazine ad, and I was, like, just A little bit unsure about if it was even in the right direction. That's the 1st draft, so that's the first thing they're seeing of me interpreting their instructions.
Jam:You know?
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And they sent an email back, and they're like, yeah. We just wanna change, like, the language here, which is actually the language they sent me so it's not even a change about the design. And they they loved it. It was like Woah. Why was I even sweating?
Jam:It's not wasn't that complicated of a design, which is what they wanted, in the 1st place, but I was just kinda like, I don't know, man. Like, I'll just send it, and then I'm done. And then they might have a ton of changes, but at least the ball's in their court for a sec. And but they loved it. So I felt like, okay.
Jam:Good. This is, like, really paid off. I'm glad I got into a groove, and then I'm feeling, Encouraged by my first first real productive groove since having a kid. So that was a good
Melissa:Aw, congratulations.
Jam:It's a good feeling.
Melissa:Mine is similar. I almost talked about how my roommates came back from being out of town today.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But instead, while you're talking, I realized that I too turned in, I would say what would be my 1st final draft.
Jam:Uh-huh. 1st final draft.
Melissa:So I've turned in the 1st draft, a very crude draft, a long time ago, we talked about of my proposal.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And in this case, I am getting close to my final draft.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So I I've been working on it. It's been really hard to motivate myself to work, I think, partially because of just quarantine being at home all the time Mhmm. Dealing with everything in my personal life with my mom. It's just been a lot.
Jam:Totally.
Melissa:And so I I also feel like I just finally got back into a good work groove and was able to submit that. And I'm in the place you're in where I I'm thinking, I don't know if this is good enough.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:I feel like it's not, like, scientific y enough. It's my 1st proposal ever, and it's my first one in this field. So I have a lot of questions, but I finished it. And I worked card all week. And then I took a weekend to myself, and I did a lot of fun stuff, like, at my house, I mean.
Melissa:I watched TV and made this little mini cake and did all these fun things just to kind of say, I'm done. I did it. It happened. So Now I just have to see what happens next and work on getting together my defense of that proposal, I'm pretty excited. So Dude, that's awesome.
Melissa:Exciting. Congrats.
Jam:That's a great feeling.
Melissa:So we both had good work weeks. That's fun that that lined up.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously. That's great. Let's keep it up.
Melissa:Okay. Well, that's it. Thanks so much for coming and listening and learning about mosquitoes, and I'm so excited to talk about it again next week.
Jam:Dude, me too. Thanks so much for teaching us. Mohsen and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but wanna hear from you. Topics like mosquitoes, multifaceted topics, you know, small ones, 1 episode series, whatever it is. If you've got questions or ideas, please reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life.
Jam:That's Kim, f o r, your life, to share your thoughts and ideas. If If you like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, check out our merch campaign at bonfire.com/store/chem for your life, And buy a mug, buy a shirt. Just check it out, and, everything you buy there helps us to to keep the show going. If you aren't able to do that, You can help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. That helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Real Life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jam Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jame Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. Calini and Inul who reviewed this episode.
