Melissa: 00:00

Hi, all. For this month's rerelease, we're really excited to bring you an episode all the way back from October of 2019.

Jam: 00:08

Remember that, guys? Remember that that year that year was 20 years ago.

Melissa: 00:12

20, 19 years ago. So the episode that we're bringing to you is on theme with Botox because the thing we're talking about is the number one defender against photoaging and wrinkles.

Jam: 00:25

That's right. You guessed it. It's salted butter.

Melissa: 00:27

No. It's sunscreen. You should be wearing it every day. And if you're curious while you're putting it on every day to protect To your skin, this episode is all about the chemistry behind how it does so.

Jam: 00:39

So it's very related, and it's super cool. And if you hadn't heard it, then you definitely should listen to it. And then next week, we'll be back with a brand spanking new chemistry lesson episode for you guys.

Melissa: 00:50

1 that I'm excited about.

Jam: 00:52

For a change.

Melissa: 00:52

For a change. Alright. Happy listening.

Melissa: 01:07

Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 01:09

I'm Jam.

Melissa: 01:10

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 01:11

And I'm not.

Melissa: 01:12

And welcome into chemistry for your life.

Jam: 01:14

The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.

Melissa: 01:17

Jim, you didn't point at chemistry this time.

Jam: 01:19

I actually pointed under the table. That's gonna be a little more discreet. So

Melissa: 01:24

Okay. Today, we're gonna talk about Sunscreen.

Jam: 01:29

Woah. Sunscreen. Okay. Sunscreen. Like, how it works kinda thing?

Melissa: 01:35

Oh, absolutely.

Jam: 01:37

Oh, okay.

Melissa: 01:37

What did you think we were gonna talk about?

Jam: 01:39

Like, whether he should or should not eat it.

Melissa: 01:41

This isn't your other podcast jam. We don't just Talk about what's tough.

Jam: 01:44

We just speculate. Yeah. It is so funny how different these fires are.

Melissa: 01:49

We're gonna talk about how Sunscreen works.

Jam: 01:53

Okay.

Melissa: 01:53

What the different types of it are.

Jam: 01:55

Mhmm.

Melissa: 01:57

And then you're gonna tell it back to me.

Jam: 01:59

Okay. Deal.

Melissa: 02:02

Okay. So memory jog, test time.

Jam: 02:06

Okay.

Melissa: 02:07

Hopefully, you get an a. Do you remember the electromagnetic spectrum?

Jam: 02:16

I do. I well, I don't remember, like, All of it because we didn't really do that. But Mhmm. The idea of it is that waves have different Frequencies?

Melissa: 02:29

Mhmm. And some

Jam: 02:31

of those frequencies fall within visible light

Melissa: 02:34

Mhmm. What we

Jam: 02:34

can see, because it is waves, like, Bouncing off of stuff, which is how we see. Yeah. And there are there's all kinds of waves Mhmm. Because there's also microwaves, which is what Powers microwaves.

Melissa: 02:48

Mhmm.

Jam: 02:48

And then we talked a little bit about other kinds of ways that we don't see, Like, microwaves and UV rays? Mhmm. And we didn't really go much further outside of that. Like, it was

Melissa: 03:02

radio waves too.

Jam: 03:03

Oh, yeah. Radio waves.

Melissa: 03:05

Infrared. There's lots of other waves.

Jam: 03:06

And if we were doing this podcast about 20 years ago, you guys would be hearing us through radio waves instead of, through the Internet. So

Melissa: 03:16

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Here's a question I have.

Jam: 03:20

Okay.

Melissa: 03:20

What is the Internet? This is a tangent. We don't have to talk about it, but isn't it weird? Mhmm. Are there waves that are in the air getting the Internet Wi Fi to my computer?

Melissa: 03:30

That's more

Jam: 03:30

what I'm wondering about. Yeah. Yeah. They do.

Melissa: 03:32

It is waves? Mhmm. There are waves getting my computer that are Internet?

Jam: 03:36

I'm pretty sure.

Melissa: 03:37

I don't know anything. I don't understand Wi Fi at all, and I sometimes believe I never will. It took me a long time to even understand what the Internet was.

Jam: 03:45

I think it is because they started with radio.

Melissa: 03:48

This is such a

Jam: 03:50

I know. It really is. I don't I don't have much to say about

Melissa: 03:52

it so have to cut this out. Yeah. I don't

Jam: 03:53

have much to say, so it doesn't even Didn't you have to go very long. But it started with radio, and that was, like, we were we got first, we got the, like, Morse code thing. We figured out how to get that across to people. Then we started figuring out, oh, let's do some voices. That'd be a little more complex.

Jam: 04:07

Let's do it. And that was waves. Mhmm. And then we We started getting images too, images and sound. Started doing TV like that.

Jam: 04:15

And then

Melissa: 04:16

we started doing TV works either now that I think about it.

Jam: 04:19

Internet Is, it's all like this this level of, like, escalating what the wave can do kinda thing? Yeah.

Melissa: 04:26

Blows my mind. Okay. I have

Jam: 04:27

no idea how it works either, so

Melissa: 04:29

that's all I got. Great. Well okay. So that your explanation of the electromagnetic spectrum before we diverted was great. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 04:37

That is a good idea. I just say it's the, basically, collection of waves that we have that we've categorized according to frequency and sort of their characteristics. So we've categorized those waves in different things. Now the light that comes from the sun, there's, An abundance. There's the visible light, but, also, the sun gives off ultraviolet light.

Jam: 05:02

Right.

Melissa: 05:03

And I'm sure most people have heard of Ultraviolet or UV rays from the sun. Those are actually a type of wave. So it's energy coming out from the sun in ultraviolet. Okay.

Jam: 05:17

And

Melissa: 05:17

we talked about how maybe the Mantra strip can actually see the ultraviolet.

Jam: 05:21

We didn't. Yeah. Yeah. From the radio

Melissa: 05:23

is just outside the visible region. Right. It's just barely not visible to us. Yeah. Same thing with infrared, but on the other side of the visible region.

Melissa: 05:31

Jin. So it's basically, like, extra red, but we can't see it, and extra violet, but we can't see it.

Jam: 05:37

That's so weird to me too.

Melissa: 05:38

That actually has yeah.

Jam: 05:39

That actually has, like, a Mhmm. Color name to it is kinda interesting.

Melissa: 05:43

So ultraviolet waves that come from the sun, however, can be damaging to your skin.

Jam: 05:50

Okay.

Melissa: 05:51

We've heard about that.

Jam: 05:52

Yep. Yeah. It's still kinda blows my mind because it is like, it's just light though. But Yeah.

Melissa: 06:00

But that doesn't mean it's safe.

Jam: 06:02

Right. I think it's just that, like, the idea of so it's just outside the visible range?

Melissa: 06:07

Mhmm.

Jam: 06:08

So they have, like, what if I walked into a room that had a light bulb on and it was, like, You're hurting me. You know what I

Melissa: 06:14

mean? So they're we have UV lamps that we use in the lab. Uh-huh. And if you look directly into them, you could burn your eyeballs.

Jam: 06:20

Wow. So they're okay. Thanks. You

Melissa: 06:23

So it can even be in a light bulb?

Jam: 06:24

You've created a little miniature sun Mhmm. In a lab.

Melissa: 06:28

Well, it doesn't usually let out visible light. It usually only UV, so it only lets out UV. It's almost like a black light. A black light may be similar but weaker or something. I'm not sure exactly how backlights work, But Yeah.

Melissa: 06:39

We have a UV light so that we can see something known as UV active compounds, but that is another I mean, it's related here, but this is another story for another day. A little too complicated than you're willing to go today.

Jam: 06:52

Okay.

Melissa: 06:52

So do you have an idea of Maybe knowing that UV is a wave and what you learned about waves and microwaves, what sunscreen could possibly be doing? I want the listeners at home also to be thinking, if they can come up with something.

Jam: 07:12

What could sunscreen be doing? My thought is that it'd have to, like, In some way like, some people call it sunblock instead of e instead of sunscreen.

Melissa: 07:22

Mhmm.

Jam: 07:23

But it sounds like rather than block. Because not as it wits, you're just gonna go nowhere. Maybe you'd have to, like, bounce them or, like, Reflect them somewhere else because it kinda seems like that'd be beyond our control. Like, we couldn't just be like, nope. You're gone.

Jam: 07:39

Done.

Melissa: 07:39

Ding ding ding ding ding.

Jam: 07:41

Is that right?

Melissa: 07:42

Yes. I think this is the 1st time you ever gotten an almost perfect answer. Woah. Woah. Okay.

Melissa: 07:48

So I

Jam: 07:48

mean, Spider Man won, To be fair

Melissa: 07:51

That was really close, but you didn't know about dispersion forces. Yeah.

Jam: 07:54

I didn't. That's true. Yeah. They didn't go into that in the movie. It's so weird.

Jam: 07:58

I see.

Melissa: 08:00

It's so weird that they didn't talk about dispersal forces in Spider Man. I mean, it's such riveting information.

Jam: 08:06

So So it that's what it's doing. It's it's like bouncing the wave on someone?

Melissa: 08:10

One way. So there's 2 different types of of approaches that sunblock or sunscreen has.

Jam: 08:17

Okay.

Melissa: 08:17

Very similar to what we talked about with microwaves Mhmm. The inorganic compounds, Like, metals reflect microwaves can also just reflect and divert away

Jam: 08:29

Oh, yeah.

Melissa: 08:29

Those waves. I

Jam: 08:30

didn't think about that's what that was happening with microwaves. Yeah. I didn't make the connection. But,

Melissa: 08:34

So if you haven't listened to the microwave episode, go back and look. Yeah. So, basically, the waves came in come in and hit something that is impenetrable to them Mhmm. And it reflects them away.

Jam: 08:44

That's pretty crazy. How how is a cream impenetrable to them?

Melissa: 08:48

It has inorganic compounds in it. So you're basically spreading around. I think the major compound used in That is called titanium dioxide

Jam: 08:57

Okay.

Melissa: 08:57

Which is basically an inorganic compound with titanium and two Jen. Mhmm. And it actually is white, and that's

Jam: 09:07

Oh, interesting.

Melissa: 09:08

We've got the sun blocking sunscreen here. Mhmm. So that's one way that sunscreen works. Okay. It's it's doing exactly what you said.

Melissa: 09:20

It's taking in those waves and blocking him, keeping him, like Captain America's shield.

Jam: 09:27

Oh, yeah. Nice. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Jam: 09:28

Yeah.

Melissa: 09:28

They hit it, and it just goes off of it. Like Yes. Exactly. Okay. So that's one type.

Melissa: 09:35

The other type

Jam: 09:37

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:37

Is This is a fun one, and we are definitely gonna talk about this again when we talk about Solar panels.

Jam: 09:47

Okay.

Melissa: 09:48

The other type has organic compounds. This is the kind I already knew about before I started researching or because I'm an organic chemist. Uh-huh. It has organic who knows? Organic chemist.

Melissa: 10:00

It has or We're doing

Jam: 10:02

that for

Melissa: 10:02

chemicals. Yeah. Teeny organic chemist on your Yeah. It has organic compounds in it Uh-huh. Which happen to just like water happens to absorb microwaves Mhmm.

Melissa: 10:13

And Dispels that energy as heat.

Jam: 10:15

Mhmm.

Melissa: 10:16

It has sun the sunscreen has organic compounds in the sunscreen Yeah. That absorb The UV waves and just dispel that energy as heat.

Jam: 10:27

Woah. Mhmm. That's crazy to me. That really is. I'm like, It it seems like it'd be so unstoppable.

Jam: 10:33

Like, the idea of bouncing it seems like, okay. I can I can get that? Uh-huh. The idea of, like, been like

Melissa: 10:38

It absorbs that and makes it harmless. Oh my gosh. Releases it as heat.

Jam: 10:43

That's really cool. So is one of them, like, the more classic way? Like, do we know how to do the bouncing, Reflecting kinda thing before when you had to absorb?

Melissa: 10:52

Before you answer your question, I just wanna say, I think that this is amazing.

Jam: 10:57

I I completely agree. I'm like, I I didn't believe that my answer at the beginning kind of shows that. Like, I didn't believe that you could just Disperse Mhmm. Or, like, transform those waves. I thought you had to just at least redirect it.

Jam: 11:11

Kinda like a bullet coming at you. Like, one of the best ways really, Truly, the one of the best ways to be should we have something that's gonna make it ricochet off. You know what I mean? Like

Melissa: 11:19

But then that's dangerous because, like, for in the case of a bale, it could ricochet and hit someone else.

Jam: 11:25

Like, that that level of danger when it's like, it's coming at you. It's coming fast.

Melissa: 11:29

Mhmm.

Jam: 11:29

Don't try anything like

Melissa: 11:30

Mhmm. Don't

Jam: 11:30

try to catch it. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like yeah.

Melissa: 11:33

But this way, it's almost as if it turns the bullet into something harmless like water.

Jam: 11:37

That'd be pretty crazy.

Melissa: 11:38

Mhmm. If only

Jam: 11:39

all the bullets could be turned to water.

Melissa: 11:40

Seriously. So, to answer your question, I'm not sure which one came first. Uh-huh. I would have to look in a little bit further, which I did not do.

Jam: 11:50

Yeah.

Melissa: 11:51

But I I or I already knew about the absorption The ones I did not know about the titanium dioxide ones because I spend more of my life in the organic realm than the general chemistry realm.

Jam: 12:03

Right. Yeah.

Melissa: 12:06

So I can't answer that. But isn't that so cool?

Jam: 12:10

Yeah. That's awesome. That is crazy.

Melissa: 12:13

Do you have any other questions about it?

Jam: 12:15

We like, what's the more common sunscreen that most of us have have dealt with? Which method do you think it is used?

Melissa: 12:23

I don't actually know the answer to that question, but let me do some quick reach research and see what I can find. Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Okay.

Melissa: 12:39

So after some research, I did not find which one was most common.

Jam: 12:43

Mhmm.

Melissa: 12:43

But I did find that sunscreen, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, sunscreen is regulated by the FDA.

Jam: 12:50

Okay.

Melissa: 12:50

And it seems that at this time, all the sunscreen that's legally sold in the United States is Regulated and should be safe.

Jam: 13:00

Okay.

Melissa: 13:01

So I don't know which one is most common. There's not a lot of information on that, but it does seem that it's all safe.

Jam: 13:09

Okay. So you said the most common ones are the ones that have titanium dioxide and zinc oxide?

Melissa: 13:15

No. The said the ones that are safe, most generally recognized as safe and effective.

Jam: 13:19

Have that?

Melissa: 13:20

Mhmm. K. So they're, like, the blocking kind.

Jam: 13:23

So those would be the refracting kind?

Melissa: 13:25

Yeah. But Then it says that 2 other ingredients that are not safe are some chemical ones, but not those aren't the only chemical options.

Jam: 13:32

Yeah. Okay. Got it.

Melissa: 13:33

So even though we don't know which one's the most common, I can't find any reliable source that tells me that at this time. Yeah. I could maybe just pull up a bunch of nutrition labels. Do they have the what are those called? Chemical labels on the back And see but that information does not appear to be readily available to me.

Melissa: 13:50

But if there is someone who knows, please let me know.

Jam: 13:52

Yeah. That'd be awesome.

Melissa: 13:53

And a little aside, Some sunscreen is not good for the environment. So if we have any biologists out there listening, please write in and tell us what you know about which sunscreens are safe for the environment? Yeah. Because we'd like to give a little PSA about that. Yeah.

Melissa: 14:11

Okay. So before I I do wanna say one more thing. But before I do that, do you have any more questions about sunscreen and how it works?

Jam: 14:20

So it's basically, like not really a question. I I think I do want to check to make sure I'm understanding. Okay. We can do that at the time when you you wanna do that?

Melissa: 14:31

Let me tell yeah. Let me tell you this one more thing. So there are the UV Range is broken up into UVA and UVB.

Jam: 14:40

Okay.

Melissa: 14:43

The UVB range is the one that is most likely dangerous For the majority of burns, skin cancer, tanning, that's all UVB. Okay. UVA is likely less harmful. Mhmm. It's not as dangerous.

Melissa: 15:00

The most dangerous is UVC. Mhmm. That is absorbed by the ozone. So we're protected from UVC by the ozone.

Jam: 15:10

That's good.

Melissa: 15:11

That is good. Thank you for the ozone. Yeah.

Jam: 15:13

Thanks, ozone. Appreciate you.

Melissa: 15:16

So you may have heard broad broad range sunscreen and then non broad range sunscreen. So our broad spectrum sunscreen.

Jam: 15:26

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 15:26

So that just means the broad spectrum protects against UVA and UVB. So in case there's any little bit of danger from the UVA, you're also protected from that broad range sunscreen.

Jam: 15:38

Okay. Got it.

Melissa: 15:39

So I did wanna address that. I also wanted to say SPF stands for sun protection factor.

Jam: 15:45

I actually knew that.

Melissa: 15:46

You did? Mhmm. Wow.

Jam: 15:48

I only knew that because I think It's one of those things that I like to know what acronyms are if I interact with them a lot. Mhmm. And it's one of those that's kinda cool to know, because in everybody says SPF all the time, and everybody knows, Like, a little bit of, like, oh, I'm looking for SPF whatever because they don't really know what they're actually Mhmm. Asking because it's like it's just like not knowing what a dollar is. You know?

Jam: 16:08

Yeah. Dollars? It's like, what's a dollar? It's like

Melissa: 16:10

Well, do you know how they calculate SPF?

Jam: 16:13

No. I don't know that at all.

Melissa: 16:14

I just knew what the acronym what it was without learning what it really was.

Jam: 16:18

I just wanted to know what the acronym meant.

Melissa: 16:21

So well, I'll say this. SPF Uh-huh. Is The amount of sun that is allowed through. So say you have a 100% of sun hitting your skin. If you have SPF 15, that means 1 15th of that sun is able to get through your skin.

Melissa: 16:38

If you have SPF 30, it's 1 30th. SPF a hundred, it's 1 100.

Jam: 16:43

So it's the low it's the bottom part of the fraction, basically.

Melissa: 16:46

Mhmm.

Jam: 16:46

Yes. 15th, 1 30th, 1 50th, or whatever. Yes. Oh, interesting.

Melissa: 16:51

Mhmm. Oh, I did also wanna say there could be some even though it might not be dangerous for sunburn and sunscreen, for UVA can cause Some skin aging, like Okay. Wrinkles and making your skin look more long term damaged rather than tanning and burning. Right. And cancer, it would just be aging and wrinkles.

Melissa: 17:10

So Yeah. So it's useful to have broad Broad range sunscreen, broad spectrum sunscreen.

Jam: 17:16

Only if you believe there's anything wrong with wrinkles, which there is not.

Melissa: 17:20

Jim has really good ideas about beauty and What makes someone beautiful? But also damage to your skin isn't great. So sunscreen's probably good broad range even Yeah. Even not to protect against wrinkles, but just invisible damage that you can't see right away.

Jam: 17:36

Take care of yourself.

Melissa: 17:38

Definitely take care of your skin. Okay. So that's it.

Jam: 17:41

Okay.

Melissa: 17:42

That is how sunscreen works.

Jam: 17:44

Okay. I think I get it.

Melissa: 17:45

Okay.

Jam: 17:46

Ready?

Melissa: 17:46

I'm ready.

Jam: 17:47

So Just like we talked about in microwaves

Melissa: 17:50

Mhmm.

Jam: 17:51

When you put metal in microwave

Melissa: 17:53

Mhmm.

Jam: 17:54

It does not, like, It's not, like, affected by the waves in the same way.

Melissa: 17:59

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:00

It bounces them off. Mhmm. And so it's like, you're not getting in here waves.

Melissa: 18:04

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:05

Right? I'm a fork. Yeah. Messing me. So what we're doing when we put

Melissa: 18:08

on a fork. Come at me.

Jam: 18:12

So what we're doing when we put on sunscreen, If we're putting on a cream

Melissa: 18:18

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:18

Made up of not not exactly, but basically made up of a lot of little pieces of Metal or most commonly titanium dioxide?

Melissa: 18:28

Yeah. Which is a salt. It's a metal compound. Yeah. It's a metal plus a nonmetal, so it's Likely an ionic compound or salt.

Melissa: 18:36

For sure.

Jam: 18:37

That it has the it retains that same ability to not To to reflect the

Melissa: 18:43

Yes.

Jam: 18:43

UV.

Melissa: 18:44

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:44

The way it's just like we see when it does that with microwaves. Yes. So, It's

Melissa: 18:49

not exactly the same, but it's very, very similar.

Jam: 18:51

Right. We don't we don't want our skin sparking like that. We would not be good.

Melissa: 18:54

But Yes.

Jam: 18:55

The idea that it can be not affected by The waves. And so we're spreading this, basically, like, this super thin layer of metal all over our bodies.

Melissa: 19:06

Of a metal A compound.

Jam: 19:07

Metal compound salt. It sounds pretty cool to say it says thin layer. But, yeah, metal compound, salt thing or whatever. And when we do that, especially if we do it the right way and we do it thoroughly, then it reflects or bounces off all the UV.

Melissa: 19:22

That's right?

Jam: 19:22

It keeps it from damaging our skin. Especially if it's broad spectrum, then it means it will help to bounce off All kinds. All all the types of UV

Melissa: 19:33

Mhmm.

Jam: 19:34

That could hurt us, which is, like, that's crazy. And I'm sure there's a lot more at this at below the surface Still, like, talk about there or him like that if we wanted to get, like, crazy into the weeds?

Melissa: 19:43

Yeah. You can talk about, like, Johnson, why they absorb, what they absorb, but that's very in-depth. I didn't learn that till much, much Later on in

Jam: 19:50

And and it's already simple enough just to relate it to, like, hey. You know how this works in a microwave?

Melissa: 19:55

Mhmm.

Jam: 19:55

Imagine it kinda doing the same thing on your skin.

Melissa: 19:57

Right.

Jam: 19:58

It's like, oh, yeah. That's great. And thankful that that we have Yeah. Things like that.

Melissa: 20:04

Well, you only explained one type of sunscreen, though. What's the other kind?

Jam: 20:07

The other kind absorbs The, UV Mhmm. Waves. Correct?

Melissa: 20:13

Mhmm.

Jam: 20:14

And, like, transforms them? Yes. You said into heat. Right?

Melissa: 20:19

Yeah. Basically, it absorbs them, and then the molecules have added energy and that releases as heat Yeah. Basically.

Jam: 20:28

The if your

Melissa: 20:29

refills are excited, that's pretty much heat.

Jam: 20:32

And if you're out in the sun trying to not get sunburn you're already around heat anyways. You probably, like, wouldn't even Oh, you notice it?

Melissa: 20:37

Oh, yeah.

Jam: 20:38

So that's pretty crazy

Melissa: 20:39

Mhmm.

Jam: 20:40

That that can actually transform the waves and, like, render them like, disarm them, basically.

Melissa: 20:45

Amazing.

Jam: 20:46

Yeah. So, man, that's crazy.

Melissa: 20:48

And that's it. That's how sunscreen works.

Jam: 20:51

Did I get it?

Melissa: 20:52

You got it. You got it perfectly right. And I think that this is a really fun one, and it's pretty easy to understand. Yeah. And it's so amazing to me that people figured this out and thought through it.

Jam: 21:04

Yeah. Something I saw the other day on on the Internet was it was like a question on Reddit, and it asked, like, what's something that if it was called something else, people might actually take it seriously? And somebody said, what if a sunburn was instead called, like, radiation damage or something like that? It had a few different words.

Melissa: 21:22

Radiation poisoning.

Jam: 21:23

Yeah. Something like that. Some other words to cancer. Yeah. To describe what it is instead of just sunburn, because it kinda sounds a little bit like,

Melissa: 21:31

Oh, yeah.

Jam: 21:31

It's got a little burn. Like Yeah. Just like touching a hot stove. You're like, oh, yeah. You know, it'll go away.

Jam: 21:35

But the idea of talking about, like, if you call it something that Give a little more weight to its actual potential effect.

Melissa: 21:42

Right.

Jam: 21:42

How people might take it more seriously. So I've been thinking about that ever since I read that, so it's kinda cool to learn about this now.

Melissa: 21:48

Yay. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that you found it enjoyable and beneficial, and it fit in with what you're doing. Yeah. Alrighty.

Melissa: 21:56

Well and on that note, of things making us happy Mhmm. What has made you happy this week?

Jam: 22:01

So, yeah, something that's gonna be really happy is last week I got to see my, niece again? My only niece on my side of the family.

Melissa: 22:10

Mhmm.

Jam: 22:11

My brother's daughter, and, Which was such a nice thing. I wasn't sure I was gonna get to see her again, so I saw her, like, the week after she was born.

Melissa: 22:19

Yeah. And then

Jam: 22:20

now it's been, I think 2 months almost exactly. Mhmm. And it was just so great to get to be around her. Again, I got to hold her way more, and she's just doing a lot more like, she's a little more active now. She got a little bit more active facial expressions and moving her hands and stuff.

Melissa: 22:37

Babies change So fast.

Jam: 22:39

Yeah. They really do. And it's, like, more personality coming out. And I know right right now, it's like I think everybody wants to say that or whatever because they're just, like, enthralled by the cuteness of a baby. But it definitely seems like there's starting to be a level of personality,

Melissa: 22:53

showing up. That.

Jam: 22:54

And she's such an easy baby too. Like Like, I haven't had I've been around a ton of babies, but

Melissa: 22:59

Mhmm.

Jam: 23:00

She's definitely easier than a lot of babies I've been around at this age Yeah. In my opinion.

Melissa: 23:06

That's nice.

Jam: 23:06

And I haven't had to do some of the hard stuff, obviously. Like, I'm not, like, the one had to wake up to tend to her. But

Melissa: 23:11

Or when she's she won't say that for a little while, but you don't know what she'll be like when teething or anything like that.

Jam: 23:16

So that was really great. We've we've figured out this position that she likes to be. And if she ever gets upset, She likes to be I figured what they call it, but but kinda put upside down, and you you have, one of your arms under her

Melissa: 23:31

Mhmm.

Jam: 23:32

And, like, your kinda elbow's kinda going between her legs. And so you're fully supporting her, and your other arm is kind of holding her Her head and your elbow. She likes that position a lot, and she also gets to see. She loves to be able to see. So she

Melissa: 23:44

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Jam: 23:45

Upset if she's not able to, like, see around because she just wants to

Melissa: 23:48

look Mhmm.

Jam: 23:48

Around? And but she also likes that position for some reason, I think, because it feels kinda like she's not being held.

Melissa: 23:54

She's independent.

Jam: 23:55

Yeah. She's, like, Kinda hovering out there. She's fully secure, but she doesn't feel like she's being, like, this, like

Melissa: 24:01

It's crazy that

Jam: 24:02

bunched up.

Melissa: 24:02

That babies have preferences like that. Yeah. There are babies who like, Every baby I've ever been around has Uh-huh. Like to be held one way or another

Jam: 24:09

way. Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: 24:10

And so it's just interesting that they have preferences that quickly. Well,

Jam: 24:15

my mom said that that's, like, one that she uses with us babies when, like, us when we're kids and when she's had friends or something like that. So she kinda uses it as, like, a secret weapon. Like, oh, this this baby's Upset? Try this way.

Melissa: 24:26

I like that. I like hearing about babies. So

Jam: 24:28

What about you? What made you happy this week?

Melissa: 24:32

This week, I well, I feel like I talk about hockey a lot, but part of why I like it so much is because I get to share it with people that I love. It It's something I really enjoy just being in the atmosphere and the environment. I like that it's cold. I like the sounds. There's just a reason I like the sport as a whole.

Melissa: 24:51

But Mhmm. I also like doing it because I can share it with people I love. I think that's something about sports. It just brings people together. In my whole life, it's done that for me and my dad

Jam: 25:02

Oh, cool.

Melissa: 25:03

Which I really that's been something no matter how our relationship has been, it's always Been so easy and fun to share hockey with him.

Jam: 25:10

Yeah.

Melissa: 25:11

And even when I was a very little kid, he took me to my 1st game.

Jam: 25:14

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 25:15

This past week, Hockey season started.

Jam: 25:18

Mhmm.

Melissa: 25:19

So I got to go with my dad to this, big event Yeah. Before the season opener where the players were there, and that was really Cool. And then I got to go with him to opening night. And so just getting to spend that much time with my dad, he's recovering from a surgery, so He would be kinda bored and at home anyway, so it's a fun way for him to get out and do something fun. And I'm just so excited that it's hockey sees in and that I get to spend so much time with my dad because of it.

Jam: 25:47

That's awesome. Did your other siblings take to hockey as much as you did, or is that kind of a unique to you and your dad thing?

Melissa: 25:54

That has been unique to my dad to me and my dad mostly. My brother is starting to be interested Nice. Because I taught him how to get the games. When I get excited about something, I talk about it enough that people around me naturally will jump on the bandwagon.

Jam: 26:08

They either yeah. They either have to, or they have to form some level of opinion. It's like Yeah. Okay. I'm either gonna join this thing or decide that I'm not going to, and why?

Melissa: 26:18

Or they just have to not care that I talk about it constantly, which I can think of a few of our friends that take that opinion.

Jam: 26:24

I actually have been to a minor league hockey game when

Melissa: 26:26

I was a kid. Jam. I had

Jam: 26:29

just hadn't told you this because I thought you might think there's too much hope there for me to like sports. But

Melissa: 26:34

Jim, you do like sports, By the way, like, bowling, and

Jam: 26:38

The Abilene Aviators. I can still remember their logo. They don't even do this anymore.

Melissa: 26:41

Pretty sure. Sad.

Jam: 26:43

But they I went to a game, maybe even more than 1, when I was a kid, and I just remember, it being cold and I experienced quite that. But

Melissa: 26:50

I love it being cold. That's one of my that's one of the reasons I like this sport so much. And on that note, thanks, Dallas Stars, for giving me a fun place to share Time with my dad, and thanks all of you for listening.

Jam: 27:02

And thanks, Harmony, for being so darn cute.

Melissa: 27:05

Thanks, Harmony. Oh, before we leave, I do wanna give my references. My references this week are these are gonna be probably repeated a lot, but the 11th edition of the Solomon organic chemistry textbook. Mhmm. The chemistry textbook available on OpenStax Mhmm.

Melissa: 27:24

And the major authors for that are Flowers, Theopold, Langley, and Robinson. And we used Wikipedia with the references on Wikipedia for facts on SPF, and we use the American Academy of Dermatology FAQ page.

Jam: 27:47

And we'll always put these things in our show notes so you can actually see a a breakdown of What we referenced, and, and you could do some further reading on that if you would like to.

Melissa: 27:57

I also wanted yeah. Absolutely. Do For the research or if you have any questions, feel free to write them in.

Jam: 28:02

Yeah.

Melissa: 28:04

I also like to just do a quick check on Our listeners around the world.

Jam: 28:09

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 28:09

And I wanna give a shout out to a few countries who have had significant jumps in the last week or so.

Jam: 28:14

Okay.

Melissa: 28:15

That would be the UK, Probably because of our Great British Baking episode.

Jam: 28:19

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: 28:20

Yeah. We had a big jump of 50 listeners.

Jam: 28:22

Mhmm.

Melissa: 28:23

In Canada, Still going strong, Canada. We had a jump. Thanks, Canada. A jump of almost 30 listeners.

Jam: 28:30

Nice.

Melissa: 28:30

And we had More than double Saudi Arabia.

Jam: 28:34

Oh, wow.

Melissa: 28:35

They doubled their listenership more than doubled their listenership in Saudi Arabia, and a big jump by about 20 listeners in Germany.

Jam: 28:42

Nice. Wow. That's awesome. Thanks.

Melissa: 28:44

So that's been fun to watch our worldwide reach, Grow. And, hopefully, you guys are sharing it with your friends, and that's so fun and exciting to watch.

Jam: 28:52

So it sounds like they have chemistry in those other countries also. Like, it works there too, which is pretty cool.

Melissa: 28:57

Works all over the world.

Jam: 28:59

Man, that's crazy.

Melissa: 29:00

And the periodic table is in the same language all over the world. Ah. I I think there might be some exceptions to that, but none that I'm aware of off the top of my head. Interesting.

Jam: 29:09

It's weird but crazy. It makes sense. It it makes us say it should be the same. Yeah. Like, everybody should

Melissa: 29:14

figure out what are the same Yeah. All over the world. Yeah.

Jam: 29:17

Well, Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, But we wanna hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us at Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's kem, f o r, your life, To share your thoughts and ideas. And if you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. And if you really like it, you can write a review on Apple Podcasts help us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.

Melissa: 29:43

This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Coleenie and Jam Robinson. Jam Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to Eiki Wasang and Ei Calini who reviewed this episode.