What and why is maple syrup?
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 that helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Okay, Jim. So last week, I teased a little bit about the topic of this week's episode.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:It was about plants not dying in freezing weather.
Jam:Right. Right. And I
Melissa:think that may have been a little bit of false advertising Because that's kind of only tangentially related because I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole and got really excited about a different topic.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So the topic that we're gonna be talking about today is maple syrup.
Jam:Oh, nice.
Melissa:We're gonna talk about the chemistry behind maple syrup. What does it have to do with colligative properties and freezing? And Are you ready for it?
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:What does it have to do with pharmaceuticals? Woah.
Jam:April Syrup and Pharmaceuticals? What the
Melissa:What the what? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. So are you ready to get into it?
Jam:I'm very ready.
Melissa:So I'm gonna leave the pharmaceuticals for the very end. That's gonna be your fun fact information. You gotta work for it.
Jam:Okay. Got it.
Melissa:But we're gonna do a little chemistry lesson real quick first.
Jam:Okay. Perfect.
Melissa:Okay. So last week, we talked about How water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and it expands when it freezes. But colligative properties, we alluded to this in the conversation last week, can play into that and change the the temperature at which water freezes.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:So colligative properties are properties that are determined not by what is dissolved in a solution, but how much of a substance is dissolved in a solution.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So there are some properties that will be affected no matter what You dissolve in it. It's just affected by the amount. Okay. Okay. So we talked about that with boiling point elevation With the episode about why pot never boils.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:And if you add salt or sugar or Probably even like sand as long as you can get it in the solution, it will make the temperature at which your water boils increase.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:The opposite thing happens for freezing. It makes the temperature at which your water or other substance freezes goes Down.
Jam:Right. Right. Which is why well, we've talked about this before, but, like, putting salt on the roads that came up in a Either an episode or q and r or something like that in the past?
Melissa:Yes. So you can put salt on roads, but you could also we talked about you could sugar roads, and Steven h wrote in with an article about trying to sugar roads, I think, in Yeah. Switzerland, maybe? Yeah.
Jam:Something like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So that's a freezing point Depression is what's that called. So you've got boiling point elevation and freezing point depression.
Jam:Meaning, the one point goes higher because of the The colligative properties of whatever is in it
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And the freezing point goes lower because
Melissa:of Yes.
Jam:Whatever's okay.
Melissa:Yes. So that's an overview of colligative properties. That is something that we teach in general chemistry. The science Behind why the boiling point goes up and the freezing point goes down is a little bit more complicated. We went into that more in the episode about Your water pot boiling.
Melissa:But I think because we have so much else to cover today, we're not gonna Go back over why it changes the freezing point too too much.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So you are still getting this is that still counts as a full blown chemistry lesson For a general chemistry level, you're not getting cheated out of a good lesson or anything. That is still the lesson. That's a full lesson in and of itself. The The reasons of why don't usually even get talked about until physical chemistry when you're in a chemistry program or whatever. So that's way later on in the program.
Jam:Okay. Okay.
Melissa:So that is a quick review of colligative properties. So what do you think All of that could possibly have to do with our topic of maple syrup and plants not dying in the freeze. Take a minute. Think about it. See what you can come up with.
Jam:Okay. So I have 2 lines of thought kinda going in my mind.
Melissa:K.
Jam:The the first is that when it's Sap in the tree. The maple syrup is in the tree still.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:A sap that it's It got maybe a makeup to it that has like, we know it's sweet, and so maybe it has Some sugar type molecules that have those collated properties to it
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Which makes it hard for the For the sap to freeze, but then I also thought if I don't really know how Sap is like stored in trees and how that works, but I wondered if maybe just the fact that there's lots of sap Mixed in with the fact that all trees have lots of water in them that maybe just its presence, maybe it has a collocated property different from just the sugar in it, if that makes sense. And it's everywhere In the trees, maybe that helps keep the water's freezing point Depressed.
Melissa:I think I was a little confused on your 2nd point, but I think you're on the right track.
Jam:Basically, the 2nd point was more about maybe it's not about the sugar part, but just the sap itself, Something else about it keeping
Melissa:Okay. The
Jam:water from freezing. Does that make sense?
Melissa:Yes. It does. So the sap, I think, is The primary form of water in trees in the winter. So I don't think there's a lot of other water in the trees.
Jam:Oh, okay. Gotcha. Interesting. So
Melissa:and the sap seems to be the liquid that moves around in these systems in the trees that move nutrients back and forth. So I think that thought process was really good. I think that was a really very, very close. Maybe not a 100% technically accurate, but very close what's actually going on in the tree. So that's exciting.
Melissa:Good job. So the sap seems to be present. It it was hard for me to nail down a A scientific source that outright said this, there was a lot of sources that didn't cite anything, and then a scientific source alluded to this. So my Mhmm. Assumption is that the sap primarily exists to transport nutrients to the tree.
Melissa:Different areas of the tree, sort of Like our blood. The sap seems to be the blood of the tree moving things around in it.
Jam:Okay. Got it. Got it.
Melissa:And a lot of plain water is stored in leaves, but those fall off in the in the autumn. So there's Not a lot of pure water that I'm aware of in the tree come winter.
Jam:Got it. Okay. That would not have crossed my mind about just the sap being The water, basically. Like, being its way of doing that. I don't I don't know why I didn't know that if that I just forgot that or if I've never learned that before, but That's cool.
Melissa:That's my understanding. I could be wrong on that, but my understanding is the sap is the primary form of water in the tree because sap is made up of almost all water. Mhmm. But dissolved in that water, there's sugar. There's actually some salts, like potassium is present in in tree sap.
Melissa:And there's something else called Polyphenols, which is a big chemistry word, but it just means a special type of molecule. It's it's sort of like how we've talked about how there's, quote, classes of molecules before. Yeah. So it's kind of like a just a a class, like a group of molecules known as polyphenols that have sort of similar properties, and they're found in a lot of different plants as a nutrient.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So all this stuff is dissolved in the sap, And it seems the primary purpose of this app is to move these nutrients all around the tree just like our blood. Mhmm. But an unofficial side effect that I don't know if this would be the purpose of the of the plant made this on purpose this way or what, But all those things being dissolved in the sap naturally lowers the freezing point of the water because They have it's colligative properties having things dissolved in there, and it's not just sugar, but it's other stuff too that all contributes to the lowering of the freezing point of the water. So it's much harder to freeze sap than it would be if there is pure water in the trees.
Jam:Got it. Okay. Got it.
Melissa:So that's one of the mechanisms that helps trees stay alive in freezing weather. However, there are other things going into that that we're not gonna cover today. I think it's worth an episode in the future, but I got so excited about maple syrup that I totally dropped that ball and just focused on the maple syrup stuff because I was amazed to think about the fact that their sugar dissolved in The trees stay alive. That's incredible.
Jam:Yeah. I would not have thought of that as being, like, such a key part of Trees, like, survival. I just think things like that, I usually assume, I guess, are just these weird byproducts. Like, oh, yeah. This tree makes this weird juice that it's great on pancakes.
Jam:But it's just like, I'd never would have thought about that.
Melissa:Yeah. Isn't that so cool? It totally derailed me away from doing the whole lesson on How trees stay alive in the winter and moved me into all of the chemistry of maple syrup, and it was a rewarding rabbit hole, and I'm really glad we went down it.
Jam:Dude, that's awesome.
Melissa:So that's kind of how colligative properties play into trees not dying. There's other stuff that goes on. I read about cell hardening and a few other things that we'll definitely talk about. But colligative properties are definitely part of it, And sap is definitely part of it. And I Yeah.
Melissa:I do wanna say real quick before we move into more of the maple syrup area that the of colligative properties isn't necessarily just in case we kind of were using the term a little loosey goosey. It's not that sugar or salts or phenols have colligative properties in and of themselves. Colligative properties are Just dependent on how much of something is dissolved in a solution. So It's not like salt has colligative properties. It's the idea of freezing point depression is a colligative property based on the amount of something dissolved in it
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:Yeah. Makes sense. Because usually, we don't talk about phenomenon like that. Like, the actual idea of it lowering or increasing being the property. We think of Property as oh, this item has this property kind of.
Melissa:So it's kind of a weird way of thinking about it. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a that's it on clogative pop properties. I'm putting a little bow on that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Now let's talk about How we turn maple sap into syrup and what the chemistry is behind that.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So maple sap Has all these nutrients already in it. And you take about 40 liters of maple sap, and you have to boil that down till it gets to about 1 liter, and that's maple syrup.
Jam:Oh, wow.
Melissa:That's a big ratio. Very concentrated. Kind of cool thing in that is because colligative properties are all about what's dissolved in the concentration, you know, how much of something is dissolved in a solution. As it gets more and more concentrated, the proportion of dissolved stuff goes up and up, and the boiling point of maple sap is much, much lower than the boiling point of maple syrup.
Jam:Oh, okay. Gotcha. Sorry. For a second, I I heard it backward. I was like, it wouldn't be lower.
Jam:It'd be higher. But you're saying
Melissa:sap is lower than maple syrup.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So you see the boiling point elevation. So that's another Colligative property that goes into play as we're seeing maple syrup. So there's chemistry all around.
Jam:Yeah. Interesting.
Melissa:But the other thing that happens is if you're heating a lot of molecules such as sugar, polyphenols, and salts In a big vat, that's essentially a giant chemical reaction. There's you're putting energy in, and there's molecules moving around, and they can start to interact with each other.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And so you're getting more new molecules being made through a chemistry reaction
Jam:Uh-huh. To the
Melissa:point where some of that's the Maillard reaction also, so that's something that we've talked about before. There are other side products that will form that As things collide and there's heat being put in, new molecules will form to the point where 1 professor who studies the chemistry of maple syrup, Doctor Navindra Serum, he and his graduate students have identified 60 molecules, Sixty separate molecules that are present in maple syrup, the final product.
Jam:Woah. Isn't that So far complicated than I would have expected. Yeah.
Melissa:I know. It's not just this is really concentrated sugar. It's this is sugar with polyphenols that already existed, polyphenols that Exist after the reaction happens. There's salts present. There's all kinds of stuff going on in maple syrup that's so much more than just Sugar water, which is kind of what I thought it was.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And those reactions and those molecules that are formed help give Maple syrup, it's special distinctive flavor that we all recognize as real maple syrup. Not the pancake syrup that's on the shelves, but real maple syrup that comes from maple sap Boiled down.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So that's it. That's the chemistry of maple syrup is it starts out as maple sap, which helps protect the tree, And then you boil it down, and you get something new, which is maple syrup.
Jam:Dude, that's crazy.
Melissa:It's so much more complicated than I would have thought maple syrup would have been. So it was very, very fun, but this isn't even the best part. It just keeps Getting better.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So but you have to earn it first.
Jam:Oh, okay. Okay. Cool. So Do you want me to say back kind of the first section and this new beginning section of Lipacira?
Melissa:I think so. I think that would be the best way that we can kind of summarize everything. It's not your traditional chemistry lesson that we normally have, But maybe more of a summary.
Jam:Yeah. Okay. So in the first section, we're talking about Trying to survive freezing temperatures. Maple trees and other trees that have sap, I would guess, this would carry over to other, You know, sap trees?
Melissa:I think so. Yeah.
Jam:They sap typically would have Lots of dissolved things in it. Some sugars, some salts, some polyphenols. It's not it's not just water. There's Enough things devo dissolved into it for it to be able to lower the freezing point of That liquid that is carrying, transporting nutrients around in in the plant, which is a, you know, key thing for it to be able to do to stay alive.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And so because of that, it can survive Lower temperatures without it experiencing some of the downsides we talked about last week, where There's all kinds of ways that freezing temperatures and if the water in a plant freezes, it could go south. Right. So because of it having a lot of dissolved things in its water, in its in its Main way of transporting nutrients around in it Mhmm. It survives, and that is called colligative property. The fact that it has that much dissolved into it that it lowers the the freezing point.
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:Okay. So the good thing about our maple trees surviving, The winter is that then they can stay alive and grow really tall and Give us maple sap that we can turn into maple syrup.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And the way they do that is by taking the sap and boiling it down. And while they're doing that, it gets more and more concentrated, but it's also putting lots of energy into a chemical reaction that's happening. And it also has to they have to keep increasing the heat in order to keep it boiling because There is so much dissolved into it that it increases the boiling point. Right?
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And that ends up not only making it much, much more concentrated, but also Producing different molecules. Different atoms are interacting with each other and combining in in new ways that weren't necessarily present in the sap. And the end product we have is a much more concentrated, but also much more complex and diverse concoction of molecules.
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:And it tastes good.
Melissa:And it tastes really good, which is really nice. So I think that's a good summary. I think colligative properties can be kind of hard to grasp, Like I said earlier, but I think that's a good understanding. I'm not sure if I stated this before, but also the more stuff is dissolved in, the higher the effect is. So if you have a little bit of salt dissolved in, it may lower or raise your boiling point and freezing point, respectively, by a little bit.
Melissa:But if you have a whole pound of salt dissolved in, it'll do it a lot more. So as the concentration increases, So does the effect on the colligative property bigger or smaller?
Jam:Got it. Got it.
Melissa:So that's a little bit About the colligative properties, I think your explanation was great, and I'm really excited about this next part. So
Jam:Excellent.
Melissa:In this interview that I listened to with doctor Navindra Seram, he talked a lot about how he and his graduate students isolate some of those polyphenols that are present in maple syrup
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And how they looked into some of their effectiveness on different things. For his lab, specifically, they looked at how maple syrup extract, which is not just the sugary maple syrup by itself, but Extracting those polyphenols primarily
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Can impact inflammation, and they've done Studies in animals, not on humans, on how it affects inflammation with regards to Alzheimer's, And it also has some anticancer properties. There's something in maple syrup extract that's very similar to, a breast cancer drug.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:And another group that this is published in journal from the American Chemical Society found this is very cool, and I'm very excited about it. That maple syrup can aid in the effectiveness of antibiotics.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:So something about the maple syrup extract, not the maple syrup itself, but the maple syrup extract can help Change how easily the antibiotics can enter the cell. They can gain more access. They increase the Permeability of the cell, so how easily the antibiotics can get in. And somehow the maple syrup extract will turn off this sort of pump that kicks antibiotics out of the bacterial cell.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:You know, it's like a bacteria protection mechanism. The maple syrup extract will somehow cancel that out and allow the antibiotics to stay in the cell, improving their effectiveness so that a small amount of antibiotic can go a much further way.
Jam:Woah. Interesting.
Melissa:And they're also looking at how that can impact the of antibiotics on superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Dude, that's crazy. So would this be something that does it seem like if you naturally say you're someone who naturally just eats real maple syrup on their breakfast every morning.
Jam:Mhmm. Would these effects potentially be part of it just in the small amounts, or is it really beneficial for them to isolate things and pull things out and and use them that way.
Melissa:Yeah. So he was very careful in his podcast interview, and you guys can go check it out. I'll link to it in our resources. It was a good podcast. It was a little jargony, so not as Boil down.
Melissa:Boil down like syrup. Yeah. To the basics as we do, it had a lot of bigger words, and some of them even I was kind of Not tracking with when they were more in the biology realm, but it was understandable, and I still learned a lot from it. I think other people would benefit from it as well. But he was very careful not to say, This means you should have a lot more maple syrup.
Melissa:He said probably if you're going to have a sweetener of some kind, maple syrup would be a better Better option for you than corn syrup because it has these additional nutrients. But I think what's hard is The extract has shown these properties, so I wonder if the sugar has so much bad for your properties that There being some good properties doesn't really cancel out. So you shouldn't have a ton of maple syrup. But if you're gonna have something sweetened, maybe having those natural present is better than having no polyphenols present. Yeah.
Melissa:But he was very careful to give an any advice on Eating more maple syrup or anything like that, he is not a medical professional. It's just, hey. We found that In maple syrup, there are things that are good for your body.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:However, it's still sugar. He that sort of seemed to be the message he gave us.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I've heard that before. People, like, start to talk about, Like, this sugar or that sugar.
Jam:Like, cane sugar versus, Right. I've heard you have corn syrup. It's like at the end of the day, though, If you're ingesting a lot of sugar, that's not good. It doesn't matter which kind. It's not it's not like one of them is, you know, great for you.
Jam:It has no negatives or something like that. Right.
Melissa:So there's still the negatives of the sugar in there, but Uh-huh. It comes with positives as well. Where there are some that don't have any positive, it's just pure sugar and none of these compounds.
Jam:That is so cool. I'm gonna have to send once we finish this, send this to one of my old college roommates. He's from Vermont, and, We lived together for 2 years, and he loves real maple syrup and wouldn't even touch fake stuff. I'm, like, just so disgusted by it. And he his parents would always send him, like, care packages, and most of the time, it'd be, like like, some real, legit, local, like, Maple syrup.
Melissa:How delightful.
Jam:Also, like, maple candies and stuff as soon as you give us some. And so I cannot think of, Like, real legit maple syrup without thinking of him, though. He's gonna be glad to find out there's all these potential Cool other things about maple syrup more than just its taste.
Melissa:Right. And part of why they started to look into this was actually because Indigenous people who are native to that part of the world, similarly to your friend, although much much preceding him, Used maple syrup and its extract and stuff as medicine. So, again, we're seeing the Modern look, the Western chemistry look at something that has been around a long, long time for our traditional sciences were even developed. So that's pretty cool too that we're learning the chemistry now behind Things that were already existing, like when we found the lemongrass braids worn by native people in America and Canada. So that's really, really cool.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that's awesome.
Melissa:And they're also looking at doctor Navendra's serum talked about how they're looking at other parts of the plants as well And seeing if there's something in maple leaves when they prune maple leaves. They looked at all the compounds present in living maple leaves and in Maple leaves that had fallen off the tree naturally. So there's other avenues to see what natural products are present in these Trees that could provide an avenue to medicine.
Jam:Wow. Dude, that's cool.
Melissa:Isn't science amazing?
Jam:Yeah. It really is. And it's and it just like when we talked about the the other ways that, like, oh, yeah. Native people have been doing this for a long time, and now we're discovering. It's just cool that that keeps happening.
Jam:That it's like, oh, these properties have been there, and people kind of picked up on that. Right. And we're slowly. Science is slowly backing it up. You know?
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And figuring out some ways to maybe, like, take that and make it more concentrated or, You know, package it into a different form or something like that. But that's just that's cool.
Melissa:Yeah. And that's why, Again, I've I mean, I've talked about this before, but I tend to really think that you've gotta take everything with a grain of salt. But I'm not one to, like, Poo poo at natural solutions to things, some natural medicines, I think, really are effective, and I don't think Western chemistry is the only way of knowing something. I think it's clear that these indigenous populations had a lot of knowledge about the Earth and the natural products that existed. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And we are just sort of learning about them from a different angle at this time, which is really cool.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And I forgot to say that the person who's working on this, he's a chemist, and he called himself a natural products chemist. And sometimes There are organic chem chemists who synthesize or try to figure out how to synthesize natural products. So that's Things that are naturally occurring in the Earth but are very complex, and so we're just trying to find a way in the lab to mimic those natural product synthesis. There's a lot of that in the organic chemistry literature, and I thought it was just really interesting.
Jam:Dude, yeah. That's cool. Man, That's interesting.
Melissa:And he talked about all the techniques they use to extract the polyphenols from the maple syrup. It was really fun to listen to that. And Even if you've just taken a very introductory organic chemistry course, you've done a lot of those same techniques that they're using in this high level lab. So if you're an organic chemistry student listening to this, definitely go check out This podcast, it was on foodie pharmacology. And I think if you just Google maple syrup chemistry podcast, it should come up.
Jam:Sweet.
Melissa:Sweet like sugar,
Jam:like syrup. Yeah. Is it time to talk about some sweet stuff that's happened during our weeks?
Melissa:It is time to talk about that. So, Jam, do you wanna share something good from your week?
Jam:Sure. It's a small one, but in the In the saga of house related things that have been pretty much most of my, like, Thanks for my week, the past few episodes.
Melissa:Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. You know? I feel like that's taking over your life a little bit.
Jam:Yeah. It really is. I'm ready for it to not be taking over my life, but we just finished, the 2 projects that we'd had going on were just New flooring and and painting everywhere. And because that finished this past week, that's cool on its own right, but We were finally able to set up some rooms that we weren't really able to set up, including the room I'm in right now, which is gonna be a study for the foreseeable future and will mean that I have a desk in a room that has a door that closes, which I have not had for, like, years, And that'd be really good. It also means that for however long we're needing to record remotely like this, I have A place to record that's also my desk to work where I can just
Melissa:Oh.
Jam:Leave this stuff set up and not have to set it up again every time. And I don't have to go into some other random room like I did at my other house where I just go into our guest room and sit on the bed and, like, kinda hunch over the mic.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:So this is a lot more, a lot more sustainable for sure. So that's I'm excited about that. And I think also in terms of working on stuff, this will be a much better scenario for me. So that's good news.
Melissa:Yay. That's very exciting. And maybe when we can record in person, I can come there to that space, and we could record in that office one day once COVID is over and we're both vaccinated and life is a little bit more normal.
Jam:Dude, absolutely. Yeah. And it's like it's nice to have just dedicated room for this kind of stuff, which I've Right. We've had we've had before back at, like, 2 houses ago. But You start to rise the possibilities of like, oh, you could have people over that like, if you're working on something or for recording or Just stuff like that, it starts to realize Right.
Jam:Like, this is a workspace, and there's room for other people to come work here if they need to or whatever. So
Melissa:Yeah. Very exciting.
Jam:So that's mine. What about you?
Melissa:Well, mine is very exciting. You guys know that I'm an ice skater, And I love ice skating, not professionally or anything, but I've I've taken ice skating lessons for the better part of 2 years. And I loved it, and it brought me so much joy. And I love being cold instead of hot, and I love working on a scale and doing something physical. But
Jam:Does that mean you're green belt now in ice skating? Or
Melissa:Yeah. I think I've I think I've been maybe up Upgraded. I'm definitely pretty sure I'm close to a black belt in ice skating.
Jam:Woah. Nice, dude. That's awesome.
Melissa:So this last semester, unfortunately, my, belt progression and being up upgraded higher levels Has slowed way down because last semester was really busy.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:I'm starting to get there's a weird stage in the middle of grad school where You still have classes, but your research has gone into hyperdrive. Uh-huh. And it's just like a year of weirdness before you finish your classes. Is once I'm done with my classes, I just research all the time, and so it's not as demanding. Yeah.
Melissa:But right now, I'm in the overlap. Last semester, I was barely ice skating. And this semester, I had to make the decision that it was not financially worth it to keep going and not worth my time to keep driving that Far because it's pretty far away.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And I've been feeling it. I've been feeling a little bit more down. I just really miss It's something that brings me so much joy that it was a noticeable absence that was negatively impacting me.
Jam:Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Melissa:So I had to come up with a solution. And I tried a few things, and this one, I think, is the right one. Are you ready for it?
Jam:I think I am. I
Melissa:purchased roller skates.
Jam:Nice. Dude, very cool.
Melissa:I'm very excited about it. I borrowed some from a friend first to make sure it'd be worth the investment, and It is the closest thing to feeling like I'm ice skating than anything I've tried, including rollerblading. Rollerblading was not the same, but roller Skating has been pretty close, and I'm doing it with a friend, so here in Denton. So I don't have to drive, but it still has that social aspect, and it's that Fun physical aspect of building a skill. Uh-huh.
Melissa:And I have really, really, really enjoyed it. So that is what I am getting up to that Has made me very happy is roller skating around my friend's apartment complex.
Jam:Dude, awesome.
Melissa:Junior high kids.
Jam:That's great. So I'm curious of why is roller skating more like ice skating than rollerblading? Because I would think Because of the inline, like
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Wheels on the blades that it might feel more similar, but I just I have no idea.
Melissa:I think it's because there There is a heel on most skates. The boot of roller skates is similar to ice skates. Oh, okay. Teal, and, your weight is kind of, I guess, more forward compared to roller blades where your foot is flat like you're in a shoe.
Jam:Okay. Okay. Got it.
Melissa:And there's a stopper on the front of roller skates that lets you stop and sometimes perform jumps In a way that is similar to ice skating.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:There is a type of inline roller blade that is designed to have an exact weight distribution like ice like ice skates, and I think I would enjoy that, but it's close to $400, so there's no way.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Dang.
Melissa:So right now, I'm doing roller skates, which is much less than $400, and it's really fun. Don't worry. I've got Knee pads and elbow pads and wrist guards, which you know, the fun thing about being 30 is I don't care if I look dumb. Whereas when I was young, I didn't ever wanna wear a safety confident when I look silly, but now I don't care how I look because it feels so safe.
Jam:Totally. Yeah. And you care more about, like, I don't wanna be hurting for a week After
Melissa:Right. A fall. And you can take more risks because you're protected. You know?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Totally.
Melissa:And your skin doesn't heal as fast These days as it does when you're 12, so you don't wanna take those same risks. You just have a slower healing body the older you get. So it's been really fun. I'm excited. I'll post a picture of me roller skating.
Melissa:And once my skates come in, I'll show you guys those, and hopefully, I can Make some good progression, but it has brought me a lot of joy, and I can already tell there's an improvement in the way I'm feeling overall. This exercise is so important for your mental health and ability to concentrate. I think
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:When I'm exercising, I'm a better chemist, a better researcher, a better podcaster. I think it just all sort of Helps me be better all around
Jam:Yeah. As a human being. That makes total sense.
Melissa:I'm very happy. I'll keep you guys posted.
Jam:Sweet.
Melissa:Well, thanks, Jam, for coming and listening to me chat Really all about my roller skates because I'm so excited about that, and also about maple syrup and collective properties because I think this is such a cool application of something I already knew About sugaring and salting roads, but I did not know that trees basically sugar their own roll roads. And As a byproduct, we get a delicious sweetener.
Jam:Dude, yeah. That's awesome. Thank you for teaching us all about that. And, Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you through the best ideas and best questions come from you guys. So don't hesitate to reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook At chem for your life, that's chem, f o r, your life, to share your thoughts and ideas.
Jam:If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, Go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life and donate the cost of a cup of coffee. If you're not able to donate, You can still help us by subscribing in your favorite podcast app and rating and writing our review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Collini and Jame Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jaren Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. Kiwasong and S. Navarro who reviewed this episode.
