Melissa: 00:09

Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 00:11

And I'm Jam.

Melissa: 00:12

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 00:13

And I'm not.

Melissa: 00:14

And this is chemistry for your life.

Jam: 00:15

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

Melissa: 00:19

Jam, we're in a new space today.

Jam: 00:21

I know. It's kinda weird.

Melissa: 00:23

It's very weird.

Jam: 00:24

Do we sound different?

Melissa: 00:26

Yeah. Listeners, let us know if you can tell that we're in a new space, if you can feel a different vibe.

Jam: 00:34

Yeah. Let us know. We are now in Melissa's office

Melissa: 00:37

Mhmm.

Jam: 00:38

At the university. And, yeah, it's kinda interesting, but cool. Feels very well, a lot more chemistry y.

Melissa: 00:44

Definitely more chemistry.

Jam: 00:45

For sure. There's all kinds of really dangerous chemicals around us right now.

Melissa: 00:49

That's absolutely not true. The only kind of, Well, it's not even there's chemistry and everything, but the only liquid chemical I see right now is honey. So but there is a cool puzzle of the periodic table.

Jam: 01:02

And a lot of cool chemistry books and whatever that kind of thermometer thing over there is.

Melissa: 01:06

Galileo thermometer. Very cute. Okay. So we're in a new space today, but you're still gonna be learning. I'm gonna teach you something.

Melissa: 01:14

Okay. You're gonna explain it back to me.

Jam: 01:16

Okay.

Melissa: 01:17

Just like always.

Jam: 01:18

Deal. I'm in.

Melissa: 01:19

Okay. So this week, you're gonna be learning about hair.

Jam: 01:24

Woah. Okay.

Melissa: 01:26

Why is some hair curly and some hair straight?

Jam: 01:29

So this is there's a chemistry. Obviously, it's biology too, but you it's chemistry?

Melissa: 01:35

There's chemistry in everything.

Jam: 01:37

That's cool. I'm in.

Melissa: 01:38

You're in. You're ready to go?

Jam: 01:39

Yes. I'm my hair is insanely straight.

Melissa: 01:42

Mhmm.

Jam: 01:43

And it's very fine too. Each strand of hair is not very thick. So I've always been, like, pretty interested in that and also always wished that my hair did something. It is just, like, Lace. It's lazy.

Melissa: 01:58

But when it does It does nothing. It doesn't usually do it the way you wanna do it. So my hair is very curly.

Jam: 02:03

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 02:04

I have lots of weird almost like cowlicks, it's just the way the hair grows all over my head Uh-huh. That it wants to go whatever direction it wants to go in. Yeah. It can look amazing. And then I walk outside side into the wind or humidity, and it instantly looks totally different than it did before.

Jam: 02:20

Yeah.

Melissa: 02:21

So don't wish too hard for your hair to do something. Just be thankful for what you have.

Jam: 02:26

I am thankful. I know there's a lot of benefits. People spend a lot of time straightening their hair. My hair is super straight no matter what I do. But it's just like, What if we just do something?

Jam: 02:35

You know?

Melissa: 02:36

Yeah. Don't wish for that. But I I've come to really like my curly hair Yeah. Because I can basically wash it and leave it, and it will still look okay. Yeah.

Melissa: 02:49

But I am very Active in the curly girl community Mhmm. Trying to figure out the best way to manage my curls. So any curly girls out there, check out Check out the Curly Girl Handbook.

Jam: 03:02

There's not really a comparable group for straight guys in the hair way, so I don't really have a group.

Melissa: 03:10

Oh, that is kinda sad. I have, like, a whole support team that's excited about curly hair.

Jam: 03:15

But there's not really group for for guys for hair as much anyway. So that's

Melissa: 03:18

There Yeah. Is are definitely guys on the curly girl.

Jam: 03:22

I could see that.

Melissa: 03:23

They've changed it to just curly hair community. Yeah.

Jam: 03:26

That's a good idea. I mean, like, I, I feel like if you had a curly haired guy community, there'd be a lot of dudes being like just asking, what do we do? And not having any good advice to share Unless they got it from girls.

Melissa: 03:37

Their curls look really good a lot of times. So we're gonna talk about curly hair. That was a long intro. We're gonna talk about curly hair.

Jam: 03:47

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 03:48

But first to talk about hair, curly hair, straight hair, we have to talk about hair in general.

Jam: 03:52

Okay.

Melissa: 03:53

So hair is primarily made up of a protein called Keratin.

Jam: 03:57

I knew that. I don't know where I heard learned that, but I I heard that somewhere. And it's the same thing as fingernails.

Melissa: 04:03

Right? Mhmm.

Jam: 04:03

Woah.

Melissa: 04:04

And Keratin is made up of a series of amino acids. Any protein is made up of long chains of repeating amino acids.

Jam: 04:13

Okay.

Melissa: 04:13

They're just bonded together. And, usually, because of the intermolecular forces or possibly other bonding that goes on, Proteins can fold in on themselves and have a specific structure.

Jam: 04:28

Okay.

Melissa: 04:28

So we see that in the DNA double helix

Jam: 04:32

Mhmm.

Melissa: 04:32

Structure, that is as a result of hydrogen bonding, which we talked about in the what is a scientific word for sticky episode. That's episode Uh-huh. So because of intermolecular forces, things like proteins can take shapes.

Jam: 04:47

Okay.

Melissa: 04:49

So in the case of keratin, it has one specific type of amino acid. All an amino acid is is sort of like we talked about in the what is toast What makes toast toasty episode about the Maillard reaction

Jam: 05:00

Yes.

Melissa: 05:01

Is a special type of functional group.

Jam: 05:03

Okay.

Melissa: 05:03

And a functional group is just atoms arranged in a specific way.

Jam: 05:07

Okay.

Melissa: 05:07

So an amino acid is a special type of functional group. Okay. But it it The different amino acids have different arrangements of ADAM attached to that functional group. So, say, they all have the same part a, but their part b can be switched out.

Jam: 05:24

Mhmm. So

Melissa: 05:25

there's different types of amino acids.

Jam: 05:27

Okay.

Melissa: 05:28

That's all amino acids.

Jam: 05:30

Okay.

Melissa: 05:30

An amino acid that is present in abundance in keratin Mhmm. Is cysteine. Okay. And cysteine has a sulfur group on it. So we're digging into the nitty gritty here, but it's all relevant to curly hair.

Melissa: 05:43

I promise.

Jam: 05:43

Okay.

Melissa: 05:44

So we've got our keratin

Jam: 05:46

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 05:47

Which is the protein Uh-huh. Present in hair, and that protein has the amino acid cysteine Uh-huh. That is present throughout it.

Jam: 05:56

And that and cysteine has sulfur in it.

Melissa: 05:59

Cysteine has sulfur atom in it.

Jam: 06:02

Sulfur atom in it. So it's not like it's, like, straight up sulfur, but there is Some sulfur in there at at the atomic level?

Melissa: 06:09

Right.

Jam: 06:09

Got it. And I think I remember from, like, basic bio stuff and chemistry stuff that proteins I remember just being, like, the definition of it was like or one of them was, like, It's made up of amino acids.

Melissa: 06:23

That's exactly right.

Jam: 06:24

Even though I don't remember a lot of the other details, at least that I kind of remember as you started talking about Right. So

Melissa: 06:33

that's helpful. Yeah. Maybe kind of common knowledge, but just in case Yeah. All you really need to know is, at the very basic level, Proteins are made up of several repeating units of functional groups.

Jam: 06:45

Okay. Got it.

Melissa: 06:46

Slightly differently functionalized functional groups.

Jam: 06:49

Mhmm.

Melissa: 06:49

But they're just repeating units of atoms that have special structures that fold in on themselves.

Jam: 06:55

Okay.

Melissa: 06:55

So that's all proteins really are. Everything's organic chemistry. So the special thing about these sulfur bonds

Jam: 07:04

Okay.

Melissa: 07:05

Is that they can bond to each other. So in DNA, the thing that forms the double helix shape of DNA is a intermolecular force, Not a true bond.

Jam: 07:18

Okay.

Melissa: 07:18

But 2 cysteine amino acids that are near each other can form What's called the disulfide bond, which is literally quite literally just a bond between those 2 sulfurs.

Jam: 07:31

Okay.

Melissa: 07:32

So it's possible that one of those bonds will form with another sulfur group between 2 sulfur groups a little further down the hair shaft, which makes a little bend in the hair. And the more of those little bends in the hair, the more curly Our hair is

Jam: 07:52

Interesting. Okay. So when the sulfurs bond, that's when there's a curl? Say it again? I think I missed it or a kink or whatever.

Melissa: 08:01

So my understanding is the sulfur bonds are present Disulfide bonds are present throughout hair.

Jam: 08:07

Okay.

Melissa: 08:08

But they are responsible for setting the hair in its shape.

Jam: 08:12

Okay.

Melissa: 08:12

So if it's straight, I believe the disulfide bonds are closer together, and they're not forming that kink.

Jam: 08:18

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 08:19

And if they're Further apart, then it's almost like the rest of the proteins kinda have to bend to let those 2 sulfurs meet.

Jam: 08:27

Oh, weird.

Melissa: 08:29

So instead of A ladder where the sulfurs are all bonded in a row, and it sort of keeps the hair nicely lined up. Uh-huh. It's more like A u shape, and the two sides of the u have to come together for those 2 sulfurs to touch.

Jam: 08:43

Okay. That's so crazy. And it so it has a way They want to be doing it. So my hair being straight, your hair being curly. My straight hair is trying to do it straight up.

Jam: 08:53

Very, like, Simple

Melissa: 08:55

Sulfur bronze are probably bonded to other sulfurs very close to them

Jam: 08:59

Okay.

Melissa: 08:59

Not further away.

Jam: 09:00

And for some reason, even from the from the root of my hair or whatever. It wants to do it that way.

Melissa: 09:05

Yes. Well, actually Uh-oh. It all has to do with the shape of the follicle of your hair.

Jam: 09:12

What?

Melissa: 09:13

If the shape of the follicle of your hair I did not know this. Uh-huh. I had learned about the disulfide bonds in organic chemistry a long time ago, and I had never looked further into it. But if your Air Valko is perfectly round. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 09:30

There's less opportunities for those disulfide bonds to form further away. But if it's slightly oval shaped, the disulfide bonds can form to make those little bends.

Jam: 09:43

Interesting. Okay. So it's not like it's like our hair is thinking, I wanna do it this way. It's like the shape of something has a very natural effect. The shape of the follicle has a very natural effect on those bonds Yes.

Jam: 10:00

And how close or far apart they are from each other. I like that because, otherwise, it is confusing to be like Like, why did my hair wanna be like this?

Melissa: 10:11

Yeah.

Jam: 10:11

And, like, we talk about, like, traits of hair, like Having kids and oh, yeah. I got my, you know, dad's hair or whatever.

Melissa: 10:18

Right.

Jam: 10:18

That kinda stuff. But it's not really the hair self that we got. It's like the follicle shape, is it?

Melissa: 10:25

That's what that is my best understanding is that it's the follicle shape Uh-huh. That allows for the bonds to form that make your hair curly or straight.

Jam: 10:34

Interesting. Mhmm.

Melissa: 10:36

There's a really nice phrase of the description on one of my sources. Uh-huh. It's called The Science of Curls. It's by doctor Leitamari Tirado Lee. I probably butchered that.

Melissa: 10:51

I'm so sorry. It was linked from an ACS website, so I know it's credible. She has a d in chemistry. Mhmm. And she says, curly hair has more of these bonds Referred to as disulfide bonds than straight hair because the follicle shape and angle allows different regions of the hair to come closer together, making these bonds easier to form.

Jam: 11:17

Wow.

Melissa: 11:19

Yes.

Jam: 11:20

That's crazy. I know. In the Bonds okay. Wait. This is a question.

Jam: 11:27

Are the Bonds even necessary for a hair's, like, Makeup at all, or is it just an incidental thing?

Melissa: 11:35

That's a hard question to answer.

Jam: 11:37

Like, our hair is not gonna fall apart without those bonds, or is that Is that what keep was keeping it together?

Melissa: 11:43

We'll talk about this more next week.

Jam: 11:46

Okay.

Melissa: 11:46

I already have a plan to sort of talk about the many layers of The structure of proteins Okay. And how that plays into damage, how that plays into straightening our hair, and Perming our hair.

Jam: 12:00

Okay.

Melissa: 12:01

But for this week, I think all I should really say in response to that question is The sulfide bonds form naturally as a result of these 2 sulfur Groups

Jam: 12:16

Mhmm.

Melissa: 12:16

That are near one another, and these sulfur groups are key to the cysteine amino acids that are key to the keratin that makes up our hair.

Jam: 12:24

Okay. So it is important. It's part of it. It's gotta be there.

Melissa: 12:29

I But

Jam: 12:31

it's not, like, The main, main, main thing?

Melissa: 12:35

I almost feel like that's a chicken with the egg kinda question. I don't know what would happen if you change the sulfur groups to something else. Maybe hair would look totally different.

Jam: 12:44

Classic question. Which do you eat first, chicken or the egg? One of those philosophical questions we've always

Melissa: 12:50

That's a classic question. Yeah.

Jam: 12:52

Hard to decide.

Melissa: 12:53

So that's a tough question because it almost is saying, Does this happen as a byproduct of the sulfur being in there, or is hair this way because it's evolved? It that's just a bigger, deeper question, but we will talk about what happens when you mess with those sulfur bonds next week. So you're almost just jumping ahead.

Jam: 13:13

Okay. Sorry. Didn't mean to go to bed. So I

Melissa: 13:15

guess I'll forgive you.

Jam: 13:16

Today, somebody asked me, what are you guys gonna talk about today when when y'all record? And I said, I have no idea. And even with we talked about that, I think not everybody thinks it's really true. But, like, many times, other than, like, when we had a guest and we had to plan for that a little bit differently.

Melissa: 13:32

Mhmm.

Jam: 13:32

Many times, I do not know anything about what we're gonna talk about.

Melissa: 13:36

Big surprise.

Jam: 13:37

Yeah. But now I do for next week, I guess.

Melissa: 13:40

So that's it. That's the main things I wanted to get across to you today.

Jam: 13:44

Okay.

Melissa: 13:44

I wanted you to know that everything about the way that your hair Looks is chemistry

Jam: 13:50

Okay.

Melissa: 13:50

In terms of texture, but also really in terms of color. But we'll just stop with texture today.

Jam: 13:55

Okay.

Melissa: 13:55

And some of the very basics of what bonds form, curls versus straight hair, and that the shape of your follicle has everything to do with it, Allowing the bonds to form or not.

Jam: 14:08

Okay. Wow. Okay. So

Melissa: 14:13

Are you is this not amazing to you?

Jam: 14:15

It is, but I'm like, I I I'm not sure I get it yet. Okay. That's that's what we'll I mean, we'll find out, I guess, when I say it back to you. But it is amazing to me. I have known nothing about hair at all ever other than the fact that this Keratin is a word that I've heard used described about what is made of.

Jam: 14:34

I didn't even know what keratin was, so it didn't really mean anything to me. So, like, this is all A 100% new to me.

Melissa: 14:40

That's so exciting. I'm so excited I could teach you something new.

Jam: 14:45

So Shall I?

Melissa: 14:47

Please do.

Jam: 14:49

So everybody's got a head for the most part. And on our heads, there's follicles.

Melissa: 14:55

Mhmm.

Jam: 14:55

And the follicle is just where that's part where the hair is made, grows out of or whatever.

Melissa: 15:02

Mhmm.

Jam: 15:04

Apparently, it can be shaped different ways as I'm finding out today. And depending on its shape, as it grows, What is growing is the protein keratin. Keratin is made up of And in any protein, it's made up of amino acids. The amino acids that make up keratin are cysteine, is what they're called?

Melissa: 15:29

There are other amino acids too

Jam: 15:31

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 15:32

But cysteine is present in abundance

Jam: 15:35

Okay.

Melissa: 15:36

Is my Understanding.

Jam: 15:38

Okay.

Melissa: 15:38

I'm not a biochemist. So there's a biochemist Mhmm. Who knows more. I'm always open to information.

Jam: 15:46

So but cystine is kinda the one that is having has the main effect that we're talking about

Melissa: 15:51

about

Jam: 15:51

Coronius Street.

Melissa: 15:52

Mhmm.

Jam: 15:52

And it's definitely very, very present here.

Melissa: 15:54

Right.

Jam: 15:54

Not men not necessarily, like, the only thing.

Melissa: 15:56

Mhmm.

Jam: 15:57

And cysteine has Sulfur atoms in it.

Melissa: 16:03

Mhmm. And 1 sulfur atom.

Jam: 16:05

1 sulfur atom in

Melissa: 16:06

it. Cysteine amino acid.

Jam: 16:08

Per acid.

Melissa: 16:09

Right.

Jam: 16:09

And those sulfurs want to just like other things want to bond to other stuff.

Melissa: 16:14

Mhmm.

Jam: 16:15

They want to bond to other sulfurs.

Melissa: 16:16

Mhmm.

Jam: 16:17

And because there's 1, it's lonely. It's like, man, this sucks. And it's like waiting in a line alone. And so when you're waiting in a line alone, you wish you had a buddy, especially, like, lunch line. Remember, cafeteria back in the day?

Melissa: 16:33

Oh, yeah.

Jam: 16:34

So If you have the opportunity, say the line doubles back like a queue.

Melissa: 16:40

Mhmm.

Jam: 16:41

If your friend is in the section behind you And you guys get to meet up. You want to talk to your friend.

Melissa: 16:49

Right.

Jam: 16:50

So as Hair is being made, being pushed out from the follicle. Depending on its shape, The line so, like, the key or whatever

Melissa: 17:02

Mhmm.

Jam: 17:02

Can be slightly different shape as it comes out. Mhmm. And then those sulfurs that don't wanna be on their own Might have to try different things in order to not be on their own. If the line's super straight, then they don't have as hard of a time, and they can be just right next to a buddy. Mhmm.

Jam: 17:19

If it's weird and curly, then you have to the line has to do certain things To meet another this is now just falling apart. To meet another sulfur do

Melissa: 17:29

is super good. The only thing I would change about your analogy is If a line's super straight, it doesn't have a lot of opportunity to meet people further back in the line?

Jam: 17:39

Right. Yes. It doesn't. Right. It's just Just a straight line Right.

Melissa: 17:42

Going on forever. There's not gonna be those bonds forming across 2 different parts of the line. Mhmm.

Jam: 17:48

But if the if the hair The line is coming out in a non straight way.

Melissa: 17:54

Mhmm.

Jam: 17:55

Even if it's, like, a only slight curl.

Melissa: 17:59

Right.

Jam: 17:59

It has an opportunity to be where you could see somebody else in the line if it curves around.

Melissa: 18:05

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:06

See your buddy. Oh, hey. Haven't seen him in a year. I haven't seen him since college. And changed the shape of the Changed the shape of the line.

Melissa: 18:13

Mhmm.

Jam: 18:14

And then you're talking. You're holding up the line. You're kind of affecting things little bit, which is a little rude, but you're glad to see your friend. You haven't seen him since college. He actually has 2 kids now, and they actually moved to Connecticut, which you've never been to.

Melissa: 18:28

Do you have a specific person in my mind?

Jam: 18:29

His wife's name, for the laugh of you. But you can't rudely look on Facebook now because you're talking to him, and then the hair gets really curly.

Melissa: 18:37

Mhmm. That's surprisingly good analogy. It's actually a very good analogy. And, actually, I think Mhmm. I'll be able to draw a picture to demonstrate the way the bonds form

Jam: 18:52

Yeah.

Melissa: 18:52

To kinda make the curls Right. As opposed to the straight line. So if you're having a hard time visualizing

Jam: 18:58

Yeah.

Melissa: 18:59

We're gonna put visual aids up.

Jam: 19:01

That helped me too, I think, because A cue, a line. It's the only thing I could think of in terms of actual people, which I know is not perfect probably. But,

Melissa: 19:09

Actually, I'm amazed by that analogy.

Jam: 19:11

It gave me, like, Something to look at because I just can't really visualize what hair looks like down at that, like, molecular level.

Melissa: 19:18

Right.

Jam: 19:18

But So shape a follicle. It comes out a different shape. The bonds are trying to happen, so they're gonna affect the shape too, whether it's straight or curly. And that's how our hair is how it is.

Melissa: 19:30

Yeah. Isn't that amazing? Yeah.

Jam: 19:32

That's crazy. There's a lot more going in to that than I would have ever thought.

Melissa: 19:36

Like Right.

Jam: 19:37

So much of the world I mean, if we could look at every single thing at a very, very detailed level and understand it, Probably this everywhere we look. But so much of the world just seems like that's how it is. You know?

Melissa: 19:49

Right.

Jam: 19:49

Like, oh, yeah. Your hair is just curly. Sorry. That's what it is. Oh, your hair is just boring and straight.

Jam: 19:53

Sorry. That's how it is. And most of us, including myself, for most things other than when we talk about something on this podcast, just like that's the way the world is, And it doesn't matter if I understand it or not.

Melissa: 20:03

Mhmm.

Jam: 20:04

And sometimes I just think there's not a way to understand it. Like, it doesn't really cross my mind that, like, I could understand here better. Or maybe it just seems like a lot of work, or where would I even find out? But, yes, it's just how here is. I had to get new tires on My wife's car the other day, I was like, this is just how life is.

Jam: 20:22

There's nothing I can do about it. Tires don't last forever. And I'm just moving. I'm just floating along in this life that I don't get to make any choices about for a lot of those things.

Melissa: 20:32

But now you can understand this one thing.

Jam: 20:35

Yes. I can at least hold on to this one thing next time Mhmm. I'm waiting for tires to be put on my wife's car for a long time.

Melissa: 20:43

So I was amazed about the hair follicle thing. I cannot believe it makes so much sense. The shape of the follicle just controls Physically, whether the hair can come into contact with itself in such a way that allows curly silver bonds to be made Mhmm. While it's growing, And those bonds are very firm and stay in place. Uh-huh.

Melissa: 21:07

That all is so logical, But it never occurred to me, so I was amazed by that.

Jam: 21:13

Yeah. I too am amazed. But I didn't know any part of it, so it's all new, including the follicle shaped part.

Melissa: 21:19

Well but there's more.

Jam: 21:20

Woah.

Melissa: 21:21

So I was looking into this. I found some really cool references, including one called The Chemistry of Hair from 1960. Super fun. I love old school science papers.

Jam: 21:30

So they had hair then. Okay.

Melissa: 21:32

They did have hair in 1960. Very cool. It's hard to believe. But there's also a lot of information on why straightening or curling your hair with a hot iron works Uh-huh. How it works?

Melissa: 21:45

Why your hair starts to look damaged, which blew my mind? Uh-huh. And How perms work. Your wife got a perm I remember that. Recently.

Jam: 21:56

Yeah. It was about 2 years ago.

Melissa: 21:57

Mhmm. I thought perms were out, but they are not. So now that we know about why some hair is curly and some hair straight Uh-huh. Next week, we're gonna dive into how we can use science to manipulate and understand what's happening when we style our hair.

Jam: 22:15

Okay. I'm in. I don't do a lot to style my hair, but I definitely know what you're talking about. And it'd be very interesting to understand how and why.

Melissa: 22:25

I'm so excited.

Jam: 22:26

That'd be cool. Man, hair. Who knew?

Melissa: 22:28

Who knew? Science isn't everything. Well, thanks for coming and learning about hair and listening to me teach you about silver bonds here in my office.

Jam: 22:37

Anytime. And this is where we're gonna be now for the foreseeable future.

Melissa: 22:41

Very exciting. Yeah. Is there something happy this week that you wanna share or something that you would like to share about your life with the listeners?

Jam: 22:51

So I'm gonna cheat and say 2 things, sort of. 1st, I finally got over myself and watched The, Mandalorian who started it?

Melissa: 23:00

Still haven't done that.

Jam: 23:01

Well, it just I mean, no pressure. But Together, even though you haven't started yet, we're just behind. Even though I just started it, the culture has been doing this. They've been talking about it. I'm behind.

Jam: 23:13

You're behind. Doesn't matter. Even if I finish it today, I'll still be behind because everybody's been talking about it for longer. It is very good.

Melissa: 23:20

Oh, that's exciting.

Jam: 23:22

It's what we all hoped. We'd get this kind of story with this level storytelling with even the Movies. And I think it's kinda better. Wow. Doesn't have doesn't have any lightsabers or Jedis, but it's in the universe.

Jam: 23:34

And I love Star Wars. So A Kindle because I wanted to be able to read more, and I'm hoping that will help me. And, also, I like that it means can read ebooks, but not be distracted by, like, getting texts and stuff or whatever. And it it's nice. I mean, it feels like a book.

Jam: 24:01

Not feels in my hand, but, like, my eyes, feel like I'm looking at a book, not like a screen.

Melissa: 24:08

Right.

Jam: 24:09

Which that is a whole point. I'm not like, It's not like I they did that on accident Mhmm. Or whatever. Like, wow. I can't believe the accident only made it look like but so I like that.

Jam: 24:17

Hope I'll be reading more, and That made me happy.

Melissa: 24:21

That's so exciting. I'm I'm glad you'll be reading more.

Jam: 24:25

Me too. How about you?

Melissa: 24:26

Keep us posted on your books Coming through.

Jam: 24:29

I will. Man, I just saw the world I'll be reading more, and now I better follow-up on that.

Melissa: 24:33

Accountability. Well, My life is pretty even keel. School started back up. I love my students. I'm excited to get some time with them again.

Melissa: 24:42

Really like my program, everything that I'm doing in school.

Jam: 24:45

Mhmm.

Melissa: 24:46

But I think the thing that's most I'm most thankful for that's most prominently going on in my life right now is my mom had some surgeries that she had to do over the holiday break. Uh-huh. And she's healing up really nicely from those or some follow-up stuff that's gonna have to happen.

Jam: 25:01

Uh-huh. But

Melissa: 25:02

for right now, she's doing pretty well and just I've had the opportunity to see her more and be around her more. Yeah. And in a way, that's been really nice. I'm glad that my program is such that it allows me to be with my family when they Yeah. Need me.

Melissa: 25:16

And Even just seeing her and my nephew more Uh-huh. And my dad is just kind of, like, almost a neat silver lining of Yeah. An unfortunate Surgery situation.

Jam: 25:28

Yeah. Absolutely.

Melissa: 25:29

So that's my biggest thing going on.

Jam: 25:31

Dana, it's very good. Good that it went well, and It is nice to have the kind of side benefits of getting to be around people more even if Right. The main reason that that's happening isn't the best.

Melissa: 25:41

And I got my mama Roku, and she is killing it on utilizing her free time. Yeah. So that's been fun too.

Jam: 25:51

That's very good. She's getting in on the pop culture stuff that

Melissa: 25:55

that Absolutely. I made her a list of all the things I think she'd like, and she's working her way through it.

Jam: 26:00

Nice. That's so crazy. I don't know if I could get my mom to watch the stuff that I like to watch. So A lot of

Melissa: 26:05

it is

Jam: 26:06

tried really. But

Melissa: 26:07

like psych, which she already liked a little. And I'm like, oh, now you can watch all of it or just different things that she'd like.

Jam: 26:14

Yeah. That's cool.

Melissa: 26:15

So that's what's going on with me.

Jam: 26:16

Sweet. Well, that's all for today. 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 any questions or ideas, you can reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, your life, to share thoughts and ideas.

Jam: 26:33

If you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. And if you really like it, tell 1 friend about Our podcast is weak. Just 1. And whoever did that, we'd have a lot more listeners. But especially if you're telling people who you think would really like chemistry, We that's that's those are our people.

Jam: 26:50

Wanna help people love chemistry. Like, Melissa loves chemistry, and, like, I am beginning to love it.

Melissa: 26:55

I really do love it so much. And my whole mission is to just get others to see the beauty of chemistry.

Jam: 27:03

If you like to help us with that mission and keep our show going and contribute to the cost of making it, you can go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life and donate the cost of a cup of coffee.

Melissa: 27:16

This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Colini and Jame Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jim Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. Q. Isang and V.

Melissa: 27:29

Garza who reviewed this episode.