What is plastic?
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist. And I'm not. And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Jam, how have you been doing today?
Jam:I'm doing great. We're recording a different day of the week than normal, so that's a little weird, but still good.
Melissa:Is a little weird. We've got the Monday Monday morning situation.
Jam:Yep. Monday morning. But it's good. It's a good way to start the week.
Melissa:I'm glad to hear you're doing well. I'm pretty excited about today's topic. I'm excited to share it with you guys.
Jam:You're excited about a I think chemistry thing? That's interesting.
Melissa:And I'm pretty unittled for me.
Jam:I never really see you like that where you're excited about something with science or chemistry. So
Melissa:Well, I am excited about something with science and chemistry, but I'm also a little upset about it. It's I feel similar to the Teflon episode, and this is gonna be a little
Jam:Oh, interesting.
Melissa:Series. Mhmm. So today's episode is more the exciting, interesting stuff. Next week's episode is maybe gonna Interesting stuff. Next week's episode is maybe gonna be a little bit more on the dark side.
Jam:Interesting. Okay. I feel like we haven't seen the, like, upset side of Melissa in a little bit where
Melissa:I know.
Jam:She's like, why did we do this to the world kinda thing.
Melissa:Mhmm. I angry wrote this episode on Saturday Afternoon. So okay. So we've been digging into polymers a lot.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:We talked about polymers with Teflon, with cast iron, with superglue, and now we're gonna keep talking about polymers with plastic.
Jam:Okay. Plastic. Okay.
Melissa:Yeah. What the heck is plastic? Right?
Jam:Mhmm. Yeah. Really. What the heck is it?
Melissa:Okay. So we're gonna talk about what plastic is.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And we're gonna talk about why some plastics have different properties than other plastics. Okay. And then next week, we're gonna talk about what happens to plastic when you're done with them.
Jam:Okay. Alright.
Melissa:Okay. So
Jam:I'm in.
Melissa:Plastic. Oh, I'm glad you're in because it'd be a little uncomfortable if you're like, I just don't wanna learn this today, actually. You're like, I don't wanna know what plastics are.
Jam:Yeah. Maybe I don't. Maybe the second half is something I don't wanna know. Like, I wanna know, but I don't. You know what I mean?
Melissa:Yeah. So it's tough about,
Jam:like, about bad things happening in the world. Like, the Teflon thing. It's like you wanna know, but you Don't wanna know, especially if you've got Tesla on the pants like I do. Don't.
Melissa:Right. But information is power. You know? You can empower your future decisions. So
Jam:Yep. Hear that.
Melissa:So Plastic is kind of a catch all term Okay. For synthetic organic polymers that can be molded. So now remember in chemistry
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Organic means carbon based, not
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:Whatever it means in the food industry. And synthetic means we made them.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So a long time ago, there was plastics that were made from non manmade materials that They got from saps from trees and stuff, and we're able to make plastics from that. Mhmm. But now, Pretty much we use plastic to describe anything that's synthetic organic polymers that can be molded.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So we've talked about polymers before, but I wanna do a little re catch up, and I learned something new. When we had our superglue episode, we talked about how poly is many and mono is is 1, so polymer and monomer. And I made a joke about how I don't know what the heck mer means.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Mer means parts. It's many parts Mhmm. Polymer or 1 part monomer.
Jam:Got it. Okay. Got it. Interesting.
Melissa:So that's a good little breakdown of the word itself. Yeah. But I like your definition the best, which is A polymer is a molecule made up of a bunch of small molecules.
Jam:Who knew that that would, like, last a while? Like, just a dumb That's joke at the moment that that that that may help me remember for sure, but also just kept stuck around.
Melissa:It's just one of the best you've ever come up with. I'm gonna use that in my teaching classes probably for the rest of my life, so that's a good one. And it's a it's a large molecule, but the collective, all the large molecules together, that creates a substance called a polymer. Right. So the large molecule is called macromolecule.
Melissa:We're getting in the nitty gritty. Mhmm. Polymer chemists care a lot about that, but a lot of people use the term polymer and the large molecule word interchangeably.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Okay. So polymers have repeating units Mhmm. That make up a chain kind of. So I heard someone describe it as beads that make up a necklace. Today, we're gonna maybe use spaghetti or pasta instead of beads that make up a necklace, but that's a good visualization as well.
Melissa:Okay. Okay. So plastics are polymers, but they're not all the same kind of polymer. And that's why there's so much diversity. I mean, your cups are made out of plastic.
Melissa:Your grocery sacks are made out of plastic. Mhmm. Your laundry detergent bottles are made out of plastic, and those are all varying kinds of plastics that have a lot of different properties. Right?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:So there's 2 main things that give polymers different properties.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:1 is kind of the shape of the chains and how they interact with each other. Mhmm. And 2 is what the chains are made up of. Those can be 2 things that impact the properties that we see when we interact with plastics. Okay.
Melissa:That's why plastics has so many applications. As many different polymers as you can make, that's kind of as many plastics as you could make. You know what I mean?
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's a really wide range. Yeah. So for the first part, the way the molecule, The chain is formed. This is where our spaghetti is gonna come into play.
Jam:K.
Melissa:To think of dry spaghetti noodles, you have them they're straight and able to fit nicely right in next to each other. Mhmm. And they're packed pretty densely, so they're They're kinda strong. You know? It's hard to break a bunch of spaghetti noodles all tucked in close to each other.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:They're really dense.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Okay. So that's one kind of polymer. You can have a lot of chains that fit in really close to each other.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And they're gonna make a nice, tight, collective unit that's a harder plastic. So
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Your laundry detergent bottles are gonna be nice chains that fit nicely into each other. They're just repeating in the same pattern, and they can kinda tuck in right next to each other. Okay. Now think of when you have cooked spaghetti noodles.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:If you laid all your cooked spaghetti noodles 1 next to each other, you're not gonna get them perfectly straight. You're not gonna be able to stick Close into each other, the way dry, even spaghetti noodles are. Uh-huh. They're just gonna be a little wobbly, a little loosey goosey. Yeah.
Melissa:That is a kind of molecular structure that you have in a plastic like your plastic bags.
Jam:Right. Okay.
Melissa:So, actually, typically, the plastic that makes up a laundry detergent bottle and the plastic that makes up your plastic bags has the same Molecular unit, but one is that straight chain can fit into each other really nicely.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And the other is that branch spaghetti cooked noodley kind of structure where they can't fit in as close to each other, so they don't have that dense, Tough property. Does that make sense?
Jam:Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah.
Melissa:So they have the same small molecules, but they're arranged differently in space.
Jam:Okay. Interesting. And it's so it's not really just the it's, like, thinner. Like, obviously, pasta bags are so much thinner than, like, a bottle, But it's also that they're just arranged really differently, and that's that's a big part of what makes them so different from each other.
Melissa:Right. One is actually called Low density polyethylene or LDPE. The low density is the molecular structure that's branched, your plastic bags, and the other is called high density polyethylene or HDPE.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And that's the kind that's tougher.
Jam:K. Got
Melissa:it. Okay. So how the molecule formed matters, but there's another layer on top of that. And that's something called cross linking. Mhmm.
Melissa:So if your molecules not only pack in closely next to each other, but actually form bonds across one another. Mhmm. Think about in a chain link fence, how those They're cross linked. They have bonds sort of against the other metal. They're stuck together Even though the individual metal strands are different?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That's another kind of polymer that is The toughest kind. It's generally, that is what's known as a thermoset polymer. So even if you heat it up, it's not gonna be able to melt and reform. Once it's made, it's made. Oh, easy.
Melissa:Example of that is like our super glue. If you have the kind of super glue that Doesn't melt when you heat it up, doesn't soften at all. Uh-huh. That's probably got a lot of cross link polymers going on.
Jam:Interesting. So it it can be made because you combine different things. But once it's made once it links that in that way, it's much harder to get Unlinked? That's crazy.
Melissa:Right. Because to unlink it, you're breaking chemical bonds, and there's a lot More chemical bonds. You have to put a lot more energy in to break those bonds. Mhmm. So it's much harder.
Melissa:So But I think, like, those plastic tiles in the bathtub Mhmm. I think are that kind of thermostat Polymer where that plastic is made. It's shaped in the shape of your refrigerator or your bathtub. That kind of thing where you're not gonna be able to melt it down and reuse it because it's set. Mhmm.
Melissa:I think those are examples of thermostat plastic. I'm not a 100% sure.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So there's thermostat plastic, and then there's thermoplastic plastics. And those thermoplastic means when you heat them up, they are gonna melt.
Jam:Okay. Thermostat,
Melissa:the thermostat. The way a mhmm. A plastic bag will melt when you heat it up. Once I had a plate on the stove Mhmm. And it was a plastic plate, and my old house was notorious for we all turned on the wrong burners.
Melissa:It was just Designed poorly where it was not intuitive which burner went with which knob.
Jam:That's the worst.
Melissa:We all did it wrong all the time. It was very bad. We even had little stickers that one Girl drew and put on there to tell you which one went to which, and we still always did it wrong all the time. The turn on the wrong burner totally melted this plate, And that is a perfect example of a thermoplastic. It was just a blob plastic melted onto My oven.
Melissa:My stove.
Jam:Gosh. It sounds like an idea.
Melissa:Crazy. It was hard to clean, but then I thought, oh, I could probably just let it cool down, and it'd be harder, and I could chip it off
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Once it set back down in the plastic. So Yeah. That's what I did. But I have a picture of the plate with just it's just a plate with a hole in the middle. I'll put it I'll put it up somewhere.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So that's a thermoplastic Okay. Kind of plastic. It heats up and is malleable. It's plastic.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:That's the mold molding thing. So that's the one thing that determine properties. It's the way the molecule is Arranged in space regardless of those small repeating units.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But just like with pasta, if it's It's made up of something different. You've got your wheat flour pasta, your egg noodle pasta, your lentil pasta, your gluten free pasta. That's gonna have different properties too. Mhmm. So So you'll also have different properties based on what those small repeating units are.
Jam:Got it. So not just how they're arranged and how they're linked together, but what makes up each unit. K. Sweet.
Melissa:And the way they're made, just so we have a basic idea of how plastics come to be, because I didn't even really know this.
Jam:Yeah. I have no idea, like, where it even comes from.
Melissa:Yeah. I I learned This part fresh this week. I knew that plastics were polymers Uh-huh. But I did not know what I'm about to tell you.
Jam:Okay. Sweet.
Melissa:So crude oil is extracted from the ground Mhmm. And it's refined. And that is the beginning of a lot of things that we use in day to day life.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:But in this case, when that crude oil is extracted, then they isolate out the different kind of molecules and compounds that make up the oil. Mhmm. And some very common ones are propane and ethane. And as they're refined and isolated out, then they'll be converted down to ethane and propene. Those are also known as ethylene and propylene, but You and I talked about s and prop and butte having meaning.
Melissa:Do you remember what it was?
Jam:Yeah. It's the different Numbers of oh, dang.
Melissa:You're on the right track?
Jam:Maybe people at
Melissa:home are shouting it out.
Jam:Is the number of, like, Carbons?
Melissa:Yes. Mhmm. So one that should sound familiar to you is ethylene Mhmm. Which is the gas that ripens fruit as well.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:So ethylene has 2 carbons, propylene has 3 carbons, and these monomers are converted into polymers through catalysis. Though sometimes, they just have that same repeating unit over and over.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So carbon and 2 hydrogens, carbon 2 hydrogens, carbon 2 hydrogens, just like the Teflon polymer was a carbon 2 fluorines, a carbon 2 fluorines, a carbon 2 fluorines. But sometimes For example, a very common one, PET, is polyethylene terephthalate, which means there's An ethylene monomer. It gets rid of its double bond, so it's more like ethane, but that's maybe a little More than people care about knowing. But there's that eth monomer and then a phthalate monomer. And then so it's Basically, instead of being AAAA, then you have a polymer.
Melissa:That's a b a b a b. Okay. And that'll have different properties. So PET, Polyethylene terephthalate is stuff that makes up water bottles, which is a different texture Uh-huh. Than the stuff that makes up laundry Bottles,
Jam:for example. Right.
Melissa:And, again, some of that is how it's molded. Some of that is in the molecular structure, but also the different kinds of Small molecules that make up the large molecule
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Can impact those properties.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Okay. Interesting Thing.
Melissa:So these polymers the monomers get made into polymers, and those polymers, usually, they start out as little plastic pellets Mhmm. That they just Have a bunch of and then ship them off, and they'll be heated and molded into whatever the different companies need.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:And that's plastic.
Jam:It's oil, but just oil. And, like, it's stuff from oil.
Melissa:Byproduct of oil. Yes. Stuff from oil is manipulated by chemists to make Something new, which is very, very common. I mean, polymer chemistry is everywhere. Our clothes are made of the synthetic Material is made of polymers.
Jam:Oh, polyester.
Melissa:Right? Are polymers. Mhmm. There's all kinds of polymers all over the place. Mhmm.
Melissa:So, you know, it's oil in that oil is a very rich resource to get a lot of basic chemistry molecules that then you can manipulate into being whatever you want.
Jam:Is nylon also plastic?
Melissa:I don't know. It's a polymer. Yeah. But I don't think it'd be considered a plastic because I don't know if you can mold it. K.
Melissa:Maybe if you made it to where it wasn't maybe if you melted it down and reshaped it.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I remember Learning about that process, but I don't remember it now. That was a long time ago. I can do an episode on what is nylon and What are our clothes made up of and stuff too? Yeah. But I would say probably not because it's not molded into a shape
Jam:by
Melissa:that thing.
Jam:Right. Right. But it's a polymer, which just, Like, goes to show, like, they're everywhere.
Melissa:Mhmm. They really are everywhere. Any really plastic that you can see, Probably the desk that you're sitting at if it's not made of wood. I have some cheap photo frames that are Plastic instead of glass. Mhmm.
Melissa:You know, anything you can think of that's not glass or wood is probably a plastic, and it's Probably a polymer. Mhmm.
Jam:Dang. That is so crazy. It's everywhere.
Melissa:I mean, there's also cotton, I guess, too. There's some other Materials, but I don't even know technically what the molecular structure of cotton is.
Jam:Oh, that'd be interesting.
Melissa:An interesting new thing to look at. But Yeah. There's just polymers everywhere in our day to day life. It's in our food that we eat. It's on our pans.
Melissa:It's in the products that we use, And it's in the plastics that we use Yeah. Every day.
Jam:Wow. Gosh.
Melissa:Okay. So that's a lot I just threw at you. I just gave you a really basic crash course in sort of the variety of polymers, But also the variety of plastics and how they come to be. So Yeah. Do you wanna take a stab at it?
Jam:Yes. I'd love nothing in the world more than to take a stab at this. So
Melissa:Yay. Okay. I'm happy.
Jam:I think it's gonna be hard, though, to come for the different analogy than spaghetti. But
Melissa:I know. I was worried about taking that away from you, but I did feel that it was Just such a useful way to envision it. Totally. I didn't feel capable of teaching it any other way.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. I felt like That was necessary.
Jam:That makes sense. I don't know that I would have been able to understand it without some already having analogy part of it. So, Okay. Basically, let me start with, like so we get crude oil, and we There's a lot of things that come out of oil, obviously. One of those Mhmm.
Jam:Byproducts is the some of the substances we already talked about in the past. Ethyl.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Is this ethanol, or is it ethyl was it
Melissa:It's ethylene. Ethylene. So we can talk about that another day. The ethanol means there's an alcohol on it, and they do use Some alcohols to make polymers too, actually, but ethanol means there's an alcohol. Ethylene Mhmm.
Melissa:Ene, that At the end means that there's a double bond in it.
Jam:Got it. So
Melissa:So the little suffixes are those suffixes at the end?
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Those have meaning And have a standardization in addition to the ethyl methylpropylene stuff.
Jam:Okay. Cool. So ethylene and propylene.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And those are byproducts that they can be used to make plastics. Mhmm. And the reason why there's so many different Kinds of plastics is the way that they, make up the the small of the polymer
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Can make a difference in what kind of plastic we have, whether it's one that is, You know, pretty strong when it comes up against heat or not very strong when it comes up against heat or having different textures or feels or or whatever as well as then how those noodles, How those
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Fibers or pieces of the the polymer are then Links together and woven together, so to speak, or bonded together in the Makeup of the plastic, whether they're straight and rigid and packed in tightly, whether they're loosey goosey. And if you can't see me, I'm doing a little dance, pretending like I'm spaghetti noodle. And
Melissa:They can't see you. He said if you can't see me. I'm the only one who can see it. Yeah. Yeah.
Jam:99% of you guys can't see me, or whatever. But and then, Also, if they're, like, even and strong or like the chain link analogy, I'd get they have a better way to to say that than like that being so obvious. Oh, yeah. If they're all kind of loose and just like a pile, even just kind of, you know, strands together, but they're all over the place When?
Melissa:Maybe like a woven blanket. Yeah. Like, a pile of yarn is not gonna be a a crazy Kind of used an unraveled pile of yarn is not gonna be as good as a yarn ball, but the best is if you weave it together or crochet it into a blanket where there's extra
Jam:Yeah. Totally. That's perfect. That's perfect. Yeah.
Melissa:When you said woven together, I thought, oh, there it is.
Jam:Yeah. That's perfect. Then even if it's the same Small molecules that make it up, they can be super different just by how they're woven or not woven together. And that is plastic?
Melissa:That's exactly right. That was such a Good analogy. I wish I had thought of that on the front end. Mhmm. But just to revisit it and wrap it up.
Melissa:So the one part that makes it different is if you have a A punch of yarn. Mhmm. You're gonna have a lot of different properties for the overall substance. Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:If it's just piled up Or if it's in a nice yarn ball or if it's woven into a blanket. You're gonna have a lot of different properties even if it's the same exact yarn.
Jam:And yarn is actually made up of fibers of whatever stuff, which is like the small molecule inside of the larger molecule.
Melissa:Right. So then if you have different types of fibers Mhmm. Different types of molecules, you'll have a different feel or experience of your yarn.
Jam:Yeah. Dang. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:That actually was better.
Jam:That's great because you can't there's a little bit of a jump from spaghetti noodles to chain link fence.
Melissa:I know.
Jam:Yeah. Like, we just don't really make our tuning fences out of spaghetti noodles as much these days.
Melissa:We don't.
Jam:Like, not getting
Melissa:in the nose. Old practice.
Jam:Yeah. Every time I we had a hot humid day, it just the chain link fence just fell apart.
Melissa:And the animals come. They eat the chain link fence.
Jam:Yeah. And kids But
Melissa:the weaving, there's that's perfect.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:It's even, like, baskets are Skits are woven together. That is a very good
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:Analogy for what happens with the on the molecular level of polymers. It's a visual that we can see that we can kind of understand the behavior of molecules by what we've seen in yarn.
Jam:Yeah. Dana, that's great. I like that.
Melissa:That was a good one. Good job. Good good teamwork to come up with a better analogy there at the end. Yeah.
Jam:I don't
Melissa:know why the word you who hung along Yeah. Around with us, they were rewarded with a better analogy.
Jam:Dang, that's very interesting, dude. Plastics. That's so weird. I remember, like, just hearing that it was like, oh, yeah. It's been out of oil or something like that.
Jam:I was like, just what? The answer I probably got from, You know, my mom or something like that if I just asked as a kid, but not anything else that explained it.
Melissa:Yeah. Chemistry is everywhere, and it's really cool. And they've been really useful. Plastics have have become a part of our everyday lives in ways that I tried to think of every way that I used plastic, and I missed so many. I thought my toothbrush.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And then I thought of the okay. There's some plastic in my lunch bag. Well, I went through my morning routine, and I was like, that's not too much plastic. Mhmm. And then I realized that my glasses are made out of plastic.
Melissa:The tube that my toothpaste comes in is made out of plastic. Mhmm. The cover I put on my toothbrush is made of plastic. These spray bottles that I use to spray down my hair Uh-huh. Is plastic on the tip.
Melissa:I mean, there's plastic Subtly incorporated into everything. Yeah. In the refrigerator, in the packaging for the food, it's everywhere. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:And that's all chemistry.
Jam:Dang. That's crazy. I was trying to think, like, what?
Melissa:That's chemistry for your life.
Jam:Yeah. I can see, like, so much plastic just looking at it right now. You just it's so easy to just get overwhelmed by, like, oh, yeah. It's everywhere. All the knobs on this mic stand.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:The ends of the cables that I have plugged in.
Melissa:The lid to my coffee cup? Yeah. Yeah. My phone case?
Jam:Mhmm. Gosh. Dang, dude. That's crazy.
Melissa:These little cards On my
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:Key chain ring?
Jam:Your loyalty things or whatever?
Melissa:Mhmm. It's everywhere. It's all around us.
Jam:Gosh. That's crazy. So I guess
Melissa:Yay science for making our everyday life objects.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. But it sounds like there's gonna be A negative side to it next week.
Melissa:I guess you're gonna have to come back and find out.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Let's not get negative, though. Let's Okay. Get Happy. Let's tell us a happy thing. What?
Melissa:I don't know. That was right. I'll say
Jam:that right. Tell us. You know?
Melissa:Let's not get negative though. Let's talk about something good that happened to us this week. Let's keep it positive.
Jam:Okay. Yeah. Deal. I've got one. So my this was the 1st week that my wife went back to work.
Jam:Yeah. He's been, you know, on maternity leave for a long time. And that was a new change where I had the solo parent for a couple of days, And it went great. It was actually awesome. So
Melissa:Yay. I love that.
Jam:It's definitely hard. You know, that's, like, what anyone would expect, but Being able to survive it and be like, okay. Yeah. I can do this ongoing was really what I was looking to try to figure it out and and make sure I felt good about.
Melissa:It's one thing when life pauses completely and lets you just your whole job is to keep your baby alive. Mhmm. Mhmm. But when you have to start Adding elements of real life back in Yeah. Then you wonder, can I really do this?
Jam:Right. Exactly. Yeah. And it was like I remember Even one of my coworkers talked about her and her husband trying to have a similar setup to what we're doing where we don't have our kid and daycare. We're both just kind of alternate taking care of him.
Jam:And, they weren't able to do it. His his job just didn't wasn't flexible enough to be able to end up allowing it once they started trying to. And so I was a little bit like, okay. We'll see how this goes. Like, hopefully, we can do this, and it works out like we hoped it would and all that stuff.
Jam:So it did so far. Like, after 2 2 tries. So I guess, you know, to be continued a little bit. But after 2 tries, so far, we are feeling great about it.
Melissa:Yay. That's exciting.
Jam:Yes. That is a happy thing. So, yeah, that's me. How about you? How's your week been?
Melissa:Well, that's happy. I am happy to hear that you guys had a good Good time together, bro time hanging out at home. That's fun.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Bro time.
Melissa:Well, speaking of bros, my dad and my brother are my bros, And we love hockey. Uh-huh. We've we've loved hockey since I was a little kid.
Jam:That's not The Dallas Stars. Right? Just to
Melissa:No. Ice hockey.
Jam:Got it.
Melissa:Yeah. Ice hockey. Right.
Jam:Right. Just checking.
Melissa:And the Dallas Stars are doing really well. I know you don't care about sports jam, but, know, there's not a lot to get excited about right now in the middle of COVID. I mean, life can just be pretty just going along Mhmm. Not the most exciting times. So it's something to get excited about, something to talk with my dad and my brother about that's really fun and to hang out with them and chat with them.
Melissa:And playoff hockey happens every other day, so I always have something to do even if for some reason stuff gets canceled because of COVID, which happens all the time. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And my roommates have a projector. Ah. And so I've been using the projector Mhmm. To watch the games on a sheet outside Uh-huh. Which is really fun.
Melissa:I had Some friends of mine over, your roommates over, and we had a social distance watch party outside where it's safe, and we had to sheet up and watch. But this week, I had to stay home, and I put it in my room and projected the game on my wall. Like, I had a huge big screen in my room and Laid in my bed and watched the game and ate some wings, and it was really fun.
Jam:It was
Melissa:my ideal Saturday night. Dude, that
Jam:is awesome.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:The wings part sounds great.
Melissa:Yeah. It was very good. I got wingstop. Louisiana rub is my new favorite. It was delicious.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:So that was a pretty fun that's been a pretty fun thing that's been going on consistently for a few weeks, and I can't believe that they're Still in the playoffs. They're doing pretty well, which is amazing, and it's a fun team to watch.
Jam:Nice. Okay. So nobody jinx it. Okay?
Melissa:Nobody jinx it. Anything could happen. We have no idea if they win 1 more game, they'll be in the finals. But by the time this airs, y'all will know the truth about what happens. You're in the future Yeah.
Melissa:Right now. Yeah. You gotta know. More than I do. Thanks, Jim, for letting me talk about hockey, by the way.
Melissa:Lots of plastic in the hockey realm too if you wanna keep your eyes peeled to watch a game and for coming and learning all about plastics, and it's been a really fun it's been a really fun episode.
Jam:Yes. Thanks for teaching us and for, I'm helping wrap our minds around this crazy topic of plastic that's all around us that's very hard to explain. And thanks on behalf of listeners as well. Melissa and I have a lot of ideas like this of topics and chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you. What are the what are the things that you're curious about that you're like, there's probably chemistry in there?
Jam:Ask us. We wanna hear your ideas. Reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at 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 don't have the cost of a cup of coffee. If you're not able to donate, you could still help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app In reading and writing a review on Apple Podcasts, that also helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa: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. Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to a and in Newell who reviewed this episode.
