Melissa: 00:00

Hey, guys. So far, we've had some great feedback for our fundraising with the limited run merch sale. We've covered about a third of our hosting fees for the upcoming year, but there's still time to support the show. We wanted to let you guys know that this is the last chance to buy your merch. We originally said it would be done August 2nd, but that was our mistake.

Melissa: 00:20

So the last possible day to get a mug or a shirt with the Chemistry For Your Life logo is on Saturday, August 1st. Be sure to get your orders in. Thank you so much for being excited about these products with us. We've had so much fun hearing from you guys, talking about what you like and how excited you are. We just love you guys, and we cannot do the show without you.

Jam: 00:41

To check out our store, go to bonfire.com/store/chem for your life. That's Kim, t f o r, your life. You can also just tap the link down in our show notes on our website or on our in our social media bios and posts. And like Melissa said, the last day is Saturday, August 1st at 11:59 PM. Get those orders in.

Melissa: 01:03

And now onto the show. Hey. I'm Melissa.

Jam: 01:15

I'm Jam.

Melissa: 01:16

And I'm a chemist.

Jam: 01:17

And I'm not.

Melissa: 01:18

And welcome to chemistry for your life.

Jam: 01:20

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

Melissa: 01:24

Okay, Jam. I'm so excited.

Jam: 01:27

For what?

Melissa: 01:28

Today? We're talking about chemistry. Oh, okay. What else is new? So today, we're gonna be doing things a little bit differently.

Jam: 01:39

K.

Melissa: 01:39

I just looked into information about what is going on right now with mosquito repellents in the chemistry research world.

Jam: 01:48

Oh, nice.

Melissa: 01:49

And this is actually a suggestion from Nikki in, a listener who wrote it and said she'd like to hear me just talk about what cool research are scientists doing right now. So I took that idea and applied it to the mosquito repellent situation.

Jam: 02:05

Okay. Sweet.

Melissa: 02:08

So I've just picked a few that I thought were interesting and kinda different and that jumped out to me. I'm sure there's a lot more that's going on. These are just ones that

Jam: 02:19

liked. Okay.

Melissa: 02:20

So if you're a chemist or if you know someone who is working on this stuff and you wanna send me their paper, I can talk about those in q and r's in the future or whatever.

Jam: 02:30

I just picked ones I liked. Nice. So these are potentially, like, in testing kind of stuff, things that aren't, like, being employed out in the world quite yet, but but people are working pretty hard on.

Melissa: 02:42

Yes, all this research has happened between 2015 and 2020. Nice. So it's pretty recent. Only one of the studies was 2015. The others were 2018 and 2019, 2020 range.

Jam: 02:55

So Wow.

Melissa: 02:56

Pretty recent stuff. And, yeah. I'm just gonna jump right in.

Jam: 03:01

Perfect. Let's do it.

Melissa: 03:04

Okay. So we talked about briefly in the last episode how there are some different approaches to research. And one is sort of the brute force approach where you just design a lot of different things and you kinda hope that it works, similar to the screening thousands of molecules to determine if they're going to repel mosquitoes or not. Right. And then we also talked about dismantling the system that you're trying to work in and figuring out if, okay, if this is how this works, then what if we try this to make it work differently?

Jam: 03:39

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Melissa: 03:41

And I I personally have experienced both of those research approaches, and I thought this 1st study was interesting because it did a little bit of both. So this study was regarding truly a series of studies. I would say it's this this one lab. Their whole goal is to learn more about mosquito repellents. It's a chemistry lab.

Melissa: 04:03

Uh-huh. And they're working on spatial repellents. So these keep mosquitoes out of the space rather than what you spray on you.

Jam: 04:12

Nice. I would love that.

Melissa: 04:14

Mhmm. So it's like lighting a citronella candle, that's a spatial repellent. Or those fans that put stuff in the air. Those are spatial repellents. So his group started, and it seemed he was almost telling a story.

Melissa: 04:28

I got to watch an interview with a man who sort of runs this research, which was really fun. And he talked about how his group started by looking at things that were commonly known as being mosquito repellents, stuff that lore or throughout history or indigenous people used to repel mosquitoes. They investigated a lot of those and tried to figure out which ones even were mosquito repellent and which ones weren't, so which ones were kind of myths in which ones actually did repel mosquitoes.

Jam: 05:02

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 05:03

And then they dug into what molecules are present in those whatever they were, those natural things that repelled mosquitoes. And they found that there was this type of molecule, terpenoids, I think is what it was, that seem to be consistent through a lot of them.

Jam: 05:24

Mhmm.

Melissa: 05:25

So then the they took that, and they're working on making what's known as derivatives, so things that are similar to or based on those natural repellents

Jam: 05:35

Mhmm.

Melissa: 05:36

But making them longer lasting. So it would almost be if you found some I feel that this is maybe easier for people to understand. But, say, you found natural vanilla and it tasted really good, but it was really expensive to make or it didn't have a long lasting taste.

Jam: 05:53

Mhmm.

Melissa: 05:53

So they tweak it a little bit molecularly

Jam: 05:57

Mhmm.

Melissa: 05:58

And see if they can make it last longer, taste to better enhance it somehow. Okay. That would be the equivalent. Think synthetic vanilla is easy to make, so they don't really do that. But I think that's a molecule that people can wrap their mind around because they've tasted it.

Jam: 06:13

Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: 06:14

So they basically do the same thing with these mosquito repellents. They find the natural products. They're lacking sometimes in some ways or whatever, so they're synthetically tweaking them. They're making things that are similar, that are based on them, that are hopefully more potent or longer lasting or have enhanced capabilities for both spatial, and they're working on some topical, but I think they're focusing on the spatial repellents. And they've actually had some pretty good results.

Melissa: 06:47

There was a lot of hype around this in 2018 at the big meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Jam: 06:53

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 06:54

And he did some testing where he had filter paper on one end that had the repellent on it, and on the other end, it didn't, and they put mosquitoes in there and sort of watched where they went. It was really cool. So that seems to be a good possibility of something that is going to come out on the market in the next few years. That study the biggest study on this, the most recent one where all the hype came out in 2018, but I think they've been working on that for a long time.

Jam: 07:23

Mhmm.

Melissa: 07:24

And they basically their goal, what he said pretty succinctly, is they're trying to make a new class of mosquito repellents based on these natural products.

Jam: 07:38

Wow. That it would be awesome. That's great news.

Melissa: 07:42

Yeah. I think it's pretty cool. That kind of gives insight into how research happens because it's usually very incremental and slow and you have to break things down and then try new things, and you're gonna try a lot of things, and some of them will work, some of them well. And then after so long that this group has been investing in this, there's kind of starting to be a payoff where they're seeing that this is maybe gonna work.

Jam: 08:05

And it's cool to to see that there's some truth to some of the long held, like, passed down Solutions to keeping the queues away. Obviously, not all of them, but, like, they're able to find some common thread to those. If you had to enhance it, that's pretty cool. It's like, Okay. There was something there.

Jam: 08:23

It wasn't some sort of natural repellent at least a little bit in this plan during this thing that that people used for a long time. It's kinda cool that the humans Mhmm. Were able to figure that out, and then it helped scientists later.

Melissa: 08:37

Well, I'm glad he said that because the 2nd study that I picked is really honed in on that idea. And I think sometimes when maybe in the lower levels of science, there's a lot of this attitude that science is right and all this other stuff is, you know, a little woo hoo or not really right.

Jam: 08:57

Mhmm.

Melissa: 08:58

You know? Some people will just dismiss essential oils or dismiss things. You know?

Jam: 09:02

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:03

But I think there is some truth to that kind of natural medicine and stuff. I don't it's not a 100%, to that. But sometimes, like we talked about last week, the science can kinda figure out later.

Jam: 09:16

Right.

Melissa: 09:16

So another study that I really liked was a chemist at the Department of Agriculture learned that there were indigenous groups in North America who were using sweetgrass to protect against mosquitoes.

Jam: 09:29

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:29

They would braid sweetgrass wear it under their clothes or whatever. And it was really aromatic, but also seemed to keep the bugs away. And so he extracted the oils from sweetgrass

Jam: 09:42

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:43

And tested the oil and some other things and trying to determine which components were mosquito repellent. So the sweetgrass oil was the most mosquito repellent.

Jam: 09:52

Mhmm.

Melissa: 09:53

You found 2 types of molecules in the sweetgrass that were already being used in some mosquito repellents. So he didn't find anything novel, which is kind of a bummer. But

Jam: 10:04

Right.

Melissa: 10:05

He was able to ground that belief in science. They already knew that this was working to repel mosquitoes, and and here's the science that we tea also now. It's kinda cool.

Jam: 10:15

That is cool, especially because, like, with a lot of things, I I don't know a ton about this, but a lot of things, there's, like, always that level of Possibility with the, placebo effect, which is what they say for, like, a lot of things that maybe aren't scientifically proven and maybe can't be, But they work not because they actually work, but because we're convinced that they will. But what's interesting about so, like, that's, like, one of the things people say a lot About essential oils. Like, it's hard to tell because maybe they do work for some people because of of, see what effect that's obviously a topic for another day. But what's funny To me about this is that with mosquito repellents, it there's not really room for that, flu effect because the mosquitoes are either gonna to Come and, like, bite the heck out of you or they're not going to or they're gonna noticeably bite you less. So it's like they're mosquitoes don't care about that.

Jam: 11:03

They're not placebo ed. They're not they're to They're not gonna be thwarted by that. It's like it's gonna be obvious, I guess, whether something works or not when it

Melissa: 11:12

comes to mosquitoes. Unless you think it's working because you're just naturally someone who has less carbon dioxide or whatever.

Jam: 11:17

That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or like You

Melissa: 11:19

could trick other people. You're you're thinking, this one works really well for me. But, really, it's just that you don't have as high of a metabolism. Right.

Jam: 11:26

That's true. So that in that case, it would be like, something that works for you might not work for the other person because it's not

Melissa: 11:32

really

Jam: 11:32

that Right. Working. But right. Right. But, like, in these kinda tests where it's like, let's take this grass and let's hopefully, they're not just doing it on 1 person And see if it works or not.

Jam: 11:42

But

Melissa: 11:43

Yeah. It's in really it was really interesting to find some of those and to appreciate that the things that have been passed down are I just think they're worthwhile.

Jam: 11:53

Some

Melissa: 11:54

sometimes, I think some people just, like, poo poo it away, and Yeah. And that's not always true. Yeah. And sometimes maybe our science hasn't even caught up to things that natural medicines and stuff already know. Mhmm.

Melissa: 12:06

But I also really, really trust science just for the record. Yeah. I just think it's important to be open minded. Now biologists are doing wild things. And I was only gonna focus on chemistry in this episode, but I got pretty excited about this one thing.

Melissa: 12:22

So I'll just briefly mention it, and then I'll tell you what my favorite other study was, and we can wrap up.

Jam: 12:26

Okay. Sweet.

Melissa: 12:28

So this 1 microbiologist, he works at a university, I think, in Minnesota or Michigan, one of those m states. They treated female mosquitoes on 2 islands in China with a low dose of radiation to render them basically incapable of procreating. Mhmm. And they wiped out almost the entire mosquito population on these 2 islands.

Jam: 12:55

Oh my gosh.

Melissa: 12:57

Isn't that crazy?

Jam: 12:58

Yeah. I think I feel like I've heard something about this on a on a Radiolab, unless it was a different podcast, but Something about, like, fiddling with the, that is that we're messing with the reproductive elements of mosquitoes in a place that was causing a lot of disease transmission or something. Is that is that the same one, or do you know if that was the same?

Melissa: 13:20

I don't actually know. But so this a researcher also had previously done another study. So it looks like he either renders them completely incapable of reproducing just sterilizes them, or he makes the men and the women mosquitoes incompatible by releasing it sounded like a bacteria that basically made them not compatible to mate. Mhmm. And both of those methods were successful, although doing the sterilizing with the bacteria seemed to be the most successful Okay.

Melissa: 13:53

Which is amazing to me Yeah. That they could interrupt the cycle of reproduction can just wipe out this population. Yeah. That's It's so, so, so cool.

Jam: 14:05

It's crazy too to think about, like, okay, then what are the, Obviously, there's some benefits that are really obvious to a lot of us. But, like, what are the potential downsides of wiping out?

Melissa: 14:15

Yes.

Jam: 14:15

A a population of any, you know, insect or animal or whatever?

Melissa: 14:20

That is exactly what I thought. I wondered what that would do to the ecosystem and what other things it would bring to the forefront. And also wondered if those other things it brings to the forefront if you wipe out mosquitoes. Are those deadly or are they just pests? So Mhmm.

Melissa: 14:33

Mhmm. Would that be worth it? You know? Ecosystems are just so fragile. But I don't know a ton about that, but I thought it was crazy cool.

Melissa: 14:44

And it seems like a theme was you kind of have the option of repelling mosquito from humans or from a space or interrupting the reproductive cycle.

Jam: 14:55

I'm so I'm about 995% sure that something really similar was in RayaLab. So I'm like, very little doubt there. And in that one at least, they I know that they, like, some sort of ecological study to see in that area. Like, where are the mosquitoes the main source of food for any Other insects or anything in that area, and they're able to determine that it was, like, a pretty minimal risk to wipe them out there. But that that might not be the case everywhere.

Jam: 15:23

But I remember that being, like, a big part of that one episode of Radiolab.

Melissa: 15:29

That's exciting. We should find that and link to it.

Jam: 15:31

Totally. We've there's been, like, some major Radiolab love lately. I feel like a few episodes. We've we've referenced it in a

Melissa: 15:38

few lately. Well, Radiolab was the 1st podcast that I ever listened

Jam: 15:42

to. Me too.

Melissa: 15:43

And you know how I feel about science communication. So Wait.

Jam: 15:47

Sorry. How do you how do you feel about science communication?

Melissa: 15:52

Positive, very in favor.

Jam: 15:54

Okay. Nice. Like a soft thumbs up kinda thing.

Melissa: 15:58

Soft. Yeah. I mean, leave it for somebody else.

Jam: 16:01

Moderate to Okay. Sorry. You said there's a there's

Melissa: 16:07

Oh, okay. Yes. So love your Radiolab. Okay. So my favorite, favorite, favorite paper that I found, I time.

Melissa: 16:18

I was sitting on my couch with my roommates and my boyfriend, and I was I said, this is so exciting. And then they asked me what it was, and I said, nothing. You have to listen to the episode.

Jam: 16:30

Nice. Good move. Good move.

Melissa: 16:32

Thank you. Thank you. So do you remember a long time ago, we talked about earth earthy rain smell.

Jam: 16:41

Yes. The petrocore.

Melissa: 16:45

Petrocore. And do you remember the other thing?

Jam: 16:47

I don't. I don't remember that one because it's also the name of the smell. Like, they named the smell after that. Mhmm. Chemical.

Melissa: 16:54

So geosmin Oh,

Jam: 16:56

yeah. Dang it. Like, jabber sting.

Melissa: 16:59

Is that molecule that we are very sensitive to. Uh-huh. They talked about if there's maybe a teaspoon, I think, in the in an Olympic sized swimming pool, we can smell it.

Jam: 17:10

Mhmm. Gosh. That's crazy.

Melissa: 17:13

Well, guess what?

Jam: 17:14

What?

Melissa: 17:15

We are not the only ones who can smell that smell so sensitively. Oh,

Jam: 17:23

interesting.

Melissa: 17:24

Mosquitoes also are very sensitive to the smell of geosmin.

Jam: 17:30

No way.

Melissa: 17:31

Because they want to lay their eggs in a in an environment that likely has all the things that it needs, and geosmin seems to be an indicator that that is a good environment to lay their eggs. So mosquitoes preferentially lay their eggs when they can detect geosmin.

Jam: 17:52

Uh-huh.

Melissa: 17:55

So in Sweden, it was in Lund, University of Lund, I think, Lund University in Sweden, they figured out that they could use geosmin Mhmm. Rain smell for bait and kill traps. So they to lure the female mosquitoes. They lay their eggs there in a mechanism that then can kill the eggs, trap the eggs and larvae and kill it.

Jam: 18:19

Woah.

Melissa: 18:21

So it doesn't kill the mosquito, but it makes it to where their reproductive cycle is essentially cut off.

Jam: 18:29

Right. Or at least, like like, they're capturing a percentage of female mosquitoes' eggs. So it's, like, Just probably making a serious dent in the population of that area or whatever.

Melissa: 18:41

Exactly. But then they realized that it's pretty pricey to get or make Jasmine. We call some some chemicals are expensive to make, meaning they cost a lot of time and energy Mhmm. Rather than just that they literally cost a lot of money. So geosmin was expensive, hard to get your hands on, hard to make, not a good too easy to mass produce from what I can tell.

Melissa: 19:13

I personally have never tried. That's just what I picked up on from this article. Yeah. So then they tested to see if they could use beet root peels as a source of geosmin because it's present in that earthy smell. And it worked.

Melissa: 19:31

They could use beetroot peels to make the same bait and kill traps for the female's eggs.

Jam: 19:42

No way. So it's just right there in the beep in the beet or whatever.

Melissa: 19:46

Yes. And that article was 2019, 2020, very, very recent. So that was very exciting to me.

Jam: 19:54

That's awesome. So it's just an appeal, so that means that, like, the people of Sweden need to be eating a lot more beets So that they can be a lot of peel or something?

Melissa: 20:05

It said beet root, which

Jam: 20:06

Oh, just in there whole root. Okay.

Melissa: 20:08

I don't know anything about beetroot.

Jam: 20:12

Beats are our root.

Melissa: 20:14

That that's what I thought, but it said beetroot specifically. So I don't know if there's, like, a part of it. I don't know. Anyway, I probably should've looked into that, but I was very excited. And That's awesome.

Melissa: 20:24

That just seems like such a easy, natural a solution that Mhmm. Could really make a dent in the population rather than just something that keeps mosquitoes away from us.

Jam: 20:37

Right. Right. Yeah. That's crazy. It seems like there could be an element of, like, if you could have some Several of these things as solutions in a lot of parts of the world, then maybe they would you get the best of everything.

Jam: 20:53

It's like, Yes. Not totally eliminate this insect, but let's severely curb its rate of Reproduction. And Right. Have a really good, hopefully, really good way of just keeping the ones that then are alive away from people, Especially in places where they could, you know, really spread diseases to a lot of people. And then maybe be, like, the perfect combo.

Jam: 21:17

So we're not totally killing it, But we're curbing it, and we're keeping it away from people Right. Would be awesome, which seems like very, very possible now.

Melissa: 21:26

Yeah. And it was just interesting, as I studied this, to realize how many angles we're coming at this from. So

Jam: 21:32

Yeah.

Melissa: 21:32

There's biologists that are working on figuring out how and why they detect humans in what initiates biting and feeding. And there's chemists working on what chemicals are working to keep them away and and how can we modify those chemicals be more effective in what is already existing that's working really well. And then there's biologists who are working on biologists and chemists who are working on just wiping out the population altogether in different methods. And a lot of times we talk about research is often a lot of people finding 1 piece of a puzzle. Like, there's Mhmm.

Melissa: 22:09

People all over the world working on the same puzzle, finding 1 piece at to time and slowly can build up to have made something and to have done something. And I think this is a really a good look at that of all these people working towards a goal from all these different angles.

Jam: 22:28

Mhmm.

Melissa: 22:29

And it's a very complicated system, a complicated problem that's important because lots of people die every year from this.

Jam: 22:36

Mhmm. And

Melissa: 22:37

they're all working together to make something new, a new thing that that really works to keep mosquitoes at bay or Yeah. Several things that work together. So I think that's just this was fun because I think it gives a good insight into what scientific research is really like.

Jam: 22:54

That reminds me a lot of that classic analogy of the elephant, where it's like you get I don't

Melissa: 23:01

think I know that.

Jam: 23:02

You probably do. I think I mean, the people use it for a lot of different scenarios. It's pretty malleable. But, It's like you have 6 people who all have their eyes closed, and they all are feeling different parts of an elephant. And if you if they each described, like, what they're feeling,

Melissa: 23:22

to Like, say 1 person has a trunk and 1 person

Jam: 23:22

has a tail and person has a leg, 1 person has a back, they they might be describing it in ways that, like, Don't very obviously connect quite yet, but the more they find out about what they're do what they're touching I mean, I could be butchering this. I can't to how it goes. But before they find out about what they're touching, the that eventually, if they put their pieces together, they can have a much Better picture of what they're actually, what they're actually handling there, and then learn from each other's experiences. But if you're just like, oh, it's, Oh, it's really smooth, and it's like like you're touching the tusk of the elephant. And the other guy is like, it's very, like, tough.

Jam: 23:59

Rough. And, oh, it's really slimy or I don't know. Just like Yeah.

Melissa: 24:03

I was thinking it's really gray, but I guess you can't to see color with your eyes closed.

Jam: 24:08

Right. Right. Yeah. 1 1 guy is like, it's so dark. And they're like, yeah.

Jam: 24:13

To because we blindfolded you.

Melissa: 24:17

Yeah. I think that's a really good representation of what scientific research is like, in even just kind of sometimes stumbling around with your eyes blindfolded. It's Mhmm. It just isn't always perfectly clear what is is going on.

Jam: 24:33

Mhmm.

Melissa: 24:35

So that's those are the ones that I thought were fun. There's definitely a lot more stuff out there. T if any of you guys have other things that you think are interesting and fun to share, we've gotten so many questions about mosquitoes that they're definitely gonna come back up on the q and r. So that's just kind of what I picked out. So, Jam, do you want to just kinda give some of your main takeaways?

Melissa: 25:01

There's not really a lesson in this as much as I just reviewed some literature for you, which is is kind of different.

Jam: 25:06

Yeah. I think that's a good idea, kind of like we did with Helium where I just sort of say some things that stuck out to me. I kinda did it a little bit. I guess I jumped the gun talking about how in a perfect world, maybe you could Combine some of these different elements, to not totally kill all the mosquitoes, but also keep people safe and less annoyed. But I think that's one takeaway is that maybe none of these New findings are gonna be the solution forever and, like, the ultimate solution, but they might all contribute to a shared better Future to fight mosquitoes in combination with each other.

Jam: 25:51

Also, just, I think, pretty interesting to me to see how many different ways you can approach a problem. This is a such a good example of that because you could just look for something that kills them to And find a way to do that. You could look for a a thing that that turns off their receptor like we talked about with DEET. Turns off their ability to really smell other things, Mhmm. In some way, you could look for something they really like that draws them to another place, like the Jasmine.

Jam: 26:23

You might still you might end up, you know, killing them or their eggs or whatever, but that's a totally different thing. Now we're looking for something that they really like that is something that they don't like or or instead of something that just turns off

Melissa: 26:35

their nose.

Jam: 26:35

Right. And then the the side of things like Genetic adjustments or introducing bacteria to them to make to disrupt their mating or whatever. There's just so many ways. That's an amazing Like, this alone, mosquitoes seems like a great case study for the average person just to get an understanding of how many ways there are to approach a problem. And then even just the why don't we look at old school Handed down ways of avoiding mosquitoes and see what what elements there might be there that could help us create a stronger version of that that, I guess, could still be in the vein of turning off receptors or just being something that mosquitoes don't like.

Jam: 27:19

But to I just feel like there's so many ways to do it. So it's so such a good thing that there are a lot of scientists working in different areas Instead of just, like, 1 mosquito team having to really test out all of these things that Yeah. Seems to me like it would take so long, for us to get anywhere. And so it's yeah. I'm just I'm really this is really amazing to me.

Jam: 27:44

It's really cool to learn about.

Melissa: 27:46

I'm so glad. Yay. Scientific research.

Jam: 27:49

And I think this is a perfect topic for it because people really care about mosquitoes. Like, they I think you could show some of the same principles of science and the scientific method and testing things and trying things out on a totally different topic that people might just care way less about because Right. It would feel like like it just doesn't really apply to them. Mhmm. Like, are there ways that we can generate, you know, different dyes that are cheaper that, are still as vibrant or whatever?

Jam: 28:17

People will be like, alright. I'm out. Sorry. But mosquitoes, people are like, I'm invested in this.

Melissa: 28:23

Yeah. I can't tell you. We got a lot of people commenting when the question was, Bite mosquitoes bite me more than everyone else. Uh-huh. So many people were commenting, oh, yeah.

Melissa: 28:34

That's me. Time. I'm the one. I've gotta listen and find out why. So

Jam: 28:39

You know why it is. Right?

Melissa: 28:40

That's Papa Jim. For a number of factors that we discussed in a whole long episode.

Jam: 28:47

No. It's because we all literally have skin of the game.

Melissa: 28:52

Oh, no. Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Moving right along. I'm time that you enjoyed this topic. I think that that was really well put, that it's a good way to look at what scientific research is like and why it's important to have a scientific research and lots of different people looking at things and thinking about things and different approaches.

Melissa: 29:15

It's I think this was a a fun way to look at of what's going on. But I'm sure some of you are tired of hearing about mosquitoes, so we're gonna lay this back down for a while, pick it back up on the q and r. But I think this wraps up our mosquito series. This was really enjoyable for me. Thank you guys so much for writing in and asking questions.

Melissa: 29:34

It's been awesome.

Jam: 29:35

Yeah. Thanks for letting us try a longer Series we've done, like, 2 parters, but that's pretty pretty much it. I think we did, I guess, 3 episodes that are kinda related about stickiness, but They were really different. So I feel like this is a first longer series. I mean, that'd be 4 episodes.

Jam: 29:51

It's almost a month's worth of Mosquito talk. So thanks for letting us try this.

Melissa: 29:56

Yeah. I hope I hope you guys aren't tired of it yet, but there is so much interesting stuff to look at. I thought it was gonna be a 2 part series, so it just ran away with me anyway. Shifting into sharing about our week. Normally, I check-in with you and see how you're doing, but I'm so excited that I am going to go first.

Melissa: 30:19

Again, 2nd week in a row.

Jam: 30:20

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's 2 weeks in a row.

Melissa: 30:22

I had 1 final push that I really needed to do to to get my proposal for my big exam ready to go. Mhmm. And I decided on Wednesday, so that was 2 days ago, that it had to be done that day. I I couldn't wait any longer, and I needed to get it scheduled and have some deadlines coming up. So I took some study tips from listener, Shaelle.

Jam: 30:47

Oh, yeah. Friend of the show?

Melissa: 30:49

She had friend of the show, Shayel, she has on her Instagram stories study tips. And, you know, I guess I'd I've just been a student for a really long time. I haven't really refreshed my study tips in a while. Mhmm. So she had her task scheduled out and has this big chalkboard where she writes everything down.

Melissa: 31:08

And just outside my office, there's a big whiteboard that no one uses. Mhmm. Time. And I went and just planned out my whole day, everything that needed to be done in 20 minute increments, and I was not gonna leave work until I got it done, and I did it. And Nice.

Melissa: 31:24

It's done. I sent it to my adviser. There's there's some things that I need help with that I can't do that I just basically need guidance from an expert. Mhmm. But she gave it the green light, time.

Melissa: 31:36

I scheduled my proposal, the defense date, and it's happening in about a week and a half, and then I will be done with this chapter. I'm so excited.

Jam: 31:47

Dude, that's awesome. Congrats.

Melissa: 31:49

So thank you. Thank you. It's a very, relieving feeling to send that off, and now I have to put together my presentation and be ready to defend it in about a week and a half. But I've I've have worked on this. I designed the whole study.

Melissa: 32:05

So Mhmm. I feel like that part will be okay, but I am I'm not good at motivating myself to write. So the biggest hurdle, I feel has passed.

Jam: 32:14

Wow. That's awesome. Dang. That was filled green. Like, such a relief.

Melissa: 32:19

I can see the finish line. So. Okay. So that's my very, very, very exciting thing. What do you have going on this week?

Jam: 32:28

Not a ton, but one definite highlight to Was that this past weekend, we got to see my mom and take our little one over to where my mom was about 3 hours away. And we just we're able to determine it seems like it was safe to do Just to go see her for the weekend, and we thought we could do that safely. And also, we hadn't seen her in, like, a few weeks now and, I guess, almost a month, actually. And Yeah. And we were like, well, it'd also be good to get a a test of traveling with the baby.

Jam: 33:00

So

Melissa: 33:01

right.

Jam: 33:01

Why not do it? Well, it would be a short trip. And if it really goes horribly, then we weren't somewhere for, like, a long time. It actually went really great. It was not Yay.

Jam: 33:13

Like crazy to travel with him. We had to take breaks and stuff, but it was really it was really great. And He slept fine. We obviously couldn't take, like, all of our gear, you know, every single thing from our house. And we had the dogs with us too, so it was like we had to really be minimal about what we took.

Jam: 33:28

But It it all went great. And most importantly, we got to see my mom, and, she got to see the baby. So that was very, very cool, and it was a good weekend. To Yeah. It feels kind of novel now to talk about a weekend getting out of the house.

Jam: 33:41

That seems

Melissa: 33:42

Yeah.

Jam: 33:43

Really new to talk about. Like, normally, I might not think that would would be my it'd be a highlight for sure, but it wouldn't seem quite as carry as much weight as it does now because we are just home all the time. So just getting to leave at all

Melissa: 33:56

Definitely.

Jam: 33:57

Is is such a big deal. But, yeah, that was it was a really good weekend.

Melissa: 34:00

That's really hard because, normally, when you have a new baby, everyone's there. You know? People come and take care of the baby and clean and do this and do that, and grandmas can even stay

Jam: 34:09

Mhmm. In the

Melissa: 34:10

guest room for weeks at a time. You know? And, usually, the whole community comes together to chip in, but right now, everyone's trying to be so safe and careful and socially distanced. And so I'm sure that was kind of a nice relief to get some extra helping hands and to see for grandma to get to see the baby and all of that. Yep.

Melissa: 34:30

It's it's pretty exciting. So That that sounds like a really nice time. It definitely was. So so fun to get to hear about how life as a parent is going for you. Our, listener Jeffrey wrote in a little message and welcome Jam to the fatherhood club.

Melissa: 34:47

Oh, yeah.

Jam: 34:47

That's right. And he has, I think, like, a 16 Month old maybe. I can't remember remember correctly. So yeah.

Melissa: 34:53

I've He's just barely ahead of you in the game. Yeah.

Jam: 34:57

Enough ahead to be in a totally different phase, but also probably really sympathize with with where I'm at. So

Melissa: 35:03

Exactly. I

Jam: 35:04

think I'm among some good good company, in the dad world. So thank you, Jeff, for the encouragement.

Melissa: 35:10

Well, thank you guys all so much for listening and for letting me talk about mosquitoes for a month and just being willing to learn and excited and messaging us and asking questions, that is so, so fun. And I love hearing from you guys, and I know time does too.

Jam: 35:26

Yeah. So thank you so much for teaching us and undertaking a 4 lesson series to teach us about mosquitoes and many the many things related to it. Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you. So So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at chem for your life. That's you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, check out our temporary limited time merch store atbonfire.com/store/chem for your life and pick up some merch.

Jam: 36:04

And if you aren't able to do that, You can help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. That also helps us to build share chemistry with even more people.

Melissa: 36:13

This episode of Carestream 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. Time. Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. And v Garza who reviewed this episode.