182_eclipse
===

Melissa: [00:00:00] Okay, Jam, for today's episode, we, I'm really excited about this.

Jam: You're excited. Ooh, for

Melissa: lean into it. Okay. I'm what I'm excited. Okay. So for today's episode, we're going to look right at the sun, which is not what you're supposed to do. We're gonna look right at the sun's impact on our eyes is the rest of that statement because of the solar eclipse

Jam: Oh yes.

Melissa: is coming So we're gonna talk about why we shouldn't look at solar eclipse. What's the chemistry of our eyes and Something our eyes and margarine have in common, which is weird.

Melissa: And we're going to talk about solar eclipse glasses. And I think I'm even going to use my modeling kit.

Jam: Oh, okay.

Melissa: So that's exciting.

Jam: good. Cool.

Melissa: Are you ready to dive into it? Okay, let's go. [00:01:00] hey, I'm Melissa

Jam: I'm Jam.

Melissa: and I'm a chemist

Jam: I'm not.

Melissa: and welcome to chemistry for your

Jam: The podcast to help you understand the chemistry of your everyday life at night.

Melissa: was about to say nighttime edition. Yeah. So we're recording at a different time of day now. Um, schedules change.

Jam: time of night, you could say, it's so funny that this is an episode about the sun. And here we are recording. Well, you know, that's what we had to be sneaky. It's like, you can't, can't talk about the sun right in front of it. You know, it's

Melissa: you

Jam: it's kind of rude. Wait till it leaves the room at least.

Melissa: didn't even think about the fact that we were doing this. We changed. So if we have different, if we have nighttime vibes now, that's why we've changed it up.

Jam: Yep. I'm drinking decaf. So

Melissa: I, my water's over there. I'm still just drinking water.

Jam: this is a change that may be this way for a while. So we are getting used to it. You might have to get used to it. Maybe [00:02:00] it won't be even that different at all, but it's worth it to say something just in case people are like, okay. Man, you guys are You're so tired.

Melissa: gonna happen. Yeah.

Jam: GM sounds bored. Like, no I'm not. I still have chemistry.

Jam: I just

Melissa: Just

Jam: It's just the end of the day.

Melissa: Well, luckily for our first nighttime one, this is the type of episode that I was so excited about it, that I told the people I was hanging out with before this, what I was doing and explained it to them. And they were like, that's so fun. So that's what kind of episode we're doing. Okay. But before we get into it, we need to dedicate this episode to two of our newest community members.

Melissa: Yay. That would be Cullen R and Jeanette in this episode is dedicated to you.

Jam: Thank you guys so much for joining our super cool chem munity of patrons helping keep the show going, helping keep this show free for the chemistry part to be free to anyone to access, covering the cost of us making this show. It's not free to make the show, but we want it to be free to access the chemistry.

Jam: So thank y'all so much.

Melissa: Yeah. Thank [00:03:00] you so much. We really appreciate it. And one of, I think Cullen wrote me a really nice. Out on patreon. So thanks. That was sweet made my day okay, so Now let's get into this episode that I'm really excited about.

Jam: Okay, let's do

Melissa: So our question came from Sam in Salmon, and he said Is there any chemistry involved with the upcoming solar eclipse What makes the clip glasses safe to look at the Sun versus regular glasses where eyes will still be damaged?

Melissa: You And how does the sun specifically damage our eyes in the first place?

Jam: Um,

Melissa: So those are good questions.

Jam: the short answer is there's not any chemistry, sorry, involved

Melissa: that's kind of what I thought. I was like, probably none, right? And then I looked it up and the first thing that came up was an article from Chemistry and Engineering News that laid it all out for me. And I was like, this is awesome.

Jam: Nice.

Melissa: I was like, perfect question to ask. So it was great. Okay, so. And part of why Sam asked this question is because in a few weeks from when this episode comes [00:04:00] out, like I think just two weeks, there will be a total solar eclipse coming through where we live.

Melissa: We're actually just out of the path of totality by like 20 minutes. So that's kind of sad.

Jam: That is.

Melissa: Cause, so what basically a solar eclipse is, for those of you who don't know, and I didn't really know, I had to like go back and remind myself and look it up, is the moon will pass in front of the sun. And there's different types of solar eclipses.

Melissa: So we just had one that came in October where the, um, moon went over the sun, but it was further away so you could still see a ring of the sun outside, so the sun wasn't totally blocked. But what's happening this time is the sun will be totally blocked. So, because I guess the moon is closer to us, so it's like big enough proportionally to totally block out the

Jam: Got it. Yep.

Melissa: So you'll be able to see the corona, the aura, sort of, around the sun that normally we can't see because the sun's so bright.

Jam: Wow.

Melissa: Yeah, so that'll be very exciting.

Jam: crazy. Uh, it's perfect because this is the intersection of two things. I [00:05:00] have. I've always been obsessed with space,

Melissa: Cool.

Jam: which I think there's a couple times that has like, I can't really think exactly that some topic has

Melissa: It's like scented

Jam: that area. Yeah. And so I love eclipses. I love thinking about them, talking about them.

Jam: And I remember years ago seeing like forecasts, like, Oh wait, we're going to get one in October and April. And like, cause there was one, I remember I worked at a different place, I worked in Plano and I was commuting and there was. Yeah, like we have a very, very partial one that we got, but of course other places got like a really good view of it.

Jam: This is like probably 17, 18, something like that. And then people are like, next one's not until 2023. And then there's going to be one in 2024 too, and I was like, What? But also those years sound so far away,

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: but I have been kind of counting down the days and it's crazy that we got, we get pretty good versions in Texas of both of them, like enough to be like [00:06:00] super cool to

Melissa: well, and actually the day of the annular solar eclipse , we had just moved into our new house and I was like working on. A shelf in the bathroom. So I was like in the heart of the house and I came out like, why is this light so

Jam: Uh huh.

Melissa: And then I was like doing something else. And then I was like, it's a solar eclipse. That's why it looks like it's overcast, even though the sun is out. Like it took me a second. And the only way I had to view it was I went and grabbed a dirty colander and you can turn your back to it. And like so I could see the solar eclipse that way.

Melissa: But. It's very, it was very odd. The light was weird. So I think this one's gonna be even weirder. Are you, do you think you're gonna go into the path of totality?

Jam: I might. So I meet your friend of ours and I might. try to go to this event that's happening on the same day on purpose

Melissa: Mm hmm.

Jam: that is in Austin, which is more in the path totality, the way it kind of goes down diagonally across Texas. Um, and so [00:07:00] we may or may not work that out. Not official yet,

Melissa: You and whom?

Jam: Sean.

Melissa: That'll be so fun.

Jam: Yeah. So maybe it'll happen.

Jam: Maybe not. I don't know.

Melissa: Well, um, I'm gonna tell you all about the chemistry that you can tell Sean all about on your car ride down there. Okay. So, um, yeah, we're going to be very close to the main path of it. I purchased my solar eclipse viewing sheet. I just got a piece of the paper

Jam: nice.

Melissa: because I was prepping this episode and realized I should probably go ahead and do

Jam: Uh huh.

Melissa: So, um, I'll have to say there's going to be a solar eclipse, but you and I, and probably everyone have heard that you should not look at the sun during a solar eclipse. And there's that whole thing where Donald Trump came out and looked right at it. That's like what I think of when I think of don't look at the sun during a solar eclipse.

Melissa: But I never thought until Sam asked me of why we shouldn't look at the sun during a solar eclipse. Okay. So, Here's the thing. Israeli should never look at the sun [00:08:00] It's not because it's a solar eclipse, but you're never tempted to look at the sun really regularly 'cause it hurts that it's uncomfortable unless there's a solar eclipse.

Melissa: And that's why we hear about it all the time during solar eclipses. Got

Jam: it. That was my

Melissa: Yeah. It's not

Jam: it seems unlikely that the sun be more intense and more damaging to us

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: than on the other day. It just seemed like everyone's going to be tempted to now on this specific day. And that's why you say it. Yeah. I

Melissa: because it's nighttime. Okay, yeah, so that's correct. So it's, you can't, you shouldn't really ever look at the sun very much, but during a solar eclipse, you'd be tempted to look at it a lot during a short period of time, and that's a problem. And here's why. I've gone totally off script now.

Melissa: I'm not even looking at my notes because I'm so excited about this. I'm gonna give you an analogy and then we'll dive into the chemistry. Okay, so you know how in video games where you have like some shields and your shield will be up until it takes a certain amount of [00:09:00] damage and then your shields go down and they need time to regenerate and if they don't regenerate then you start taking damage? Okay, our eyes have basically little sun shields that take the hit and then they need time to regenerate and if they don't fully regenerate before you look at the sun again and you've used up all your sun shields, you're going to start taking the damage to your eyeballs.

Jam: Wow.

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: Okay. So are you ready to get into the chemistry of it?

Melissa: Okay. Okay. So I'm going to. Say, first of all, this, maybe it's kind of confusing, but I'll do like an overview at the end. Okay. So the sun comes into your eyes and it will hit one molecule that is called, um, sit it's sis retinol, okay, retinol actually, sis retinol. So it's a sis molecule and I have a modeling [00:10:00] kit for those of you watching on YouTube, you can see.

Melissa: Um, but. A cis bond kind of makes this U shape. So like it has two carbons and then the two biggest groups are pointing up in the same direction. So it kind of makes a U. So you can imagine like, almost like the bottom of the Big Dipper,

Jam: Okay. Oh yeah.

Melissa: can see that. So it makes a U and then a, Transbond makes like a Z, so it has that same like base carbon, two carbons are bonded together, but one's pointing up and one's pointing down.

Jam: Got it. Okay.

Melissa: we've talked about this before, but I thought it'd be fun to show the models. And this is um, what is similar with margarine, is margarine goes from being cis bonds to being, or from being trans bonds to being cis bonds, right? So that it, it doesn't, it stacks up better. We've talked about that conversion before and trans fats are bad, right?

Melissa: So we've talked about this cis and trans bods that happen in margarine. And now that also happens in our eyes because when the sun comes in, [00:11:00] it takes something that looks like this and it turns it into this. And you might think, Oh, that's easy. You can just like rotate this around. No, you can't just rotate it around.

Melissa: The sun actually has to break. a bond and then a bond has to reform to get back to the Z. So if you're not watching on YouTube, I physically just broke one of the bonds and had to turn it around because if you just try to twist it, it doesn't work. A bond will have to break.

Jam: it. I see.

Melissa: So it's a full conversion.

Jam: this like, we've talked about this in other things, the sun damaging things like plastics, you know, the color fadings, but that this UV damage happening or is it something

Melissa: there's like lenses that filter out some type of light and then some gets through. So, so, and it's not really super damaging because it just converts it from the cyst to the transversion. And then that transversion is able to, um, like when it has that transversion, it sort of is the thing that's going to tell [00:12:00] the molecules around it like, oh, I've absorbed some light and through a very complex pathway.

Melissa: that basically tells your brain that you're seeing light.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: So we went to the first molecule, which was a cis retinal, and then we went to a trans retinal, right? Okay, so we went from molecule A to molecule B. Then molecule B goes to, um, it goes through another, um, transformation.

Jam: And this would be anyway, or if you got more exposure,

Melissa: so this is just your basic functioning of what happens in your eyes when light comes in from the sun.

Melissa: There's like, the first few layers filter out some of the sun and then when it gets in past those it'll hit this cis molecule, turn it into a trans molecule, so a chemical reaction will happen with the sun's light and then There's another functional group on there called an aldehyde. We've talked about functional groups before.

Melissa: They're just [00:13:00] collections of molecules. No big deal. So it's like the same, or collections of atoms, I guess. Collections of atoms that will act the same way when you see them consistently. But the big thing is this functional group, this aldehyde, has a carbon that's double bonded to an oxygen and it will go through what we call an A reduction reaction.

Melissa: We've talked about oxidation and reduction before where oxidation is adding bonds to oxygen and reduction is reducing bonds to oxygen.

Jam: oil rig.

Melissa: Oil rig, there you go. I think oil rig is easier in organic chemistry than it is in gen chem because in gen chem you have to do like oxidation states and count up all these numbers and it's really confusing.

Melissa: In organic chemistry it's just how many bonds are there that are carbon. So here's a good example. This is a, er, to oxygen, I mean. How many bonds are there to oxygen? So this is a good example. We have a carbon and it has two bonds to an oxygen here. And so this exact molecule can break that bond and then it'll bond to a hydrogen and now you can see this carbon.

Melissa: Only has [00:14:00] one bond to oxygen. So that's a reduction reaction. But if it were to go the other way, this is, that would be oxidized. So if you go from single to double, oxidized, double to single, reduced.

Jam: Got it.

Melissa: So I have a little modeling kit that you can see also, or you can, um, you can go look on the YouTube or you can look it up.

Melissa: So basically, um, It gets reduced, so first a double bond gets switched, and that goes from molecule A to molecule B. It gets switched from cis to trans, and then it goes from being an aldehyde to being an alcohol, reducing that bond. And then that will go through several more series of steps, which are too complicated that I don't want to talk about today.

Melissa: and then it goes back to molecule A.

Jam: Okay.

Melissa: So all that takes some time. But ultimately, molecule A is a little shield that will absorb the sun's light, turn it into something else, that sends chemical pathways that says, oh, you've absorbed light, and then that will be Go through the chemical ox, uh, chemical [00:15:00] reduction, and then the reduced molecule will go all the way back through and end up back at molecule a no,

Jam: there some aspect of that that requires like our bodies to release something to get it back? I know you said you did that. It's a lot of

Melissa: it's like through an enzyme. So it just happens automatically. I think the biggest thing though, is it needs time. So if you're looking at the sun one time and like, say you're driving to work in the morning and you, the sun, you look at the sun, it's like, Whoa. And then you pull your visor down. Then that's going to give a break from looking at the sun.

Melissa: Okay. and you'll have time to regenerate and it'll be fine. But what happens on solar eclipse days very often is people are glancing up at it several times over the course of say like an hour and that cumulative effect is bringing down the amounts of molecule A that you have in your eye over time. And once you've done that, if you have no more of molecule A and then you look back at the sun again, [00:16:00] there's nothing to absorb that light and do anything positive.

Melissa: And then it starts breaking bonds, producing radicals, and doing that photodegradation that we talked about that actually can make it to where you're getting damage of your cells.

Jam: it. Okay.

Melissa: So that's when things get dicey is if you cumulatively look at the sun enough in a short enough period that you're Molecule A stash hasn't restored, then you're not going to be able to effectively block out those damaging rays and other things will start taking

Jam: Got it. Got it.

Melissa: And that is how your sun, how your sun, that is how your eyes have little sun shields in them just like a video

Jam: That is crazy.

Melissa: it goes through two common reactions that we talked about before, and there's photodegradation which was also talked before extensively in the episode. Why do things fade in the sun and we're gonna replay that episode for you next week before in our [00:17:00] re

Jam: Nice. Nice. And that is so cool and so weird

Melissa: I know.

Jam: that there's that much going on in our eyeballs

Melissa: I know there's so much going on our eyeballs

Jam: and that it's that essential chemistry like stuff we've talked about a bunch of

Melissa: I know, I was blown away. It's a much more complicated thing, obviously, there's like a four step reaction pathway to get from molecule C back to molecule A, and there's enzymes that play a part. And of course, you know, then part of it, part of the shield, it's not just shielding, it's also communicating to your brain that it, that light.

Melissa: Exists, which is crazy. So it's very cool, I think, but, and very complicated beyond what we're going to talk about today, but I thought this part was the fun and the most relevant part to what we'd already talked about and I got to use my modeling kit.

Jam: That was really helpful. Honestly.

Melissa: So if you're listening, you can go check us out on YouTube and actually see the modeling kit.

Jam: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Melissa: So, [00:18:00] so yeah, that's it. Do you want to explain that process back to me and talk about the, um, the chemistry reactions? And then as a little treat, I'll explain the solar glasses part.

Jam: Nice. Yes. Absolutely. Okay. So our eyes, this is very good news. Our eyes are set up for some amount of exposure to the sun. Oh man. So relieved to hear that because it's hard to avoid. Um, and in a normal situation, if you're having a normal amount of exposure to the sun, you i. e. not looking directly at it, um, for a set amount of time or whatever,

Melissa: Or a cumulative amount of time

Jam: right?

Jam: Very, very close together or whatever. Um, what would happen is these molecules are in this layer over our eyes ready [00:19:00] to be able to, um, receive and be affected by. The sun's light by the UV by the strength of it. The things that, um, that would be damaging us or whatever.

Melissa: Don't know if it's a layer over our eyes There are lenses that are layers of our eyes But I actually think this is like within the cones and rods of our

Jam: Oh, wow.

Melissa: inside.

Jam: Interesting. So that's what we're trying to protect from doing damage is inside, which makes sense, I guess. Right. Okay. So.

Melissa: Think I'm not I'm not a biologist or an eye doctor. So I You know, but that's, that was my understanding based on what I

Jam: and I have glasses. That's all I know. So, um, I do have a layer in front of my eyes that I need for different reasons. Um, so it's, uh, it's protecting some important stuff and it is set up to be able to, um, be affected by the [00:20:00] sun. without, without being destroyed or damaged, uh, beyond repair. And the way that works is the, um, molecule a, which is the, can I, yes, which is the, this is the sis, right?

Jam: Um,

Melissa: U shaped, for those of you who can't see

Jam: you shaped, uh, orientation of the molecule here. And then whenever the sun hits it, It breaks bonds

Melissa: Mm hmm.

Jam: to turn it into a trans, um, which has to break and then be able to basically reform a bond the other way.

Melissa: So that's now like a Z shape for those of you listening.

Jam: So from a U shape to a Z shape. And it had to break a bond to do that. And then form another one.

Jam: Um, and then a, so, molecule A, molecule B. And then when we get to these, [00:21:00] so this, is this a different thing or is,

Melissa: part of molecule B.

Jam: okay. Different parts.

Melissa: one's a different part of molecule B. Okay. So we have one, we have a double bond on one side and this, this other functional group on the other, a different part of it.

Jam: And then, and then what happens is this loses a bond to oxygen and instead has a bond to another hydrogen. Um, which, oh man, okay, wait. So when it loses bonds to oxygen, that is being reduced.

Melissa: So that's a reduction. Good

Jam: been reduced, it's a reduction reaction. And then from here, it is a bunch of other stuff,

Melissa: what very complicated

Jam: including some enzymes that help it make it happen and all that kind of stuff.

Jam: And then it ends up back to the cis U shaped.

Melissa: yeah,

Jam: we started out with. And if it has time, sorry, [00:22:00] um, to do all those things, then it's like the shield takes a little bit of a hit, but gets to regenerate.

Melissa: Yep.

Jam: Um, it's not exactly what's happening. Cause it's not like it's that way. It's where generate might mean something different in chemistry or something like that.

Melissa: but it is kind of like a shield that regenerates. Yeah.

Jam: um, it's built in that it can get back to its state. It was before. Take more hits then take some time get back to where it was before take more hits that kind of stuff So the caution is that we if we have a lot of direct exposure to the Sun or a bunch kind of in a row Look at it. Look back. Look at it.

Jam: Look back We are causing a lot of those bonds to break molecules to change and a lot at once and they're not having time to go through the whole process to go back to still be protecting this very sensitive parts of our eyes. Like it's supposed to be. [00:23:00] So we're, we're unwittingly letting the sun damage our eyes in a way that, that may be destructive, like, long term and can't be fixed or healed on just by natural

Melissa: exactly. The only thing I want to add is that these shields also have the dual purpose of communicating that, oh, we're looking at light. So they are shields, but they are also like shields that collect information and relay it back, which that's kind of where the

Jam: Like a sensor, kind of thing.

Melissa: Yeah, like a sensor shield.

Melissa: Yeah, yeah.

Jam: That, that makes sense. So it knows when it's, When it's being affected, so to

Melissa: transformation when the light hits it and it goes from cis to trans, That change is also part of like, Oh, now we're going to set off a chain of chemical reactions that communicates to the neurons that we have seen light.

Jam: it. So, would that be [00:24:00] involved in the iris, sort of, the pupil dilating or? Narrowing

Melissa: I don't know.

Jam: at brighter light, you know So the aperture shrinks and stuff, but yeah Yeah,

Melissa: Um, and you asked about the wavelengths I will say. So, um, and one of my major sources that I use today was an article from chemistry and engineering news. And it says that, Um, the eye's outermost layer, known as the cornea, catches the short wavelength region of the ultraviolet B light, while, um, lens, the eye's window, filters out the remaining UVB and part of UVA. And it also says that those in, um, children are, um, Much clearer, and that's why children are more susceptible to overexposure to sunlight, which is something that happened to you, right? When you were a child, you accidentally got overexposed to the sunlight.

Jam: [00:25:00] I remember my um I don't know how that would happen But

Melissa: Yeah,

Jam: remember my optometrist telling me that I had some uv damage on my eyes and I was like, how dare you? I'm, just kidding No, I was like, oh golly. I didn't know that so

Melissa: you're like, your light shields betrayed you,

Jam: yep,

Melissa: so.

Jam: also, I I don't know this is a fact, but I feel like Glasses now a days like they even like the like a fairly affordable pair you get has better shielding on it

Melissa: we've talked about

Jam: when we were kids

Melissa: them are made with acetate instead of glass, and that is like a UV barrier. Isn't it not light UV in at all? Didn't we talk about that on a previous episode? I think we

Jam: We probably did

Melissa: That if like you had it under a UV light, it would look like a solid

Jam: Yeah, so it must be that the damage happened When I was prior glasses or it made my first couple pairs I got glasses in fourth grade. So I had a lot of time to Run around the Texas Sun[00:26:00]

Melissa: Yeah.

Jam: Anyway,

Melissa: Thanks to the sun. Um, it was 90 degrees here today and it's February. So, anyway, there's a lot of other things that happen if the sun goes too much. It can oxidize a lot of other species in our eyes, and then these oxidized species can, you know, it can do, like, set off a chain, every chain reaction that gets a bunch of different, like, of the important fats in our eyes oxidized.

Melissa: It could do all kinds of stuff that's really bad, but basically that's when our eyes start taking the hit, is when it gets overwhelmed, when there's too much light. Um, and so, and even if, like, just one molecule that can get too much energy in it can do all kinds of crazy stuff in our eyes, like a kamikaze situation, so.

Melissa: Um, so that's what happens in our eyes, but UV glasses work. Do you want to guess how they work? How the, um, how solar glasses work?

Jam: [00:27:00] Uh,

Melissa: Okay. Okay.

Jam: I'm trying to think I do remember the orientation of the like, like left hand right was it left hand right hand or was it just, uh, like vertical horizontal?

Melissa: lenses, I think,

Jam: Yeah. Yeah.

Melissa: I'll just tell

Jam: Just tell me.

Melissa: They just, it just blocks 99. 99 percent of the sun's light. It just makes it like, almost nothing is getting through here. And that, when only 01 percent of the sun's light is getting through, that's when it's safe for us to look at it.

Melissa: Wow. Yeah.

Jam: It's crazy we have to, we have to like block that much of it. We have to reduce it in the like lay people's term, uh, version. That much to handle it.

Melissa: Okay, and so I said that the sun's, during a total eclipse, the sun is completely blocked. So during a total eclipse, if you are in the path of totality, for whatever the time period [00:28:00] of the totality it is, it is safe to look at it with your eyes.

Jam: That's

Melissa: Because there's no sun that you're looking at. But you have to be careful, because you're in the path of totality.

Melissa: Like, you have to make sure that it's totality, because it'll seem dark even if it's not all being covered up. Like, there's still a ring on the outside, and it'd seem dark and dusky. So it'll be dark ish and it not be completely covered up. So, you know, take that with a grain of salt, but it is safe during a total solar eclipse to look directly at the sun because you're not looking directly at the sun only during that time when it's totally eclipsed.

Melissa: So like, don't say I told you to look at it. During any other part. Okay. And don't get hurt. That's not my problem. It just, better safe than sorry. You have your, you can order like sheets of paper for 10 online and hold those up. Sheets of solar paper.

Jam: the glasses are not that expensive either. If you want to have a little, that form factor, I, um, thought about it probably about only about a [00:29:00] week and a half before the previous one

Melissa: Mm hmm.

Jam: and just ordered some real quick. A pack of them. They got here like a few days before it was perfect. And I was like, I am the king.

Jam: I'm just kidding.

Melissa: Well, just make sure that you're actually getting ones that are certified. So I link in our show notes Um, like a NASA page that goes over the different types of eclipse and on that it links a place with reputable sellers that definitely have it and it shows you how to know. There's like a certification.

Melissa: It will. Sorry. Sorry. Nighttime recording. There's a certification on it that says like such and such certified to be sure that it's 99. 99 percent but it really has to be like only 0. 01 percent of the light can get over it to be safe. Okay and that's it as a solar eclipse. So I'm really excited. Where were you for the last solar eclipse?

Jam: I was right here. Actually, you know what? For the [00:30:00] beginning of it, I was at the park, um, we had a get together, a lot of the guys from our church were there, and we had walked around and hung out and just enjoyed a really nice day that morning. And then I had brought the glasses with me, so we kind of swapped them around.

Jam: We were seeing like the earliest phases of it. Then I came back here and we watched the rest here, but what was cool about it is that with a lot of trees in our backyard and stuff like that, so that shadow thing was happening literally just everywhere. Like, it was so trippy,

Melissa: That crescent is weird.

Jam: but it was a lot of fun. It was like, the weather could not have been better.

Jam: So it was just like, we just hung out

Melissa: am a little worried that it's going to be cloudy on our solar eclipse day. But so on the last solar eclipse in October, the path of totality was like, Three hours south of here or whatever. Well, that was when we were moving into our new house and I found a dresser that matched [00:31:00] my vintage dresser in San Antonio.

Melissa: And Mason drove to San Antonio that day and missed the like total. So like, like that, that annular, so like, that was by like two

Jam: Oh man.

Melissa: all the way to it. I was like, are you sad? He was like, nah, I don't really care, but I'm much more excited about this one.

Jam: Yeah. I, uh, I would have been very sad if I were him. I remember getting really sad as a kid at one point, like one of the planets, um, I think it was Saturn was more visible for like a certain amount of time. Um, and it would take like 10 more years before it happened that way again.

Jam: And so it was like, get a telescope, do this, blah, blah, blah. Like you can, you actually get to see it with like, stuff you can get the average person. And, uh, we had telescope at one point, but we couldn't find it or broke something. I remember being so bummed as a kid. I was like, well, it's going to be so long before we could see it again.

Jam: My parents were like, okay, like, sorry.

Melissa: does feel like the 17 one was like pretty, [00:32:00] that long

Jam: Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah.

Melissa: that's fun. Thanks for letting me talk about this. Do you want to wrap it up with a quick fun thing about your life?

Jam: I would love to, um, if only I could think of a quick fun thing for my little

Melissa: Well, alternatively, I, we jumped the gun and I was going to ask what our plans were for this solar eclipse, but I was excited and talked about it anyway, so that

Jam: Oh yeah.

Melissa: thing if you want.

Jam: Well, I'll tell you, um, one thing that I should have told you already before we pressed record earlier. It has been cool, fun, feels good, is that I've been getting better sleep, getting to bed earlier, waking up earlier, absolutely crushing my morning routine

Melissa: I love that.

Jam: and it just feels great. You know?

Melissa: Yeah. I'm, I'll say something similar. That's like, also quick. [00:33:00] As I, well, since I got married, I've been much better at getting enough sleep, so I Unless there's like a big work thing, but um, I have been trying to figure out about my blood sugar. You and I have talked about like our blood sugars both sometimes crash and that can be a sign of early insulin resistance and I also have um, some other conditions that are linked with insulin resistance and also I have a vitamin D.

Melissa: Which we talked about. Deficiency, which can also be linked to insulin resistance. And so I've been trying to figure out ways to balance my blood sugar, you know, and like, be nicer to it and not have it do these crazy spikes and, and then like, it'll spike up and then crash down. And, um, I found that a piece of avocado toast every morning for breakfast almost has no effect on my blood sugar.

Melissa: And your mother in sourdough bread. And so I'll take sourdough bread, toast it a little on the cast iron, smash half an avocado, put a little bit of salt, some peppers, some red chili flakes, and fry one egg quick. Put [00:34:00] that on top. I've had it every day for breakfast for like, a very long time.

Jam: That's the millennial dream right there. We became obsessed with avocado toast. Who would have thought about like, what was that? Like six, seven years ago?

Melissa: Yeah, I didn't like it back then.

Jam: Yeah, but who would have thought that would be the key to your situation?

Melissa: it keeps me full all the way through until lunch. And I've noticed that it just, like, keeps everything else, everything seems to have a lot lower of an effect, and there's a lot of talk about fiber, which is also something we did a podcast episode about, and how, um, colon cancer is on the rise for people our age, and they think it's because a lot of the processed foods that we tend to eat don't have fiber in it, And guess what has a ton of fiber?

Melissa: Avocados,

Jam: Yet. Nice.

Melissa: and so this is all very good for you But also my friend jenna told me about eggs. And so i've been getting the pasture raised eggs, which um Little sneak peek. I think that's what i'm going to talk about in our next commute.

Jam: Ah. Okay. The [00:35:00] tune into the Kimmunity secret podcast for chemistry for your life supporters to hear more about that.

Melissa: So yeah, we've both been doing our morning routines We've been eating our eating our healthy breakfast. I don't know if you've been having a healthy

Jam: My, mine is, yes, mine is that I do not eat breakfast, which I could talk about on our community if you

Melissa: Okay. Yeah.

Jam: that is my, that is what helps me. Thank you.

Melissa: Yes, I've heard that longer you go between eating gives your insulin time, your blood sugar time to come back down.

Melissa: So that's a good thing. All right. Cool. Well, come to our community to hear all about what we eat

Jam: and or what we don't eat.

Melissa: or what we don't eat. And, um, thanks for, thanks for coming. Let me share my excitement about this. I'm really excited about the solar eclipse. I can't wait. And I'm sure I'll post something on our podcast Instagram about that.

Jam: Yes. Thanks for teaching us. Very pumped about the eclipse. Very pumped that I know more about it. Very pumped about the chemistry [00:36:00] involved.

Melissa: you can tell, Sean. Yes.

Jam: You're trapped in the car with me.

Melissa: And that's right.

Jam: Um, well, thanks for teaching us. Thank you guys for sending your questions, Sam, for sending this question about the eclipse.

Jam: We love hearing your questions, your thoughts, your ideas, your follow ups, whatever, please send those to us at our website, chemforyourlife. com, that's chem, F O R, your life. com, to share your thoughts and ideas. Like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, like we talked about.

Jam: early at the beginning of the episode, you can join our super cool Kimmunity to help support the show and you get to have some cool perks and get some behind the

Melissa: episode.

Jam: episodes. You get to see some behind the scenes kind of stuff. Anyway, we'd love to have you join our community, but if you're not able to do that, Oh wait, I should tell you where to do it.

Jam: at, we're a little out of practice, at patreon. com slash chem for your life, patreon. com slash chem for your life. That's where you can join our super cool chem community. But if you're not able to do that, you can still help us by [00:37:00] subscribing on our favorite podcast app, rating and writing review on Apple podcasts and subscribing on YouTube.

Jam: Uh, that helps us a lot. Helps more people to be able to hear about chemistry.

Melissa: This episode of Chemistry for Your Life was created by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson. Jam Robinson is our producer and this episode was made possible by our community, by our financial supporters on Patreon, and it really is so exciting to us that you want to help support us and make chemistry accessible to even more people so we can learn about cool things like the solar eclipse.

Melissa: So those supporters are our new friends, Cullen and Jeanette. And then we also have Avishai B, Bree M, who sometimes makes illustrations. Um, Brian K, Carol R, Chris and Claire S, Chelsea B, Derek L, Elizabeth P, Emerson W, Hunter R, Jacob T, Christina G. Katrina H, Latila S, Lynn S, Melissa P, Nicole C, Rachel R, [00:38:00] Sarah M, Stephen B, Shadow, Suzanne P, Timothy P, Venus R, Radioactive Dreams, thank you so much for your support and um, for everything you do to make Chemistry for Your Life happen.

Melissa: And then we have an extra special thanks to Bree who often creates illustrations to go along with episodes of Chemistry for Your Life and YouTube channel. Or, you can, um, support Bree by following her on Twitter or on her website intrepid. artstation. com and you can get the links to those in our show notes.

Jam: And if you'd like to learn more about today's episode, you can check out the references for this episode in our show notes or in the description of the video on YouTube and

Melissa: And, yay chemistry! I was gonna come in too early with that. Okay, we did it!