Do mosquitos bite some people more than others?
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: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: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:And now onto the show. Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:Time. And welcome to chemistry for your life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
Melissa:Jim, are you ready for mosquitoes part 2?
Jam:Dude, I'm very ready. To Left
Melissa:me on the edge of my seat last time.
Jam:I knew a little bit more than I did before, but there's still so many questions, so many Things I wonder about mosquitoes. It opened up so many doors. So I've just been waiting for a week trying to just not think about it. You know what I mean?
Melissa:Yeah. I guess, normally, you just have no idea what's coming next, and now you know.
Jam:Right. Exactly. Normally, it's just, like, totally in the dark. But now I knew a little bit. Got a little bit of a tease.
Jam:Add more questions, at the end where you were like, we'll talk about that later. And I was like, gosh. Dang it. Gotta wait a week, maybe 2, before that topic happens.
Melissa:Well, it might even be 3 because I think there's enough information on mosquito repellent that that that one itself might have to be a 2 part episode.
Jam:Dang. Dude.
Melissa:And that's the one I'm most excited for because that's the most chemistry heavy. I feel that a lot of what we've already talked about has been biology heavy. So Yeah. And what we're gonna do today. So I'm really looking forward to how mosquito repellent works and then also talking about what new things scientists are looking into for potential future of mosquito repellents.
Jam:Nice. Okay. Sweet. I'm pumped.
Melissa:I've got 2 updates from last week.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:My sister, who is trained as a biologist but now works in sea level rise science communication. Mhmm. Check out our episode on sea level rise called, is this is this sea rising, and should I be scared? Mhmm. To hear more from her.
Melissa:She messaged me and said that I made a mistake. I said that carbon dioxide sensing, when that ability is taken away, it affects the ability of mosquitoes to move. Mhmm. But, technically, we don't really know if it's ability or if it's desire. So I said ability, but it just affects their movement, period.
Melissa:I don't know the causation.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:So and that gets us into a theme for today's episode, which is correlation does not equal causation. Mhmm. You may have heard that before, but it basically just means just because 2 things seem to go together doesn't mean 1 causes the other.
Jam:Right. Interesting.
Melissa:Yes. So she pointed that out, and I said, you're so right. I do not even I did not even think. And she gets up really early and works out. So time.
Melissa:I was reading this groggily in my 1st phases of the morning and then realized that she was right. So that's that's the risk of me being a chemist and not a biologist as I accidentally attribute things to causation rather than correlation. And the other thing was we wanted to do a follow-up on how many people's mosquitoes kill each year. Woah. Yes.
Melissa:T you had mentioned that you wanted to hear that statistic, so I dug in a little. Wikipedia came in with a whopping 1,000,000 people a year die from keto transmitted diseases.
Jam:Dude,
Melissa:yikes. And I couldn't I know. And I couldn't confirm that a 100%. I couldn't get access to the journal they referenced in their, the Wikipedia references.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But harvard.edu quoted a number above a1000000 a year. And the CDC said that mosquitoes are one of the most deadly animals or the most deadly in the animal kingdom. Mhmm. And in 2017, just malaria killed 435,000 people. So that's Wow.
Melissa:That's, like, half a1000000 right there. And that's just malaria, but mosquitoes also transmit West Nile, yellow fever, Zika, and a few other ones. So I think that, actually, that million a year number is not wrong.
Jam:Yeah. Dude, that's crazy. Yet and malaria alone is no joke. I mean, like, obviously, all those are serious, but, man, that was just like a regular, challenge in a good chunk of the world where it's just like, yeah, we just got the just like any time I could get this. It just I'm, like, 1 mosquito bite away at any moment and getting malaria.
Jam:Just like a Yeah. A thing. That's nuts, dude. Posh.
Melissa:And I think that number, that 1,000,000 people a year number shows me why there's so much research. Everywhere I looked, I was finding more information that I've had to really narrow it down about mosquitoes. And so and there's I just typed in mosquito repellent chemistry, like, the chemistry journal that everything gets published in, and it just went on forever. Yeah. So there's a lot of information, and I'm trying to hone it in, but it just makes sense because so many people's lives are at risk because of these things, these nuisance Yeah.
Melissa:Mosquitoes. Okay. Where we left off last week is. You asked why some people get bitten more than other people.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yeah. And how people, like, have overheard to Multiple conversations where people are theorizing about why. I mean, just random guesses or jokes like you were saying.
Jam:Like, moms will be like, oh, it's because you're so sweet time So anything from that to people theorizing that it's, like, blood type and all that kind of stuff. So there's a lot of theories out there.
Melissa:Well, I wanted to confirm first that that even happens scientifically, statistically, and the answer is yes.
Jam:Uh-huh. Interesting.
Melissa:Definitely some people or some factors in people attract mosquitoes more than others. And this goes hand in hand with what you talked we talked about last week. Do you remember the 3 things that attract mosquitoes to people just in general.
Jam:Carbon dioxide?
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And It was, like, acids and stuff. Mhmm.
Melissa:Do you remember what those assets there's a special word I said for those assets.
Jam:Hey, dude. That's rough stuff, folks.
Melissa:They're Lactic acid. The vol Oh, volatile. Yes.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Volatile.
Melissa:So lactic acid is right. That was one type that we specifically talked about, but they're volatile. So they become an odor that the mosquitoes can smell.
Jam:Got it. For some reason, there's only 2 things I can remember. You said there's 3. Dang it.
Melissa:The third one was hard. It was remember, there was the blood that they kept, and in one state, the blood never attracted any mosquitoes.
Jam:Oh, temperature.
Melissa:Yep. Yeah. That's exactly right.
Jam:Right. Okay. So
Melissa:So you you see correlations there.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:There's a correlation to the factors that attract mosquitoes and the factors that attract mosquitoes more to some people than others. Mhmm. So that's your your volatile compounds, your carbon dioxide, and then your body temperature.
Jam:Mhmm. Right.
Melissa:There's a correlation between certain type of bacteria and attraction to mosquitoes to land. Mhmm. There's also a correlation between the carbon dioxide that you exhale, which then that says maybe the higher your metabolic rate is, you're excelling more c o two or if you're working out or something like that you're going to be more likely of a target. Maybe you're working hard, mowing the lawn.
Jam:Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. Just or I I guess that could even be, like, change from day to day.
Jam:Like, where 1 person today for those reasons is more attractive than somebody else or something like that.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I didn't find any specific studies that showed that a higher body temperature increased mosquito attraction, but I did find one crazy thing. Yeah? Pregnant women were found to be twice as attractive to mosquitoes.
Jam:Dude, that is crazy.
Melissa:And the the way they did this study was they had 4 women in identical huts sleeping under a net, and the number of mosquitoes were counted the next day. And twice as many mosquitoes in the 2 pregnant women's hut than in the 2 nonpregnant women's hut.
Jam:Dang. That's crazy.
Melissa:The thing is pregnant women exhale 21% greater volume, which means a greater percent of carbon dioxide. And their body temperatures are higher.
Jam:They're just breathing harder, I guess.
Melissa:I think they just have larger volume of of breath, which could be I know their blood volume increases.
Jam:Right. Right. Even if you even if you just breathe, like, slightly more rapidly, then that would mean the year. Because, obviously, your lungs aren't gonna get bigger or something like that, but, like, you
Melissa:might be able to faster.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. Well and their body temperatures are higher. So they have all of that.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:The one thing they did note was the pregnant women had to leave to go to the bathroom more often. So that also could have attracted more mosquitoes. Mhmm. But so we don't know for sure. Again, the correlation, but not necessarily causation.
Melissa:But pregnant women have more factors. And then also when you're pregnant, you've got all kinds of hormones going on, so it's possible that your volatile compounds are more attractive to mosquitoes at that time.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. I remember one time to excuse me about ants. Em and I, she seems to get bit by ants more often.
Jam:And so we looked up something time. After we had some ants actually, like, come into our house at night, like, somehow they got into our bedroom at night and been
Melissa:Oh, I remember this. Yeah. They, like, surrounded her on the Yeah.
Jam:So we were looking at some stuff, and there was a thing that it wasn't, like, a scientific paper, but she found this thing that said that there's a theory that The when you're pregnant, you get bit by ants more. And she was like, am am I pregnant?
Melissa:We weren't we weren't, you
Jam:know, know, trying to have a kid yet or anything like that. And so it was like, we had a scare basically just because we read that thinking that, like, maybe that was the case, and it wasn't. But, It was really funny for as a story later on to be like we're gonna thought we're pregnant, but mainly it's just because she was getting bit by ants, not because We had any other proof.
Melissa:That's so funny.
Jam:That's crazy.
Melissa:That's real. It's real. Pregnant women are more attractive at least to mosquitoes.
Jam:Interesting, dude. That's crazy. Dang bummer.
Melissa:Mhmm. As if
Jam:it's not already hard enough to be pregnant. Jeez. Come on, Miss Leo. That's kind of a kind of some slack.
Melissa:I appreciated that that also reinforced the correlation and causation thing because there is a correlation, but we don't know if it's because they're pregnant, because of their blood volume, because of their exhaling volume, because of their body temperature. We don't know. But
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That's just further proof that some people are more attractive than others to mosquitoes. And there was another study that showed that humans are more attractive to mosquitoes after drinking beer.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:Like, the same person with drink alcohol or I think it was beer specifically.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And they had a higher percent of of landing. So it wasn't bitten, 10 but it was they're more likely to be landed on after they drank the alcohol.
Jam:Which then affords more opportunities to The mosquito 2 bite if they're landing Right. On the same person more often.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That's really weird. Is did they know why or have a theory of why?
Melissa:They had some theories, but it didn't seem like anything was super clear. Mhmm. They they controlled for body temperature because some people can have increased body temperature when they drink alcohol, and it was not that.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I don't know.
Jam:Dude, that's crazy.
Melissa:Maybe it has something to do with your metabolic activity. Maybe it has something to do with when you breathe out, there's a greater amount of something. Who knows?
Jam:Yeah. Weird, dude. Interesting.
Melissa:So that's the answer to your question about why some people get bitten more than others. But I have a question that I wanna answer next.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:My question is, it seems like I'll be around my friends, and we're both maybe getting equally landed on. Mhmm. But for example, I was out with my roommate all day one day. We were in all these different locations, and then we came home. And don't worry.
Melissa:We're social distanced and safe and everything. Not from each other, but from
Jam:Others.
Melissa:Yeah. We were doing, I think, photo shoot stuff. I can't remember. Mhmm. And she had welts all over her legs the next day from the mosquitoes, and I had nothing.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:So then and she was itchy, and I was nothing. So So then my question Did
Jam:you have I was gonna say it. So Did you feel like you had a similar amount of bites, but did each They weren't as re reactive? Your bio wasn't reacting as strongly to it, or did you or does it make you also have fewer bites?
Melissa:I don't know.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:And that's where I kind of was wondering about what's up with that. So to answer that question, we had to dig into why do mosquito bites itch.
Jam:I well, I have sort of a theory, but it's more about the body reaction, not about the to at the mosquito side themselves.
Melissa:Okay. What do you think it is?
Jam:Well, I know that because I'm allergic to a lot of stuff, I've had been subject to more allergy stuff discussions and information than I probably ever wanted to know. What? Just just the presence of histamine in the body, as a reaction to external things, whether it be, like, Plants or grass or animals or insects or whatever as a, if that's the body's reaction to those things. To And so that's why you take an antihistamine to try to subdue your allergies because you're trying to tell your body to, like, chill out.
Melissa:Because it's
Jam:more about your body reacting to the thing rather than the thing causing your skin to flare up or whatever. It's more like your body's kind of causing that as a reaction to the presence of that thing. And that's the only theory I would have about the mosquitoes.
Melissa:Well, that's right.
Jam:Dude.
Melissa:It is it's an immune response to the foreign proteins in the mosquito bite saliva.
Jam:Oh, there's saliva. Interesting.
Melissa:That's that's how it was put in 1. The other one was just that foreign proteins introduced into your body when the bite occurs or whatever. So I don't know if it's technically saliva. That's biology again. But, essentially, when the bite happens, foreign proteins are present in your skin that shouldn't be there.
Melissa:Mhmm. And your immune system reacts as an alert saying something's happening that shouldn't be here.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And what's amazing to me about that is that matters because this these particular creatures, when they bite you, can give you a virus that could kill you.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And there was 1 study that investigated. There were some people that didn't have the interest itch response to mosquitoes Mhmm. The way I seem to not really have it.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:And there were some people that did and they tested, and the people who didn't have a niche response were more likely to acquire this specific type of virus in people who do have an itch response. So that could be because whatever genetically allows them to develop an immunity to the mosquitoes also makes them more susceptible to the virus, or it could be because they don't have an itch response, so mosquitoes don't bother them so they don't avoid mosquitoes.
Jam:Right. Woah.
Melissa:They don't have the warning system. Some.
Jam:That's crazy. So it's not really a blessing to not be as itchy and bothered and stuff like that. It could turn out if you're being bit by that infected mosquito or whatever that's carrying something to be a huge downside. Dang, dude. That's crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. It's interesting because it's another thing that could chose the correlation and causation thing. There's a correlation between people who don't have an interresponse being more likely to acquire this virus.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But that could be for any number of reasons. But it seems that it's possible that because they don't have that warning system, they're more likely to be infected. T and I've seen that in my own life. I don't have that warning system, and people think people will say to me, I don't wanna sit outside where I'm gonna get eaten up, and I think I don't really care.
Jam:Yeah. Right.
Melissa:So I would choose to be around mosquitoes, which are so dangerous because I don't get annoyed by them.
Jam:Yeah. Right. Right. I'm the same way. I'd I mean, temperature would be a good reason to not set aside for some reason for, like, depending on what if you're eating outside or hanging out with people.
Jam:That's my only real, factor that I consider. But bugs and stuff is not really it. It has to be really bad for me to care. It just doesn't end up bothering me as much. But also, I hate I know we haven't gotten into this to Yeah.
Jam:But I hate bug spray. So I'm also just Yeah. If I am gonna hang outside where there's mosquitoes, I'm also just not gonna put on repellent at all.
Melissa:Right. So Yeah. I can remember all the times we've sat outside this summer with COVID nineteen. The only way I'll see people is 6 feet apart outside.
Jam:Yeah. T
Melissa:I have been bothered by the number of mosquitoes one time, and I had a few bites the next day. A few. That's it. Yeah. So I'm kinda with you.
Melissa:But that goes into another thing. Now some people seem to develop an immunity to the itch response. They just don't have an itch response to the bites. Mhmm. But there have also been studies that investigate using antihistamine to treat that itch response in children.
Melissa:Mhmm. And it just so happens that one of the medicines they use, it's not the most effective one according to one study, but one medicine that can be used to treat mosquito bites as the medicine that I take every day for my daily allergies. Do you take medicine? You said you have allergies.
Jam:To I do. I, don't take it daily. I take it basically seasonally. So, like, I'll take it every day, like, When spring starts basically every day when, I guess, kinda when a lot of leaves start falling in the fall, I kinda get another flare up of allergies, but I do not take it every day on the whole, just when my allergies flare up.
Melissa:Well, it's possible that part of the reason I don't experience as much irritation at mosquitoes is because I'm taking allergy medicine for other stuff, and it's treating it.
Jam:Man, interesting.
Melissa:It's just over the counter. It's off brand Claritin is what I use.
Jam:He's off brand Zyrtec.
Melissa:So it seems like Zyrtec was the most effective at treating it of this Uh-huh. This one study tested 3, a generic ZYRTEC, Claritin, and another one I never heard of. Mhmm. And I think ZYRTEC was the most and Claritin was the least. Mhmm.
Melissa:But another study just looked into Claritin, and it was effective to some degree in reducing the itch Interesting. Response. Mhmm.
Jam:Dude, that's great.
Melissa:So it's possible that some people get bitten more because of all their physiological factors, but it's also possible that you've developed itch response immunity or you've just built up an immunity against the proteins, and it's possible that your allergy medicine is suppressing that itch response.
Jam:Interesting. That makes sense, but wow. I wouldn't have initially just thought about that, but That makes sense. Wow.
Melissa:Right. And next time you're gloating about how you don't really get bitten by mosquitoes, just know that that makes you more susceptible perhaps
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:2 viruses. Yeah. Specifically, this 1 virus. But I would say if you're not avoiding mosquitoes because you don't have a bad response, seems like you'd be more likely to be exposed to something.
Jam:Yeah. Dang. That's that's rough. That's serious stuff.
Melissa:That's crazy. So that's what I have for you today. Okay. It's kind of a lot. So I'm gonna let you decide how you wanna tell that all back to me.
Jam:Okay. So the factors we talked about last week that attract mosquitoes in the 1st place of c o two, volatile acids, and temperature. And then those can be factors in Then picking 1 person over another, then, like, having maybe more c o two than somebody else, or Maybe higher temperature than somebody else or maybe more presence of, volatile acids or something about bacteria as well Can make you more favorable than the next person depending on Mhmm. Situation or, Even weird things like being pregnant Mhmm. For maybe potential Number of reasons, but, larger presence of c o two could be one of the bigger ones.
Jam:Or if it's something weird like drinking more beer. Like, The same person, doesn't get bit only gets bit a certain amount, drinks beer, and gets bit more on the whole? Time it's landed on more. Landed on. Sorry.
Jam:Landed on more, which gives more opportunity for a mosquito to bite them.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:So it seems like there's, like, a lot of weird reasons that a mosquito could bite somebody more than somebody else.
Melissa:Right. And I think a lot of it is that it's there's so many factors that it's hard to know for sure what one thing is just causing it. But it seems like all these things play a role.
Jam:And that makes sense. That it makes a lot more sense that it'd be, like, Potentially a combination of a few small things than, like, one easy thing. Because, I mean, to think that then we would have, like, figured out, It it seems like if it was something like, one small thing, one simple thing, we would have easily found a way to curb or prevent Mosquitoes from landing on us. So it makes sense that it's like a a lot of small potentially small things in combination in any number of ways.
Melissa:Oh, yeah. I wonder if they realized the mosquitoes had some kind of response to the CO two, and they were thinking, no problem. We're just gonna disable the CO two receptor, and then they won't bite humans anymore. They did that, and they saw reduced activity in the mosquitoes that didn't have the t o two receptor, and they thought we're done. But then they put those mosquitoes in real life with a human being, and it was almost no effect.
Melissa:And so you just have to think that they were ready. They were they were thinking they'd had this huge breakthrough in mosquito repellent life saving science, and then it was. Yeah. Nope. Mhmm.
Melissa:Mhmm. To And so I just feel like that's a good picture of science's little pieces that get built on and on and on to find something new. So
Jam:And then the other side, the we talked about about people reacting then to being bit. Mhmm.
Melissa:Some
Jam:people will definitely have a really strong, itchy reaction, big, like, raised skin, redness, a lot of it tends to itching. Others don't have as much of that. And that that's the body's reaction to a foreign protein from the saliva of mosquito bites.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And that it's in general a good thing because your body's recognizing something that's not meant to be there Mhmm. Responding to it to try to prevent it from getting in the body or whatever. And That seems to help prevent Maybe people from getting the different viruses and and diseases that mosquitoes can carry, that people can get, both by being a deterrent for those people to spend time In mosquito heavy environments?
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And it does it also just have a chance of preventing The person from being infected even if they do get bit, or is it just about
Melissa:I think we don't know. So they would not make that statement. They just said it in this study, it was found that you're more likely to acquire this virus if you did not have a history of an itch response to mosquito bites.
Jam:To So it's just about likeliness likelihood. Right. Not not about, like, Your body's able to fight off malaria or whatever.
Melissa:Right. We just don't know. It could be that, or it could be because of the avoiding mosquitoes thing. We just don't know. That was definitely correlation, not causation, which is the theme of today's episode.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:Gosh, dude. That's nuts. Man.
Melissa:It really is so cool.
Jam:Yeah. Did I miss anything?
Melissa:No. I think that was great. We did talk about how your allergy medicine could be suppressing your rich response. But I do think, overall, this is such a fun topic. This has been really interesting.
Melissa:I've been reading a lot of scientific papers that aren't my usual chemistry papers. Uh-huh. But I'm really excited because next week, we're gonna dig into what's with mosquito repellent. What's the best kind of mosquito repellent that's on the market now? What information can I find about that?
Melissa:And then what are all these these scientific studies telling us about the next generation of mosquito repellents and what we can do in the future. I think it's gonna be really fun.
Jam:To And finally, the question 1 question we've all been wondering is what even is DEET? Like, okay. What the heck is it? Why is it on all the bottles? What is Deet?
Melissa:Why is tell you how many people have asked me that exact question.
Jam:Stupid Deet. What a stupid name For whatever it is, I can't wait to find out what it
Melissa:really is. Okay. Well and that's all very chemistry heavy. So I think that's gonna be 2 episodes. Who knows?
Melissa:It could get crazy. It could be 3. Who knows? I could be able to fit it all in. It could be 1.
Melissa:We're gonna see what happens, but I'm really happy living here in this world. I've learned a lot. There's so much research, and I'm excited to do the chemistry part next week.
Jam:Me too, dude. Yeah. So tune in next week for all the deep Tails.
Melissa:No. How did I not see that coming? Okay. Well, Jim, now we've talked about mosquitoes. You've done your science lesson.
Melissa:Do you wanna share something that has happened in your week, a good thing that's happened in your week?
Jam:Yeah. Absolutely. I have had a really hard time getting back into the work mode, okay, after having a kid. I'm I'm sure that anyone who's had a kid is like, try having 2. You know?
Jam:Like, that's just what comes with the territory. But, So that's been tough. But this week, I did finally kinda get into a little bit more of a groove, later in the week and Finished a so almost finished a project, like, submitted a first draft to a client of this, design for a magazine ad. And I was, like, just a little bit unsure about if it was even in the right direction. That's the 1st draft.
Jam:So it's the first thing they're seeing Of me interpreting their instructions. You know? Yeah. And they sent an email back, and they're like, yeah. We just wanna change, like, the language here, which is actually the language they sent me so it's not to about the design?
Jam:And they they loved it. It was like Woah. Why was I even sweating? It's not wasn't that complicated of a design, Which is what they wanted, in the 1st place, but I was just kinda like, I don't know, man. Like, I'll just send it, and then I'm done.
Jam:And then they might have a ton of changes, but at least the ball's in their court for a sec. And but they loved it. So I felt like, okay. Good. This is, like, Really paid off.
Jam:I'm glad I got into a groove, and I'm feeling, encouraged by my first first real productive groove Since having a kid, so that was a good
Melissa:Aw, congratulations.
Jam:It's a good feeling.
Melissa:Mine is similar. I almost talked about how my roommates came back from being out of town today. Mhmm. But instead, while you're talking, I realized that I too turned in, I would say, what would be my 1st final draft.
Jam:Uh-huh. 1st final draft.
Melissa:So I've turned in the 1st draft, a very crude draft a long time ago, we talked about of my proposal.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:And in this case, I am getting close to my final draft. Mhmm. So I I've been working on it. It's been really hard to motivate myself to work, I think, partially because of just quarantine, being at home all the time Mhmm. Dealing with everything in my personal life with my mom.
Melissa:It's just been a lot.
Jam:Totally.
Melissa:And so I I also feel like I just finally got back into a good work groove and was able to submit that. And I'm in the place you're in where I I'm thinking, I don't know if this is good enough. Mhmm. I feel like it's not, like, scientifically enough. It's my 1st proposal ever, and it's my the first one in this field.
Melissa:So I have a lot of questions, but I finished it. And I worked hard all week, and then I took a weekend to myself, and I did a lot of fun stuff, like, at my house, I mean. I watched TV and made this little mini cake and did all these fun things just to kind of say, I'm done. I did it. It happened.
Melissa:So now I just have to see what happens next didn't work on getting together my defense of that proposal, but I'm pretty excited. So Dude, that's awesome. Exciting.
Jam:Congrats. Yeah. That's a great feeling.
Melissa:So we both had good work weeks, so that's fun that that lined up.
Jam:Yeah. Seriously. That's great. Let's keep it up.
Melissa:Okay. Well, that's it. Thanks so much for coming and listening and learning about mosquitoes, and I'm so excited to talk about it again next week.
Jam:Dude, me too. Thanks so much for teaching us. Mohsen and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but wanna hear from you. Topics like mosquitoes, multifaceted topics, you know, small ones, 1 episode series, whatever it is.
Melissa:If you've got questions or ideas, please reach
Jam:out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's chem, f o r, your life, to share your thoughts and ideas. If you'd like
Melissa:to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost
Jam:of making it, check out our merch campaign at bonfire.com/store/chem for your life. And buy a mug, buy a shirt. Just check it out. And, everything
Melissa:you buy there helps us to to keep the show going.
Jam:If you are able to do that, can help us by subscribing on your favorite podcast app and rating and writing a review on Apple Podcasts. That helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Real Life was created by Melissa Coleenie 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. Calini and Innoel who reviewed this episode.
