Bonus: Why does my bread taste like a banana? (and other questions)
Hey. I'm Melissa.
Jam:I'm Jam.
Melissa:And I'm a chemist.
Jam:And I'm not.
Melissa:And welcome to chemistry for your life. Woah. I know. I jumped the gun.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. Bonus edition.
Melissa:That was so sad.
Jam:I'm just kidding. It's fun to say, so I'm glad you had a chance to say it.
Melissa:Yay. Alright. Well, Jam, are you ready to jump into some questions?
Jam:Yes. I'm ready because I just have to read them, but you don't have to answer them. You're the one getting grilled. So are you ready?
Melissa:I'm definitely ready.
Jam:Okay. This question is from Joe s. And he asks, salt is made up of 2 toxic elements, but yet We need them in our diet, and we cook with them all the time. How is that possible?
Melissa:That's a great question, Jo. And I think the answer is about the fact that they're in their ionic state. So I think if you just took an elemental iodine or elemental sodium, well, I guess, would probably blow up upon exposure to moisture, so that'd be bad. Sodium metal is very sensitive to moisture, but That would be bad. But because they're in their ionic states, they've lost an organ and electron respectively.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:It changes their property, so then they become safe and important to consume. Got to consume.
Jam:Got it. Wow. It's interesting that that difference makes a huge difference to our bodies.
Melissa:Yeah. It really does. At least that's my best guess. I did not look up any references on that, but that was my instinct upon responding.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So. And Joe also asked a lot of other questions. He gave some facts about electricity, some of which that I didn't even know about electricity and diodes. Mhmm. But he did say maybe you didn't share all this because you're kind of short on time, and I wanted to address that.
Melissa:That is true. We have so much that we could talk about about every topic, But I really have to decide what I can best communicate in the shortest bit of time. And maybe I should have done an electricity episode I did the LED episode, you know Mhmm. Nobody's perfect. We definitely make mistakes, but I definitely have to pick and choose in our time frame to make something that's sort of bite sized and consumable in a 20 to 30 minute range of time, roughly.
Melissa:And so, Yeah. I I definitely think I missed out on some things about electricity and diodes because I do that, but it's kind of the nature of the game, unfortunately. So
Jam:I
Melissa:did wanna say that, and that's true about pretty much every topic. There's always more we could talk about for these things. And so I I try to Get the most important stuff, but I do naturally kind of have to trim it down some, unfortunately.
Jam:And you guys have probably noticed how we ask for your ideas and how Melissa picks the topics is based on a real world relatable question first. And so it's kinda backwards from, I guess, how you might normally do it. But in the case of, like, the LEDs, that's how the question was asked. And so it starts with, like, the curiosity, the wondering, these things that we wonder. And so that that kinda makes sense too, but that's how Melissa picks things on purpose.
Jam:So that kind of it's not necessarily how maybe, like, a class will be structured or something, I guess.
Melissa:Right. Definitely. Although maybe classes should be structured like that more.
Jam:Oh, the next question is super interesting. I saw this one come through, as well, and it's from Neo. Neo asked, Today, I have a question that I think is chemistry related. I put a slice of bread and half a banana in a lunchbox together. When I ate the bread, it tasted like banana.
Jam:How does that how does that work? Or a broader sense, how do some foods absorb the taste of other foods? Like, woah, dude. That That's an awesome question.
Melissa:So I'm sure there's more to this, and we might do an episode based on this later. My instinctual response, just My very basic response is that some of those molecules that we smell If we're gonna smell those flavors, you know, like, of a banana, they have to become vapor. Right? Because that's how our odor receptors work. We talked about that.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So I suspect, although I have not done any research, I make it a rule that I don't do research for q and r's or else I would never get anything done in my Research for my PhD. I suspect that the molecules have become a vapor and then are somehow, through intermolecular forces, interact with the molecules of the bread, and then they stay on the bread. That is my theory. I don't know for sure, but I think this could come up in an episode at some point.
Jam:So, basically, you're then you're then tasting the smell of banana.
Melissa:Yes. But I think we taste the smell of most things. I think we Yeah. Did we talk about that 2, I I think, because your tongue is sort of limited in what it can experience. So your olfactory receptors are much more varied.
Jam:Interesting. I like that question a lot.
Melissa:Yeah. Good question, Neil.
Jam:So Mason k wrote in, to add to the analogy for our LEDs episode. He said, I liked the waterfall analogy for the LEDs. One thing I thought of was that the mist that comes off of waterfalls when they're flowing Could represent the light being given off from the LED.
Melissa:That was such a good one. So I really appreciated that. And, actually, I think just because I've maybe been around people a little bit more for Christmas or been in with people, catching up with them more. I got a similar one from my brother that we shared about the polymer looking, like, the Ball that expands, the Hobart sphere.
Jam:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:Yeah. And my sister called me and shared an analogy for why The why we can't see our breath?
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:She said that it reminds her of a traffic jam. So, you know, there's plenty of space in the world for cars to be, But right at that moment, in that area, the cars can't all go to the same place at once.
Jam:Yeah. That's such a great that's perfect.
Melissa:Isn't it so good? And I think these have come mostly from my friends and family, I think, because I'm around them, you know, and we'll just be chatting or on phone calls or whatever. Mhmm. But I wanna hear these same things from you guys because that to me shows that you have really taken in the knowledge, and you're really processing it. And you can come up with great analogies that I never would have thought of that I think really will help other people.
Melissa:For example, Jam's analogy about the proteins where he used the Christmas lights, I have thought about that so much since he shared it. So I can learn a lot from you guys, and I can even take those into my classes. And it makes me really Happy to know that y'all are thinking about these things. So I definitely wanna hear about those analogies from you guys as you share them because It really makes me happy. It can help other people learn more, and I think it's really cool.
Jam:Yeah. Definitely. Definitely.
Melissa:And it takes all the pressure off you, Jam.
Jam:Yeah. I know. It's yeah. Definitely hard to think of a good analogy every time, but I know there's one there. And so it's like, We can all help to come up with some some ridiculous, but also really, hopefully, helpful analogies for these things.
Melissa:The next one I wanna share is from doctor Diana Mason, and she actually used to work at UNT in the chemistry education department. Mhmm. And she wrote and told me she was talking with another professor at UNT, doctor Akre, about the sunscreen episode, and he shared the fact that Sunscreens are added to fence stains.
Jam:Oh, like the the color that you stain a fence.
Melissa:Mhmm. And so that way your fence doesn't fade as quickly.
Jam:Nice. Yeah. That's wow. That's that would make sense because those I mean, obviously, you see old fences fade a lot, and they're, you know, outside all the time.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Interesting. That's very smart.
Melissa:Yeah. I thought that was really cool. Thanks, doctor Mason and doctor Akre.
Jam:This next question is from Nicole, and she she asks, how do you pass OKEM 2, Skull emoji, scream emoji.
Melissa:Listen. Okay. I think we've talked a little bit about OKM before, But the way that you pass OChem too and OChem in general and probably most of your classes is you gotta have a good foundation. Now specifically for Ochem, I recommend you learn a lot about those electrons moving. So, really, Ochem is about the movement of electrons.
Melissa:So they'll move from areas where there's a lot of electrons to areas where there's less electrons, and the arrows represent that. And if you can learn about why the electrons move where they're moving, then you're not gonna spend as much time just trying to memorize everything because memorizing everything is not gonna work because there's too much to memorize, and you'll forget it as soon as you leave the class. But if you can really understand why electrons flow, that can be something you would take with you, and you can improve your problem solving skills and your thinking skills by looking at each problem and trying to think through it rather than just having it memorized. So my students who have done well traditionally are the students who are willing to learn about where electrons move and why. And there's some memorization about the reagents and stuff.
Melissa:But if you can look first for electron movement, I think you'll do better in OKEM 2. But also your OKEM 1 foundation Needs to be pretty solid, so I think that will help as well. And it's totally doable, and I love OKM.
Jam:And this is like a throwback to a few episodes ago when We had an episode about Silver Tarnish, and we wanted to credit Daniel s for asking that question. We kept his identity secret Because he was trying to buy a ring, I believe, for his girlfriend. And so now we can say that it was you because you're, I think, planning to give it to her for Christmas. And so, Daniel, thank you so much for writing that question.
Melissa:Well and Daniel did reach out to me and tell me that he his girlfriend already knew, so they got a kick out of us keeping it secret.
Jam:That is funny. Yeah.
Melissa:I think it was I thought it was fun.
Jam:Yeah. It's safer to assume. I mean, for sure.
Melissa:Definitely. Definitely.
Jam:And, like, you know I mean,
Melissa:it also could be that maybe he listens and she doesn't from things that wouldn't have been a
Jam:big deal. But Just yeah. Better to be on the safe side with something I can ring.
Melissa:Yeah. Definitely. And last but not least, we want to shout out Claudia Gave on our. She gave I thought this message was so nice. She gave a gift and said, this is in honor of your fan, Joseph s.
Melissa:And Joseph had actually given on Kofi to us before, Almost a year ago. So it was pretty exciting to see someone stick around for that long, and I was really excited about that message. I thought that was really fun. So thanks, Claudia, and thanks, Joseph, for listening to the show and being excited and sticking with us this whole time.
Jam:Yes. Absolutely. And thanks for making It possible for us to keep continuing, keep making the show by donating and helping cover the cost of making it. So that means so much to us.
Melissa:Yeah. Absolutely. We could not do this show without you guys, and the cost of making the show comes out of our pocket. So anything we can do to help cover that cost means so much and really does Help make it so it's sustainable for us to keep going. Mhmm.
Melissa:Jam's a freelancer, and I'm a grad student, so we need all the help we can get. So thank you guys so much. Thanks for everyone who's given our Cofi, thanks especially for Joseph and Claudia. We really appreciate that, And thanks for writing in questions. These are so fun.
Melissa:I love hearing from you guys. I love knowing that people are learning. I love hearing your thoughts about our analogies. So please feel free to reach out out to us and keep those questions coming.
Jam:Yes. Thank you guys. And we often will post like, hey. Send us some questions right around the time that we record q and r. But you guys can send questions to us anytime, and they could end either end up being an episode of their own or end up on the next q and r.
Jam:So don't hesitate. Our inbox is open.
Melissa:This episode of chemistry for your life was created by Melissa Colini and Jam Robinson. We'd like to give a special thanks to E Robinson
Jam:who
