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In this month's bonus episode, Melissa and Jam respond to comments and questions about equilibrium, recycling on a large scale, why leaves fall off, sound effects, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Bonus Episode: Question and Response 15
In this month's bonus episode, Melissa and Jam respond to comments and questions about equilibrium, recycling on a large scale, why leaves fall off, sound effects, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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A podcast that helps you understand the fascinating chemistry hidden in your everyday life.
Have you ever wondered why onions make you cry? Or how soap gets your hands clean? What really is margarine, or why do trees change colors in the fall? Melissa is a chemist, and to answer these questions she started a podcast, called Chemistry for your life!
In each episode Melissa explains the chemistry behind one of life’s mysteries to Jam, who is definitely not a chemist, but she explains it in a way that is easy to understand, and totally fascinating.
If you’re someone who loves learning new things, or who wonders about the way the world works, then give us a listen.
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.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of everyday life. Bony sedition.
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why does that always make me laugh?
Melissa:I don't know.
Jam:Because it's dumb, that's why.
Melissa:Maybe so.
Jam:You feel sorry for me. You're like, I'll just laugh because he just keeps doing doing the same dumb stuff over and over, and someone No.
Melissa:I really think it's funny. So I guess maybe that's probably good why we're friends and kill hosts is because I really think all your dumb stuff is funny, and I'm always surprised or Tickle. Okay. Good. Well, I before we talk about anything else, I wanna say one thing.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Nicole p was the person who messaged us and asked about acetone, and she followed up and reminded me that she was the one who done that. And she had another suggestion for making chemistry tutorial videos on YouTube, which would be really fun.
Jam:I would love
Melissa:to do that. So
Jam:So she's the one because in the episode, the nail polish one, you talked about how the real reason that question came up was someone asked about remover Acetone that removes, and we could not find who it was in our DMs. No. And it was Nicole P.
Melissa:It was Nicole P. So way to go, Nicole P. I'm so sorry that I didn't write it down. I really need to be better about when I read an idea, writing it down with the name immediately. So that's some area I can grow in.
Melissa:So thanks for being patient, and thanks for that question because it was a really good one. And A lot of people have told me they're excited about that episode, so good job.
Jam:That is awesome.
Melissa:So I wanted to Say that. I wanted to say her name and thank her for that idea before we moved on to talking about the next thing that I'm really excited about, Which is our new merch.
Jam:Oh, yeah. So our merch is out, has been out for basically a full two Weeks on our little merch store, and it's merch time, guys.
Melissa:Then and you have 1 week left. Lot of you are maybe celebrating Thanksgiving, and then it'll be holiday season. So you there's just a few days after Thanksgiving for you to get your merch, which We want you to have it in time for the holidays. We are hoping that by ending the campaign before December, Things will ship out in a timely fashion to get to you by your holidays.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. And I think maybe the last time around, people didn't necessarily understand, but we have to do these in batches. And so that's why there are, like, limited dates and stuff like that. And so We we have to select batch links how long, and we actually picked the longest we could, on this.
Jam:And so It's not really just a random day that we pick. We have to kind of do the merchant batches. And so if we can have a go longer and people not miss it, we probably would. But we also wanna make sure that People can get it in time for whatever holiday they might be celebrating, and it they not have to wait forever to get it. So
Melissa:And I'm really excited about this batch because we collaborated with 2 friends of ours Mhmm. Who listened to the show, both of them, very consistently, And they are both artists, and they came up with these beautiful designs. So one is our friend Joey. Yep. He made the faces mug.
Jam:Mhmm. The we call it the chem heads.
Melissa:Chem heads. Yep. And he just did that For fun, just randomly Mhmm. A few months back, and we were both so excited about it that we decided that was gonna be in our next merch run.
Jam:Totally. Yeah. I think during our previous merch run, he was like, hey. I did this, and it was, like, just these doodles of our heads. And it was just so perfect.
Jam:It was I don't know. Like, I wouldn't have thought of us having, like, iconic heads that would be obvious that it's us whenever you saw it, like the outline.
Melissa:That's me.
Jam:Those are my glasses. Like, it just kinda seemed so much more so much cooler than I would have imagined it to be.
Melissa:Yeah. That was so perfect. And the other thing that we have is a chemistry Christmas tree sweatshirt. Mhmm. And this was my hope and dream that I could have this sweatshirt come to be in real life.
Melissa:And You've heard us talk about Thimble and Brush Co before. The shop owner, Nikki Newell, is an artist, and she designed that Sweatshirt, and it is everything I hoped it would be, and I can't wait for mine to come. And I'm gonna wear it every day in December. Yeah.
Jam:It's cool. We've known these friends of ours, Nikki and Joey, for a while. And Nikki and I went to school together and met as freshmen. We lived in the same dorm, And then we're still Wow. Yeah.
Jam:Isn't that crazy? And same That's crazy. And the same, like, residence hall building. And so just kinda cool to get to keep up with people like that who are skilled at what they do. And and then Joey and I lived together for 2 years, and so we've all kind of there's a lot of talented people that and I have the privilege of knowing, and it's cool to get to work with them on stuff like this.
Melissa:It really is so cool and so cool for her to Take me briefly explaining something that I had in my mind and making it a reality, and it'd be so perfect beyond what I could have imagined. And I've worked With Nikki multiple times before, I've commissioned pieces of artwork from her for my family, and she's really a skilled artist. So go check out her shop. Chelsea does custom work, and so she's really great. And a portion of the proceeds from our sales will be going to support her.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:So we just wanted to take an opportunity to talk about how excited we were about that and how thankful we are to get to collaborate with these artists and to some of the history from those new pieces of merch and where they came from. So we wanted to start the show off with that, and now let's get to some questions.
Jam:Let's do it. Okay. So Question number 1. Are you ready?
Melissa:I'm ready.
Jam:For $1,000,000. Can just kidding.
Melissa:I am ready for $1,000,000. If someone wants to give me that, that would be great.
Jam:This question is from our Frequent questioner, Steven h, and he asks, can equilibrium occur in any state of matter? I can understand it in liquids and gases, but the fact that solids, which I assume enamel is I guess this is back from our Teeth
Melissa:1? Toothpaste. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Mhmm. Can have so which I assume in AMOLED is Can have constantly changing molecules is blowing my mind a bit.
Melissa:So I think this is a good Question. Because equilibrium is part of a reaction. So a reaction needs to be taking place, and I think that's what's happening here is it's It's going from the solid to a different state and then coming back. Mhmm. So that is possible.
Melissa:I think if you just have this is me talking off the top of my head. I don't do a ton of work general chemistry anymore. So I probably could check back on my general chemistry textbooks to confirm. But If you have a pure substance, I don't think it would be in equilibrium because it's not reacting with anything. So pure solid shouldn't be in equilibrium.
Melissa:But molecules are always moving, even solids. They have a restriction a restricted range of motion if they're in the Solid crystal insate Mhmm. But they can still move, wiggle, vibrate
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Maybe rotate a little bit. So that is something to be thinking about. Molecules can still be moving even in the solid state. It maybe is just imperceptible to us.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Okay. Cool. That is interesting.
Jam:Okay. So, next question is from Jan h. If there's a future To recycling plastics effectively, why isn't it used more or on a larger scale?
Melissa:Okay. This is a great question, Jan to Jan h. Thank you. I think that this problem is is due to a lot of things. I think it's primarily money.
Melissa:Mhmm. So there's not a lot of incentive for people to change because it's Cheap to make plastics, and it's easy, and it's convenient. So socially, it's easier. You know? If you're a person buying something and, you know, you can buy this and throw it away, that's easier.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But also, it's more expensive to buy things that are gonna be recyclable or, You know, we say virgin plastics that have never been used and recycled before are cheaper to make.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So I think the primary thing is Economic incentive, there's not a lot of it. But I think this question was answered really well in a quote from Chemistry and Engineering News magazine, and we reference this quote in one of our plastic episodes. So I just took this directly from that magazine, and it says, The world's mounting plastic trash crisis is hard to solve because it has many dimensions, social, technical, and economic. But because chemistry brought the problem into the world, it doesn't seem unreasonable to look to chemistry for a solution. And that is what I think is a great summation is it's hard to solve.
Melissa:There's a lot of things. We have to get people to care. We have to get the technology in place. We have to have the finances to make it reasonable, but we do have the capability of solving that problem through chemistry and other means. So I think that's kind of an answer to that question.
Melissa:It's a really good one.
Jam:Yeah. Really. And it's one of those, I think, that a lot of us, like, I've slowly through the episodes, we talked through plastic stuff and then do some of my own just trying to figure out ways to make good choices. It's an easily understandable frustrating thing to realize that there might be some New ideas and techniques, but until it's really economically, viable and Makes sense for companies to do that instead of making new plastics. There's just not a lot of reason for them to want to do that.
Jam:Right. It's just kinda disheartening as a regular old consumer to to realize that. So I'd I'd definitely Sympathize with you with you, Jan. That's like, dang it, dude. It's kinda dumb.
Melissa:Yeah. It is it does feel Kinda dumb, but it's just hard. You know? Even since we've done those, I've been a lot more aware of the plastic I'm using, and it does feel almost impossible. It's just everywhere.
Melissa:Mhmm. You know? Even fleece is made out of plastic and can create microplastic that can end up in the stomachs of sea animals and stuff. So it really is Quite a overwhelming problem.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm. Yep. This next question is actually a mini lesson that we received from doctor Moon about why leaves fall off the of the tree. Melissa, could you share that with us?
Melissa:Yes. So I had said, I'm not sure why photosynthesis changes or why the tree decides or when the tree decides to drop leaves off. And doctor Moon, who I can't remember exactly, but has a degree in a PhD in a field of biology and who now works on homeschool material Mhmm. So kindly sent us an excerpt from an ebook that I think she created. So I'm gonna read directly from that book.
Melissa:I'm gonna skip over a few parts, but these are direct quotes from the book.
Jam:If you're wanna read more, we'll have a Link to her stuff, in our show notes.
Melissa:And so you can reach out to her. When temperatures are too cold, The rate of photosynthesis is low because the enzymes don't work efficiently. Just like this is my addition, just like all the reactions that we talked about, If the temperature is higher, it has more energy, it's gonna be more effective. If the temperature is lower, it's going to be less effective. But actually in this case, now I'm jumping back into her book, when temperatures are too high, the protein enzymes that catalyze reactions which occur in photosynthesis are damaged.
Melissa:Things change as autumn approaches. When the day shorten, plants have access to fewer hours of sunlight. Temperatures begin to drop. As these changes occur, rates of photosynthesis slows down. Since photosynthesis can't occur at the low temperatures and light levels present during winter, Plants take steps to avoid spending resources such as water and nutrients and energy to keep the leaves alive.
Melissa:Because the chief purpose of the leaves is to create food, and these conditions that exist during the winter aren't conducive for photosynthesis to Photosynthesis to occur, it doesn't make sense for the plant to expend energy to keep leaves alive during the winter. During Many plants and trees conserve energy by letting their leaves die. So that explains why and when the leaves decide. Basically, they don't have the resources to keep undergoing photosynthesis. Mhmm.
Melissa:Those rates slow down, and then it basically costs more energy than it's worth to keep the leaves alive. So they alive, so they just let the leaves die.
Jam:Interesting. Okay. Mhmm. Wow. That's cool.
Jam:I definitely talked about this a little bit in the episode, but I always thought it was And it happens to the plants. It's kinda interesting to think about it being a pretty conscious, like, energy saving choice that they do on purpose that's not Accidental, I guess, if that makes sense.
Melissa:Right. Definitely. And thanks, doctor Murn, for sending that in because that is one of those examples I'm a chemistry person, not a biology person, so that, I guess, is a probably pretty simple biology concept, but I just don't have off the tip of my brain, and I don't wanna misspeak. So having something from a biologist that we can trust and that's is really nice. So whenever I say those things, like, if you're an expert in this, reach out.
Melissa:I really want you to do that.
Jam:Yeah. That was awesome. Very, very cool.
Melissa:Okay. So this next question is from Ebony c, and I'm gonna ask you this question, Jam.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:She says, I wanted to say I love the intro sound effects and not sure if it's intentionally supposed to sound like it could be chemistry equipment noises or it could be someone making coffee. Jam?
Jam:The it's meant to be, yeah, chemistry noises. The coffee part It's just incidental, and I, obviously, love coffee. But the sound effects, I got them from a library, and there's not just chemistry sound effects in a library like that. And so Mhmm. I had this get really creative with searching for things that might already be in a sound effects library that are normal things.
Jam:When you combine them, then if you combine enough of them and you know that this thing is about chemistry, will sound chemistry e. And Mhmm. I also kinda chose the the tone of the synth at the beginning to sound a little bit like Glass or round a little bit. The wam, wam, wam, wam, wam. I just felt like that sounded a little bit chemistry y combined with, like, Rolling glass.
Jam:I think that that is just a side effect of a bottle rolling across the table. And then the bubbling is just bubbling of some liquid. And then I can't remember what other sound effects I added in there. I should know that off the top of my head. But, like, I'd added, like, a static y sound because it's like Mhmm.
Jam:An audio, you know, format and thought That could be a sound a little bit like some instrument that's trying to measure something.
Melissa:So Well, what's amazing to me is you do the size without Sounds without spending a lot of time in a chemistry lab. And that noise, that buzzing sort of sound is exactly what our oven sounded like that we use to bake Baked glassware to make sure it's completely dry. Oh. And the rolling bottle noise sounds exactly like a Stir bar. If you we have these magnetic stir bars that we put on glass Mhmm.
Melissa:And they roll around on the glass and make that same noise as that. And so and there 1, I think maybe a lighting match. It sounds almost exactly like if you have to do a bunsen burner, which I don't do that a ton in my research lab, but we did in our teaching labs a Uh-huh. It was incredible to me the first time I heard that, and I think, that really shows that Jam It's so incredibly talented. I really almost cried because it was so accurate and beautiful and sounded so much like chemistry.
Jam:It was So We definitely lucked out because I will say that a lot of sound effects libraries are just so limited in trying to pick this exact thing. If you're talking, like, Something more higher scale production. You honestly would just make those sound effects yourself. You'd pick the items you wanna hear, and you'd go record them. And we, made this before we ever even launched our 1st episodes.
Jam:We were, like
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Just making it for as low as cheap as possible. And so Getting pre made sound effects is the best way to do that. And I think the last thing, the little, like, Sound at the very end of it. I can't remember exactly what that was, but it is also like a transmission y kind of sound, like the turning off of, like, a Radio Yes. Something like that.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And just things like that that I thought maybe this will be chemistry, but I was totally there's a lot of luck. It wasn't real all talent. It was a lot of luck because Melissa had specific things, and then she was like, oh, that sounds like this. That sounds like that. Of course, I would have no idea that that could be the case, so We've definitely lucked out on that.
Melissa:Way to go, Jim. He's really talented. He's being humble. I was so impressed. And I think I gave some feedback like, oh, could you make it sound a little bit like this?
Melissa:I don't know exactly what I want, but something. And he just did it. It was amazing. Anyway, so
Jam:Also
Melissa:That's Go ahead. On you, Jam. Good job.
Jam:I wanna throw in 1 bit of trivia too that I think is kinda fun that you know, take it or leave it. But the The chords that the synth the little, arpeggio is of our intro song is the exact same chords of the very simple piano intro to Podcast For Your Life. The
Melissa:Oh, that's fun.
Jam:The now on hiate indefinite hiatus podcast, my original podcast with my buddy, Jason. He may and he made that. He picked those chords and just made it did a little piano. And so I just took the same chords because that'd be funny and kinda cool for any podcast that I get to do some of the intro stuff for or whatever to have, like, A a thread that at least connects it loosely.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:And so it's just
Melissa:That's cool.
Jam:The same chords as the podcast for your life intro. But, obviously, it sounds super different because we added tons of effects and made it, synthy arpeggio and stuff. But Well,
Melissa:I love it. And every time it comes on, I'm really excited, so I think that's it. The next one I'm also gonna ask you. So on Halloween, my significant other and I, we made pumpkins. We painted pumpkins.
Melissa:That was our Halloween activity and posted a picture of it because Jim and I had talked about our Halloween stuff on the Instagram. And our friend Carol, she also has a podcast, Carol the English Coach. She we met her through podcasting friends. Mhmm. And she reached out and asked if my boyfriend's pumpkin was Appa from the Show
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:Avatar the last airbender
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:Which he did paint that, and I am amazed that he is at skill because I was just Really good. Painted eyes. Yeah. I painted eyes and a mouth and made it a ghost, and he killed it. So, then she said asked if it was that, and that's what it was.
Melissa:And that show is a kids' Show that's actually really kind of cool and fun to watch, and so we're watching it right now.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But the premise is there are People who are called benders who can bend water or air or land or fire. Mhmm. And She messaged us and asked what kind of benders we would be. So bending just means you can control it Yeah. Pretty much.
Jam:Super good question. And I think what's funny is that Melissa and I are both relatively late, to Avatar the Last Airbender. I watched it only Oh, yeah. About A year and a half ago for the 1st time. And
Melissa:I'm watching it now for the 1st time.
Jam:And I was right in the I think both of us were probably Right. In one of the prime age groups to have liked it when it was on air, because a lot of people my age and a little bit older have always loved it, And I'd missed it. We didn't always have TV growing up, and so Melissa and I both are pretty late to it. So you guys might have found it funny to have Melissa explain it because To us, it's new ish, but we know it's not new. And there's probably a lot of you guys who have loved that show forever.
Melissa:So And it's on Netflix in in the United States. It's on Netflix. I know sometimes they have different
Jam:Oh, yeah.
Melissa:Netflix options in Europe. Like, you can't watch The Great British Bake Off if you're in Europe
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:On Netflix, but you can't hear.
Jam:Yeah. So I've thought a lot about this question, Carol. Thank you for asking it. What kind of bender am I? When my roommates and I were watching this back about a year and a half ago, I thought about this a lot, and there's only 1 answer for me.
Jam:Only 1 answer that works is that I have to be an airbender.
Melissa:Okay. But why do you have to be an airbender?
Jam:Because one of the biggest struggles that We there's only 1 airbender that we really spend a lot of time within the show, which is why it's called The Last Airbender, is Aang. And he struggles a lot with being a peaceful they don't say the word, but, basically, he's a pacifist. And yet the conflict that's going on is so big. It requires his intervention, but he really doesn't wanna kill or her anybody, if he can help it. And it's a constant struggle for him.
Jam:And so a lot of the characteristics and Moral kind of backbone and concerns that he has are exactly ones that I have also. If I was to Have to imagine myself as a bender. I would have the same worry. I I'm a pacifist, which might be good for you guys to know or whatever. It's don't hold it against me.
Jam:So that's the only one I could really pick, but it's also so cool. The airbending is so cool.
Melissa:Yeah. And
Jam:so It is so cool. Glad to have a really good reason to have to pick that one because think it's winter.
Melissa:My significant other, Mason, he said he would be an airbender, but always wish he was a firebender. He just knows. And my answer was that I would be a waterbender.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:But the I think that especially as a chemist, Missed, I just know so much about water and the way the molecules work. Mhmm. The other day on Reddit, I saw a question that asked, How would you modify any type of bending from Avatar? And that's a great question because water benders can freeze water And they can move water, but they can't boil water and create steam. I've never seen that in the show.
Melissa:Yeah. But they should be able to do that because that is all changing the intermolecular Forces between them. So you can freeze it and move it, then you should also be able to boil it. So I'm gonna say, I would be a waterbender who also could instantly boil the water as well as all the other stuff they can do.
Jam:Yeah. Dude, great choice. Great choice. I think Em Good question, Carol. I think Em also picked waterbender, so you guys would be in the same tribe.
Melissa:Oh, of course, we would. That does not surprise me at all. Carol said she thinks she would be an airbender. Nice. A really fun question.
Melissa:Thanks, Carol. Nobody wants to be a firebender except Mason, I guess, because maybe they're mean in the show. But Yeah. That's pretty powerful too.
Jam:It's cool. I mean, I think it's interesting because it's inherently destructive. It's hard to do something with fire and and not hurt something. You could obviously waterbend, an airbend, an earthbend, and not hurt anyone. If you're Right.
Jam:Moving fire around, it's hard for that to not harm someone or something. You know?
Melissa:Yeah. Yeah. Unless you're just using it to heat up food or something.
Jam:That's true, actually.
Melissa:That'd be it'd
Jam:be good to have a buddy who's a firebender who could cook the food. You know?
Melissa:Mhmm. Okay. And the very last thing I wanna say Mhmm. It's not really a question, so I'm just gonna read. We got a message on Instagram from a listener from Lithuania.
Melissa:Uh-huh. And I asked her to pronounce her name for me because it's Not in English. So Mhmm. She sent me a voice message, and I think I can say it. Her name is.
Melissa:Mhmm. So we received this message from Erta in Lithuania, and she sent me that voice mail to a voice memo to pronounce her name, and then she pronounced it so beautifully. I know I'm not doing it justice, but I just wanted to give her a shout out because it's really fun to hear from people far away. And then also she said that The episode where we mentioned disulfide bonds in hair helped her answer a question a teacher asked in class once. Oh, wow.
Melissa:That was really fun. And she said she listened to it while working in the garden, skating. I wonder if she was ice skating or roller skating. That's fun because I skate too. And so that was just really fun.
Melissa:So I just wanted to give her a shout out and tell her thanks for reaching out and for sharing that story. It made me really excited.
Jam:Yeah. That is awesome. Very cool. And thanks for helping us learn how to pronounce your name correctly.
Melissa:Yes. Thank you so much. So thank you guys so much for sending in those questions. We love it so much. We love hearing from you guys and Hearing about people being excited about and wondering about and being curious about chemistry is really what keeps us going and being excited about the show.
Melissa:So thank you so much.
Jam:Yes. Thanks, guys. We love getting to do these, and so thanks for sending your questions in. And, don't forget to check out our merch by November 30th is the last day To place an order.
Melissa:And if you want a cute Christmas tree chemistry sweatshirt, we can wear them in match.
Jam:Thanks, guys.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Collini and Jam Robinson. We'd like to give a special thanks to Robinson who reviewed this episode.