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So we all know what we think of when we hear the word "alcohol," but what if that's not really the whole picture? There's actually many kinds of alcohol, most of which we cannot drink. So what's up with all those alcohols? What makes them different? What makes them similar enough to all be called alcohol? Let's find out.
#057
So we all know what we think of when we hear the word "alcohol," but what if that's not really the whole picture? There's actually many kinds of alcohol, most of which we cannot drink. So what's up with all those alcohols? What makes them different? What makes them similar enough to all be called alcohol? Let's find out.
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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 to help you understand the chemistry of everyday life.
Melissa:Okay, JAM. Today, I'm going to do a topic inspired by a listener, Mary Elle. She wrote us an email. Her question was, hi. I'm wondering if you could do an episode about alcohols.
Melissa:Like, there are different kinds of them, how they differ, what are their uses, etcetera. Thank you. That's such a nice email.
Jam:That really is.
Melissa:And a really good question because that's one that I think is Feels pretty intuitive to me, but I didn't even think about maybe our listeners without the science background not really knowing What alcohol even is?
Jam:Yeah. I I mean, I absolutely do not know what it
Melissa:even is. That is awesome. That's really exciting. I'm excited about that because This is a fun one for me, and it falls at a really nice time for me to get this question because I had my big qualifying exam this week.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And I didn't have a ton of time, so this is a good a good one that was really straightforward and Fun to kind of get to dive back into. This is very organic chemistry Nice. Stuff. Okay. So an alcohol group is a functional group.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:We've talked about functional groups before. They're special arrangements of atoms that have, Consistent function, they can be attached in a lot of different places or areas. So in this case, This particular functional group, alcohol, is an oxygen bonded to a hydrogen. So it's almost like water. You know, water is Hydrogen and then oxygen and hydrogen?
Melissa:Mhmm. But instead of one of those h's in the h two o, it's a carbon chain. Any group of carbons or other atoms can be attached there.
Jam:Okay. So you've got the oxygen, the hydrogen, and carbons?
Melissa:Yes. Do
Jam:you still have 2?
Melissa:Nope. Just 1. So the there's a carbon chain, and then an oxygen's attached to the carbon chain, and then the hydrogen's attached to that oxygen.
Jam:Got it. Okay.
Melissa:So it's an Oh group, and the connection between the rest of the organic molecule and the alcohol is Between the carbon and the oxygen.
Jam:It's an Oh group?
Melissa:Uh-huh. Oh. Oh, no. I saw you getting that look on your face.
Jam:I was just like, oh my gosh. It's so perfect.
Melissa:Oh my gosh. It's so perfect. Okay. Well so that's your alcohol functional group, and now you can always remember it because, oh my gosh, it's so perfect. That's perfect.
Jam:That's interesting. So it just it's just that simple. Obviously, there's the building blocks or whatever. But every alcohol has that Stuff present?
Melissa:Yes. That's Okay. Any functional group that's an alcohol is an oxygen and a hydrogen bonded to the rest of the carbon chain. And the bond goes through the carbon to the oxygen, and then the hydrogen is bonded to the oxygen.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So There are alcohol groups on probably everything. There's it's in your foods. It's in your sugars. It's in medicines.
Melissa:It's Even the solar panels that I worked on for my previous research had precursors with alcohols. Alcohol groups are Everywhere.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:But you know some specific things where the alcohol sort of dominates the functionality, I would say.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's the commonly known alcohols. So this is gonna be, like, methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, Ethylene Glycol, those are things you've probably heard of.
Jam:And they all have got, like, a all at the end, which I'm just not really think thinking about.
Melissa:That actually is you remember we talked about the IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry? They state the IUPAC convention for naming alcohols is to put an o all at the end. So methanol, ethanol, Propenal, those are IUPAC names for an alcohol. They end in o l.
Jam:Nice. Good move, guys. IUPAC.
Melissa:Yeah. They standardized it. Okay. So yay. Thanks, IUPAC, for giving us a universal language of chemistry.
Melissa:Okay. So those ones that you know pretty well are very simple alcohols, and that's why I think they're known Commonly is that. Uh-huh. So methanol has 1 carbon. Ethanol has 2 carbons.
Melissa:And anything with propyl, propanol, propyl alcohol has 3 carbons. That's the that's the standard in chemistry in general. If you have a molecule that's 1 carbon, it's methane. So if one Carbon has an alcohol attached to it, it becomes methanol. If you have it's just 2 carbons surrounded by hydrogens, that's ethane.
Melissa:And then When there's an alcohol, it becomes ethanol. And then 3 carbons is propane, so you have probably used propane gas before. You replace one of those with an alcohol, one of your hydrogen groups with an Oh group, and it becomes propanol. So that's
Jam:Oh, interesting.
Melissa:Mhmm. It's just the number of carbons in that chain. And in organic chemistry, the names for number of chains increases, Methane is 1. Ethane is 2 carbons. Propyl is 3 car or propane is 3 carbons.
Melissa:4 is butane. And after that, it's the prefixes you've learned. So pentane, hexane, heptane, octane, all those you know, but those first 4 are are kind of different. But I I think it probably would be weird to be like, or something so they don't use the those. Yeah.
Jam:Yeah. Or there were just there were maybe words that were already around before they started really, like Yeah. Standardizing it. So, like, well, it'd be confusing to change it to get people to stop saying methane or whatever.
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It might be confusing or methanol or whatever. Dude, that's interesting.
Melissa:True. Yeah.
Jam:It reminds how how much of a system there was to that, and it's kinda nice to Have it be just increasing by 1 carbon each time.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:It seems a lot more, I don't know, easier to remember than I would have expected.
Melissa:And my general chemistry teacher in high school used the mnemonic device mama eats peanut butter to remember those 4. Methane, ethane, propane, and butane. Mama eats peanut butter.
Jam:I like that.
Melissa:Mhmm. So So if I'm ever kind of in the moment, which one comes worst? Mama eats peanut butter. Okay. Okay.
Melissa:I have that moment. So methanol, 1 carbon, has 3 hydrogens and then an alcohol group attached to it. Methanol is also known as wood alcohol. It used to be made from, breaking down wood, and it is usually used in windshield wiper fluid. These all alcohols have low freezing points, significantly lower than water in the negatives.
Melissa:Mhmm. And that's convenient in things like Antifreeze and windshield wiper fluid because it won't freeze when it gets cold outside in those northern states. Not here. We never have that problem. Right.
Melissa:Right. In those northern states. So they they'll use that, and it mixes really well with water because of Intermolecular forces. Woah. They have similar structures because of the o h in water and the o h in alcohol.
Melissa:Right. So they mix well together so you can you can use that in a lot of different things to to keep your freezing point down.
Jam:So they see each other and they're like, oh, hey, cousin. What's up, dude? Mhmm. We can hang out. No big deal.
Melissa:That's why you don't really see a line, like, if you have a glass of ethanol, the alcohol that you drink, and there's an ice cube in it. And the ice cube melted, Sort of goes into solution. Those 2 mix together. They're not it's not like oil and water.
Jam:Right. Right. That makes sense.
Melissa:So methanol is really dangerous. If you drink it, you'll go blind and probably die. And
Jam:Is that what's in, Hinton Hazard?
Melissa:Which one? It's isopropyl. Recently, there's some stuff that came out about it. So we'll talk about that at the very end.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. So I like to think about alcohols on a scale of So methanol is the most dangerous that I'm aware of, and then ethylene glycol is also very dangerous. Ethylene glycol is It's an ethane group. It has 2 carbons, but then it has 2 alcohols on it. And it's commonly used in antifreeze, and it because it smells sweet Mhmm.
Melissa:90,000 pets a year Our pets and wildlife a year are poisoned annually from drinking it, and about 6,000 people were poisoned in just 2012. So that's probably a normal year is is a few 1,000 people a year are Poison from drinking ethane glycol.
Jam:Dude, yikes. That's crazy.
Melissa:And that is commonly used in antifreeze. So those are 2 big ones that their chemical structures, methanol is just 1 carbon and 1 alcohol group with Some hydrogens around it, and then ethylene glycol is 2 carbons with 2 alcohols around it. Those are the big scarier ones. The rest of them are not well, we'll get into it, but those are the biggest scariest ones. So they're working on replacing ethylene glycol actually with a food additive that's much more safe, and that is propylene glycol.
Melissa:So propylene glycol is already used as a food additive. It's prope, so it has 3, carbons and 2 alcohols on it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:Okay. Now the one we've all been waiting for, The alcohol that you're allowed to drink.
Jam:Ethanol. Okay.
Melissa:This is in your vodkas. This is in your beers. This is in your everything. An ethanol is 2 carbons, 1 alcohol group. Mhmm.
Melissa:And a lot of questions that I hear about this is why is it dangerous to drink Methanol and dangerous to drink Ethylene Glycol, but it's fine to drink ethanol?
Jam:Yeah. I definitely am wondering that now too.
Melissa:Well, to be honest with you, it's not really fine to drink ethanol. This was first driven home for me when I was in a chemistry lab, and we had to do, you know, to look up the safety of every material that he used. And this is the warning on ethanol. Warning, causes severe eye flammable liquid and vapor causes respiratory tract irritation, has caused adverse reproductive and fetal effects in humans, May cause central nervous system depression, may cause liver, kidney, and heart damage, causes moderate skin irritation, Targets kidney, heart, central nervous system, and liver, and it's possibly a carcinogen, which means it causes cancer. Those are all the warnings to drinking alcohol, but a common saying we have in chemistry is the dose makes the poison.
Melissa:So people can die from alcohol poisoning, from ethanol poisoning, but you have to drink enough or drink it consistently enough that you're consistently poisoning your body. But it does have very similar effects as the other ones. Now in your body, alcohol dehydrogenase breaks down alcohol. And when it breaks down ethanol, it breaks it down into something that is non not incredibly toxic in your body, but It can break down methanol into formaldehyde. That is why methanol is especially dangerous for you.
Melissa:Formaldehyde's not good to have in your body. So if someone accidentally drinks Methanol, one of the means of treating that is to get them drunk on regular alcohol, Drinking alcohol.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So if you should not attempt to do this treatment at home ever. You can call a doctor of poison control to do that. But it is possible. They can use a dehydrogenase inhibitor. So the the enzyme that breaks alcohol down in your body, you can basically inhibit that and keep it from working, or you can use A different alcohol that has harmless effects when broken down.
Jam:Dude, that's crazy to eat. I'm kind of going through, like, realizing, Oh, yeah. This is a weird, you know, chemical that we're putting in our bodies, and it's I mean, we're so used to, Right. I mean, drinking alcohol, we're used to that being a a part of our lives and stuff for many of us, but it's weird to think of it like, oh, yeah. There's a basic Doesn't block that makes up with the alcohol part of this.
Jam:And in general, you could say that it's Mostly not good Mhmm. For your body.
Melissa:It's something
Jam:you're inter introducing into your body that is not already there and Could be bad. Like, that's kind of nuts.
Melissa:And there's alcohol groups naturally occurring on things like sugar and stuff, but I think it's in in these, Is, I wanna call them more simple alcohols where it's 1 or 2 carbons and 1 or 2 alcohol groups. I think there's a dominant effect that negatively impacts our systems, and that is part of what a hangover is. A lot of it is dehydration, but also your your digestive tract can be irritated By drinking something that's not maybe traditionally shouldn't be drunk.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:So I think that's a kind of a fun thing. I remember realizing when I was reading this and writing it up that, Oh, alcohol kind of is a poison also for your body. I mean, it's not terrible. It's not gonna kill you unless you have it in insane doses or over an extended period of time, but It's not as as good for you as maybe, say, water. But even water has a dark side.
Melissa:Right? You can drink so much water that You shut down your systems or you can drown in water, so the dose makes the poison. But just to I think it is kind of good for us to be reminded that Alcohol can have impacts on our body. And I I do drink alcohol on occasion. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I also don't want people to underestimate the power of alcohol.
Jam:Right. Right.
Melissa:Okay. And now getting to your final question, hand sanitizers.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:Okay. So hand sanitizers are generally made up of isopropyl alcohol. So Mhmm. That is propyl, so 3 carbons, And 1 alcohol, the alcohol sits right in the middle. That's where the ISO name comes from.
Melissa:That doesn't really matter. The alcohol sits right in the middle of the 3 carbons, And that is generally used in a 70% solution with water for sanitizing, both your hands and surfaces. Earlier this year in the sanitizer craze, some companies, I didn't look at the details of this, there was some Methanol poisoning happening. I guess they just weren't being careful
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:From hand sanitizers that had methanol when corona hit and people were going crazy. And the FDA and the CDC both put out statements about it, so you can Google that and find it.
Jam:If
Melissa:I'm not mistaken, those 2 agencies did. So but, technically, hand sanitizer is not supposed to have methanol in it because of the dangerous side effects of methanol.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:More so than other alcohols. It's not great to ingest isopropyl alcohol either, but it's it's much much safer than ingesting Methanol. But just don't Just don't drink alcohol. You can help it unless it comes in a food safe container.
Jam:Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:And, actually, I did read a study that Tested the efficiency of Methanol, ethanol, and Isopropyl alcohol, and it seemed that isopropyl alcohol was the most efficient. They all, especially when mixed with water, Could impact viruses that had a lipid layer Mhmm. We talked about in the how soap kills coronavirus or COVID nineteen.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:And they could kill some bacteria. It seems that they could get in and denature some of their enzymes or proteins. So It has an a good effectiveness on viruses. There's it seemed harder on bacteria, but that's generally what you're using when you spray and when you Use hand sanitizer on your hands, and the water in conjunction with the alcohol does play a role. So Alcohol solutions below 50% are not usually as effective, and above 90% are not usually as effective.
Melissa:You need the water and the alcohol together.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Interesting.
Melissa:So that's it. That's your alcohol. Your lesson on, basic alcohols from organic chemistry.
Jam:Dude, weird. It's weirder than I thought, honestly.
Melissa:Really?
Jam:I think so. I mean, I I don't really I don't think I knew anything about alcohol. I don't really drink. And so it just has almost almost no place in my life other than I use hand sanitizer, and I use aserobic alcohol to clean, film scans in in my scanner. And that's kinda it.
Jam:So
Melissa:Wow. Well, I'm glad this could be a fun one for you. I'm I'm glad that I was a little worried it might be boring. But if you needed that background information and Mary wanted that background information, that tells me that maybe it's more Fun and interesting than I thought. Yeah.
Melissa:I think
Jam:I think so. I feel like a lot of people probably wouldn't just happen to know that stuff. And maybe it's something that you talk about a little bit in in a commission movie. I did learn some of that, in high school or something, but just didn't remember it. But Thing that's interesting?
Jam:It's actually much more focused on organic chemistry. Those Oh groups, those alcohol groups with the carbon on it is much more organic Chemistry, I don't think we talked about it very much in general chemistry. Got it. Got it.
Melissa:And, usually, in general chemistry,
Jam:you see an Oh group with a charge on it. It's, o h minus, and that's, like, sodium hydroxide. You've heard
Melissa:of that? Mhmm.
Jam:That kind of has a different functionality than when that o h group is attached to a carbon And so don't get too confused on those 2 things. And for those of you who have had a little bit of general chemistry, you might remember that group, but that charge makes all the difference. So that is Not the same as these kind of alcohols. Okay. I don't know how much there is to really spit back to you, but I can try my best to Recount the basic chemistry part of it, I guess.
Melissa:That's I think that'd be great. Yeah. Go ahead and lay it on me.
Jam:So in alcohol, It's a functional group, and it consists of a carbon chain and then an oxygen And then a hydrogen?
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And so where this where the different types of alcohol differ Is the amount of carbons not it's not the carbons in the chain, though. Right? It's other carbons present?
Melissa:It's the carbons in the chain. Okay.
Jam:It is 1 in the chain. Okay. So In the case of, starting with Methanol, it's 1 carbon.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Ethanol, ethanol 2. Mhmm. What did you say? Protonol? Protonol.
Jam:As a propyl?
Melissa:Protonol is, the general idea of having 3 carbons and an alcohol group, But the position of the carbon can be middle or side, and so then then the isopropyl is more specific.
Jam:Got it. So isopropanol would be just Saying that it hit. There's 3.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And then butane? Bu butanol was the what was the 4th one?
Melissa:Yes. Butane. Butanol is
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Mhmm. Good job. Mama eats peanut butter. Remember?
Jam:And And plus you know what? Yes. She does. She does use the letter. And so those and then it can go up from there to different prefixes, but the main thing being that there's there's a lot of different effects that those alcohols can have based on the fact that they have different carbons and can be used in different things, have different effects on our body even though it seems like they could all have A level to which they are bad for us.
Jam:Mhmm. At least the one that is not quite as bad immediately, in the right dosing or whatever is ethanol. Mhmm.
Melissa:That's the one we drink.
Jam:And that's that's one that we can drink, Some of. And I don't know what else there is. It's kind of
Melissa:Can you remember the dangerous one, the one that can cause blindness and cause you to die?
Jam:Methanol. Right?
Melissa:Methanol. And how do you cure methanol poisoning?
Jam:By introducing by introducing ethanol. Right?
Melissa:That's right.
Jam:Somehow that would stop it from Doing whatever it's do whatever the methanol is doing.
Melissa:Right. Your body breaks down the methanol into something dangerous. But if you if you put ethanol in instead, it'll break that down More easily, it'll break that down first, and it'll break it down into something safe. And, hopefully, by the time it's done breaking down all the ethanol in your system, the in your system, the methanol's passed through, unbroken down, and you're safe.
Jam:Got it. Got it. Dang. That's kinda crazy. That seems like one of those methods where it's like Somebody discovered it because they were like, okay.
Jam:This guy's already got the methanol in his body. Let's try some stuff because we just need something to do. Right. And it seems like one of those things that would be like, oh, man. Hopefully, this will work.
Melissa:And it did. Hospitals now also use a Inhibitor for that enzyme, which is a little bit, I think, easier and safer to administer. But Mhmm. I they have done studies to show the effectiveness of of regular alcohol, drinking alcohol, ethanol in Mhmm. Treating methanol poisoning.
Jam:Oh, dude. This is helpful to see.
Melissa:I think it it is easier to look at them. So I just sent Jam a picture of what these Methanol, Ethanol, propanol look like. And That way he has a visual, and I'll make sure to put that online as well.
Jam:Oh, excuse me. This is in we're receiving a photograph of what appear to be some, Alcohols. Just one moment. Okay. I'm looking live at, it seems to be 3 different types of alcohol.
Jam:Methanol, Ethanol, propanol. It's We're we're not yet sure what I'm just kidding.
Melissa:Here is your, isopropyl. So it's different than the propanol. That's a carbon there in the middle. That joint is a carbon too. So I'll draw these by hand, for our listeners because I can do more consistent, make it prettier.
Melissa:But
Jam:These are interesting. Isopropyl definitely looks weird.
Melissa:Yeah. His approval is, No
Jam:offense, his approval. Like, do your thing, but you just look different. And different's not bad, I'd say. So, is there anything I missed?
Melissa:I don't think so. I think you you covered it really well. I think This is just an interesting one. Oh, I will say ethylene glycol is the one in antifreeze.
Jam:Oh, right. Right.
Melissa:Also really dangerous. That's the one where Children and pets have a harder time staying away from that. It smells good from what I hear, like sweet. So
Jam:That's It's messed up. That we should have foreseen that being a problem.
Melissa:Yeah. Well, you can keep it up on shelves. Keep it away. I think Do your best to be aware of that for children. And I think they color it to make it brightly colored so that Adult are aware, you know, that it's not safe, but that might make it more appealing to children.
Melissa:So
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Yeah.
Melissa:But they are working on incorporating I think I saw some companies have already done that, the safer propylene glycol, but I don't know for sure, so be careful with that around your kids.
Jam:Yeah. Dang.
Melissa:And don't try to treat your methanol poisoning at home. Call the poison control center. I'm just giving you information about treatment options.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's it. Yeah. That's alcohols.
Jam:Sweet.
Melissa:Well, Jam, I'm gonna go ahead and transition and tell you that I'm very excited because that big test that Kept my time this week.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:I passed it.
Jam:Nice. I knew you're arguing that. But
Melissa:You knew. Awesome. That's my happy thing for this week. I wanted to share that with our listeners because they've heard we talk about writing the proposal and everything. So Yeah.
Melissa:I'm officially a PhD candidate, which means I have passed all the exams that I need to pass to prove my competence in this field. And now I just
Jam:He's awesome.
Melissa:Very excited. Now I just have to do my research and finish that up and present my my findings in a big dissertation at the end. So that would be my Final step to getting the PhD, but it feels like I'm on the home stretch now. You know? I I've proposed this research idea.
Melissa:It's been approved with some changes that need to be made. And then once I make those changes and gather data and present my information, this this is the home stretch I'm moving towards Graduating, so it's very exciting.
Jam:Dang. That's awesome. So what what is the timeline? Is it is it fixed In terms of how much longer, or is it just when those things all get done?
Melissa:It's just when those things get done. Azeri, based on your research, Demation is that it will probably be 2 more years for me to collect all the data I need to collect and do all the interventions I need to do for my research, but
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:I you know, it's not I'm not holding to that, but I think 2 more years is about right.
Jam:Dang. That's crazy. That's a lot of time, but that makes sense. I mean, it's hard work.
Melissa:It's hard work, and I did take a detour in getting my master's. So My total time will be 7 years, but I got a master's in organic chemistry before I switched to my PhD. So I kind of I made it a little bit harder on myself. So I'm I'm logging in 7 years for a master's and a PhD. Sometimes people just go straight in for their PhD and can knock out in 5 years.
Jam:Got it. Well, not that anybody asked us, but on be I mean, me and the listeners, we think that It's our it was already obvious that you're competent in your field. So, I mean, like, cool that they decided to give you a test and stuff like that, but, honestly, I think, For us, already already was pretty obvious. So
Melissa:Thank you. I I'm your opinion matters more than anyone else's anyway. So just kidding. If any of my committee is listening Right now, you guys matter the most, and your signatures are what got me through. But
Jam:Yeah. Whoever's listening, they matter the most.
Melissa:Right. That there we go. Well, there we go. Yeah. But I will say getting to do this podcast, there was some time That my passion for chemistry had definitely dwindled, and I didn't know if this is what I wanted to do.
Melissa:And getting to do the podcast and interacting with listeners and see people be excited about Chemistry again propelled me forward and reminded me why I love this field and and teaching about it. And so I just wanna thank you guys so much for all your emails and and comments and interacting with us. It really does give me life and gives me Renewed fire for this passion that I I wanna keep going in that, and it gives me a vision for my Dreams in science communication and chemistry education. So thank you guys so much. K.
Melissa:So that's my thing. It's kind of a big one this week, So sorry, Jim, to have jumped the gun, but what about you? How's your week this week?
Jam:Yeah. I cannot beat that, but that's okay. So mine's very simple. You guys remember how sad I was when my favorite coffee shop here in Denton closed?
Melissa:Yes.
Jam:And This is not a direct sequel to that sad story. It's more like just a slight Improvement from that tragedy. So
Melissa:Right.
Jam:A it's been a little while, but we just only recently kind of discovered it. There's a Little coffee food truck, coffee cart shack thing or whatever, pretty close to our neighborhood to where we can walk to it. And so A few times now, Em and I and our baby have gone on a early morning walk when it's cool enough, which is also a a huge Bonus that it can be cool enough to go on a on a walk in the morning and not not die. And talking we gotta be basically at or below 80 degrees, because babies cannot, you know, adjust their own body temperature very well. So Right.
Jam:We've gone on a few walks over to there, grabbed a coffee, and walked around while it's still a good temperature. And that's just been so nice for both those two reasons, getting to go on a walk and it'd be nice and getting to go grab a coffee. They've got great coffee. So I did wanna shout them out because they're awesome, and they're small business. So they're called the mug.
Jam:And so if you're a a Denton person that wants to support a A little coffee shack kinda thing. Hit up the mug. They've got some good coffee.
Melissa:That's so cute. I'll I'll go I'm adding this to my list right now of places I wanna hit
Jam:Yeah. They're right over by I guess we just talk about where they are. It doesn't really matter. They're right over off of university.
Melissa:Wow. Very exciting.
Jam:DM us if you need. We'll we'll tag him or something online Yeah.
Melissa:We'll on our
Jam:social post.
Melissa:Share them on our stories and retweet them on Twitter. So Yeah. Cool. That's exciting. That is a nice that's a nice epilogue to your story.
Jam:Yeah. So a little bit of coffee hope In my routine now.
Melissa:A little bit of coffee hope and a little bit of academic hope for you guys to finish off your week.
Jam:Well,
Melissa:thanks so much for telling me about that. I can't wait to go check it out, and thanks for being so excited to learn about alcohols. That's really that was exciting too. I was a little worried you guys wouldn't like it, but I'm really glad that you did.
Jam:Well, thank you for teaching us and for opening my mind to what I've called even r, and starting from nothing because I didn't know anything. And thanks for teaching the listeners as well. Mohsen, I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but we wanna hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us on Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook at chem for your life. It's chem, f o r, your life.
Jam:Share your thoughts and ideas. If you'd like to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it, Go to kodashfi.com/chem for your life and donate the cost of a cup of coffee. If you're not able to donate, you still 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 Free Alive was created by Melissa Collini and Jam Robinson. References for this episode can be found in our show notes or on our website. Jim Robinson is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to A. Q. Asong and v Garza who reviewed this episode.