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This week Melissa and Jam explore the chemistry of artificial/alternative sweeteners. What are artificial sweeteners? How can something be sweet but not packed with calories? Are we cheating? Did we hack nature when we made them? Is nature going to get back at us some day? Are we doomed?
This week Melissa and Jam explore the chemistry of artificial/alternative sweeteners. What are artificial sweeteners? How can something be sweet but not packed with calories? Are we cheating? Did we hack nature when we made them? Is nature going to get back at us some day? Are we doomed?
References from this episode
Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife.
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And check out our chill, simple little website at https://chemforyourlife.transistor.fm/
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 lifeās 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 youāre 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. And I'm not. And welcome to Chemistry For Your Life.
Jam:The podcast helps you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. So this is your 1st or 2nd or whatever pretty early time listening to our podcast. When we say Melissa's a chemist, she really is. She's a chemist, And she's getting her PhD right now, and she already has her master's.
Melissa:Woo.
Jam:And I'm not in any way. But every episode, Melissa has a lesson, something she's trying to teach me, and I learned it from ground 0, from no knowledge at all other than just, like, regular old High school or something.
Melissa:And the podcast that you've been present for?
Jam:And the other one. Yeah. The previous podcast. So I do retain knowledge over time. Mhmm.
Jam:It's something that is unique about, me. Just kidding. And, and I try to learn along with you guys. So, Melissa, what are are we gonna learn about today?
Melissa:Well, Jim, I'm glad you asked. As the the time of sweets is upon us, Halloween is getting close.
Jam:Oh, yeah. That's
Melissa:true. I was thinking a fun one would be, do you know what artificial sweeteners are?
Jam:Oh. How
Melissa:do they work? Why are they sweet? Why are they 0 calories?
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:I guess a better word than artificial would be alternative sweeteners.
Jam:Yeah. Are they are they magic is another question perhaps.
Melissa:Definitely. Yeah. We're gonna talk about whether or not they're magic.
Jam:Because it does kinda seem like Weird that they exist at all.
Melissa:Well, that's what we're gonna be talking about today. That they exist, how they exist, why they're sweet. The main points are why they're sweet.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Tasting to us, and then also why there's 0 calories.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So I guess these would be the diet sweeteners or the Low calorie sweeteners that we're gonna be focusing on.
Jam:Sweeteners that are not sugar and are not
Melissa:Calor.
Jam:Don't yeah. Do you not have calories? Okay. Yes. Got it.
Melissa:So that's what we're gonna be talking about today. Are you ready?
Jam:I'm very ready. This is interesting.
Melissa:This gets back into this is hearkening back to the days of trans fats and the dark side
Jam:Oh, yes.
Melissa:Of chemistry.
Jam:Okay. So this is hearkening back to it, are alternative sweeteners in that dark side?
Melissa:Alternative sweeteners Hold hands with the dark side. I'm not sure we can say for sure whether or not they're dark.
Jam:Sympathetic kinda deal.
Melissa:Maybe some maybe there are Anakin in episode 3 before he
Jam:Before he fully heals.
Melissa:All those babies.
Jam:Oh, man.
Melissa:Gosh. That scene's the worst.
Jam:It really, really, really is.
Melissa:Okay. So And just how can you? How could you? I hated that. I was done at that moment.
Melissa:Yeah. Do you remember when we talked about cis And trans fats.
Jam:Yes. I do.
Melissa:We also talked about that there were sometimes left handed and right handed molecules.
Jam:Yes. In that in that medication that birth control medication. Right?
Melissa:It wasn't birth control. It was morning sickness, but that's really close.
Jam:Oh, yeah. It is. Yeah. Mhmm. It was morning sickness, and It makes sense, and it had adverse effects whenever it changed from the left or right or something like that.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:There were some bad stuff that went down.
Melissa:Right. Basically, they there's left handed and right handed molecules in chemistry. And to the untrained eye, They would look the same.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:For example, if you're looking at your left hand and your right hand Mhmm. They look the same just looking at them. They're just mere images of each other.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But they are actually different. You cannot put your left hand where your right hand goes and it function the same. If you Chopped off your left hand and tried to put it in place of your right hand, it would be attached backwards.
Jam:Right. Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:That same concept is present in chemistry.
Jam:So on a 2 in a two dimensional way, it could look the same, but in a functional way, it might behave differently?
Melissa:Right. Exactly.
Jam:The hand? Okay.
Melissa:So just to Just like when you're looking at your hand and you see the back of both of your hands, you're like, yeah. These look the same. Mhmm. But then practically, they function differently.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:That is the same thing that happens in chemistry with molecules.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So and that's known as Chirality.
Jam:Woah.
Melissa:Big word.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:We can just call it handedness, left handedness, right handedness to make things easier.
Jam:Man, that is so weird. That is just so weird already.
Melissa:Can you tell me why you feel that way?
Jam:Well, just I think it just like The it has a good analogy. Our hands is a good analogy.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And so if you think about, like, If you personify molecules and make them sound like, your left hand ones, your right hand ones, it seems to make sense for a second. But you're like, but these are molecules. This is like At this, like, atomic level of stuff going on, why do they have hands? I mean, like, they don't have hands. Like, why why are they why does that happen?
Jam:It's just kinda freaking me out a little bit.
Melissa:Yeah. And I can show you, but, basically, they they are mirror images. So then when you try to overlap them the same way you try to overlap your hand, they just don't line up. If you try to put your left hand on top of your right hand. You to make them match up, you have to flip them over, but then the size that's showing is your palm.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And
Melissa:that's not the same as the back of your left hand.
Jam:Mhmm. And then
Melissa:suddenly you realize that your hands are different even though you kind of thought they were the same this whole time.
Jam:Yeah. It's kind of I I think because I didn't know about it, I was thinking that, oh, yeah. You've got the same elements put together. So, like, h two o. I just assumed that, like, they would just kind of just kinda go together the same way every time.
Melissa:Right. Well and I don't know if I can say most or many, but a lot molecules, especially those very simple ones do.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:It takes some special conditions. They don't matter a lot, but it has to have Four things attached to it, 4 different things, and that way they're all different. That stuff doesn't really matter. So not every molecule has handedness, only specific That's a good thing that you said. I'm glad you said that because I hadn't thought to bring that up.
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:But not all molecules have that. Jim just Affirmed me into his coffee cup. He said, mhmm, halfway into his beverage.
Jam:I was just thinking my mouth is really close to some things. It's close enough. Right? It's just like a microphone.
Melissa:Okay. So well, that's good. I'm glad that you got stuck on that. I'm glad I got to experience your wonder because I don't typically get to feel that same experience. You know, most people are just learning about it in a classroom.
Melissa:They're worried about their exam. They don't. A lot of my students take time to don't take time to wonder and be an awe. And I, you know, learned it in the same environment. So that was kinda fun.
Melissa:That was kind of a fun thing that surprised by I
Jam:think part of it too is it, like it's sort of like do you remember whenever you were learning grammar for the first time? No. And you'd you'd learn Things that are like okay. Here's a rule. Like, you always do grammar something something like this.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And they'll say that. Someone will say like
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:This such and such grammar rule is always like this. Except when it's not. Like, mean, even if they maybe don't teach you that till, like, the next year in grade school or whatever Mhmm. There are these exceptions like that that come about. And I kinda feel like I'm having that kinda real this right now.
Jam:It's like, yeah, molecules, know, fit together, and they're, like, twin together, and they make different substances and stuff like that. And it looks like this, except when it doesn't. It's like, what the heck?
Melissa:Well, I'm glad that you got to share that experience with me. That was fun. Well so the left handed and right handed molecules, we did talk about how Enthalidomide, that was the medicine we mentioned in the trans fat episode
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:That It had a left handed and a right handed, and the scientist did a good job in isolated the left and the right. But in the body, when when women actually took this medicine, it switched back to be a mixture, which is, I would say not does not happen often. It takes a special kind of molecule to be able to do that, and one caused very terrible effects And the other was just fine.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:So we saw just that dark side of The different handedness of the molecules, but they also can be used for other things too. It's not just that if you have the wrong handedness, suddenly you're gonna die.
Jam:Right. Okay. So It's not always, yeah, it's not always life or death.
Melissa:It's not always life or death. It's not always very dangerous. Sometimes it's as simple as, Does this taste like lemon or orange? One handedness tastes orangey, And the other handedness tastes lemony, they are the same molecule.
Jam:So, like, that molecule that exists in lemon juice and orange juice kind of deal, like, Or some part of it?
Melissa:So I don't think it's found in I guess it would be in lemon juice and orange juice, but it's found in the peel. Uh-huh. But also it's used artificially to flavor. So one Okay. Handedness, one of the hands is Lemony, and one of the hands is orangey.
Jam:Interesting.
Melissa:And the fancy word for that so chirality is the nature sure of having handedness. The 2 different hands are called enantiomers. So my hands are mirror images of each other. They're not the exact same. That's called chirality.
Melissa:One is 1 enantiomer. Left hand enantiomer. Right hand enantiomer. You don't need to know that, but it's a big jargony word. Yeah.
Jam:Enantiomer? Enantiomer. Enantiomer. Mhmm. It's weird because it's also sensitive to the foul stuff.
Jam:You say an enantiomer. It's like
Melissa:Yeah. That is also when you say organic chemistry and inorganic chemistry, oftentimes, people will say inorganic chemistry. I'm in organic chemistry.
Jam:I'm in organic chem oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa:So confusing. Confusing.
Jam:Yeah. But
Melissa:the one we're gonna hit on today is artificial sweeteners.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So our bodies are designed, and we talked about this, to generally process 1 enantiomer or the other of naturally occurring products. In chemistry, they're referred to r and s. In biology, it's slightly different. They're known as, I believe, d and l. Mhmm.
Melissa:I'm not a biologist.
Jam:It's like they label them label different enantiomers, those letters?
Melissa:Mhmm. Yes. So there's a way to determine it. It doesn't matter. Okay.
Melissa:Okay. They have just
Jam:labels for them.
Melissa:Mhmm. They have labels for them. And our bodies are naturally going to Be able to taste and digest 1 enantiomer.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:So we naturally can digest that 1 en enantiomer Okay. If you have The mirror image. The opposite enantiomer. I think in biology, the ones that naturally occurring that our body digest are typically the d enantiomer. If you have an l enantiomer of a sugar, You're going to be able to taste the sweetness, but they will pass through our body undigested because our enzymes Only know how to digest the de enantiomer.
Jam:Okay. So So say Sugar is right handed.
Melissa:Yeah. We'll just arbitrarily assign it.
Jam:Okay. Because it's the more common thing thing that we're used to even though Mhmm. There's a lot of Latina people. So so I said sugar's right handed. Mhmm.
Jam:Your body, when you're eating stuff, is looking for right handed sugars.
Melissa:That's what our enzymes know how to break down.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:The binding sites to those enzymes are designed for the exact shape of your right hand.
Jam:And so whenever a left handed not quite sugar, but still tastes sweet
Melissa:Oh, it's still probably a sugar.
Jam:Okay. A sugar, but not like
Melissa:Regular old sugar?
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Whenever a left handed one goes through our body Mhmm. Enzymes are just like Like, they're not recognizing at all.
Jam:It's just going right past. They're not
Melissa:like can't fit in. It's like trying to put your Your left hand in a right handed glove. It wasn't made for that hand. It doesn't know how to do its job with that hand.
Jam:Yeah. Yeah. So it just, like, doesn't even recognize. I'm supposed to do something with this. It just, like, Move along.
Melissa:Passes through your body and digest it.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Crazy. Right?
Jam:Yeah. That's really weird.
Melissa:And that's it. That's all you need to know about artificial sweeteners in terms of how they work. They still taste sweet to us, but because our bodies are designed to break down The left hand instead of the right hand
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Or vice versa. Those that our body doesn't know how to break down, they come in, they taste sweet, And then they pass through without being broken down.
Jam:That's interesting too because then I don't think about this very much, but there's such a huge difference in taste and then what's happening Once it hits your, you know, stomach and it tastes and all that stuff, it's like, if you can achieve a taste up here while achieving something else down in the digestion section, like letting it pass through, for instance.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:That's kinda crazy because to our conscious mind, when we're thinking about what we wanna eat Yeah. We're only thinking about taste much of the time.
Melissa:Right. Well and I don't like the taste of low calorie sweeteners, and that's a real thing because they are not designed exactly the same way. So although they give us the illusion of sweetness or the Sensation of sweetness
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:They aren't interacting with what you're experiencing exactly the same.
Jam:Right.
Melissa:That's why some I think some people just don't like that.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:But just because they pass through your body and digested and they're 0 calories, it does not mean that they're perfect. Right. So one mixture of alternative sweeteners that they developed showed that they produce tumors in animals, so the FDA rejected it.
Jam:Okay.
Melissa:As far as we know now, a lot of the things that are on the market that can sweeten our drinks and sweeten our candies or whatever. Mhmm.
Jam:As
Melissa:far as we know, the FDA has done a good job of blocking them, but I think because they are not naturally occurring, and we've altered them in some way to achieve a goal that probably isn't a common one.
Jam:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Melissa:We don't know for sure what the effects are going to be.
Jam:Right. We haven't had, like, a long enough timeline necessarily of heavy use. Mhmm. Doesn't seem like Like, I think diet like, the 1st Diet Coke hasn't even been around but, like, 50 years or 40 years or something like that.
Melissa:I don't even know.
Jam:But, like, Thinking about that being one of the first, like, everybody has access to it kind of products.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:It's like, how can we really know what the long term
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Man, that's interesting.
Melissa:Yeah. So that's it. That's artificial sweeteners.
Jam:Dana, it's a lot simpler than I thought it was gonna be. Like, it's obviously, I know before I get way more granular and complicated, but at the At the, like, layman level as it pertains to me and everybody else, I'm I'm amazed at how simple that is.
Melissa:I actually don't think that we simplified it very much at all. I don't I think the thing that would we would get into that would be more complicated is Some of the biology parts, how to how could it cause tumors and negative impacts and all of that. I don't know a lot of that. But What you just said is the same way I would explain pretty much to an organic chemistry class.
Jam:Wow.
Melissa:Then I would make them Learn the designations of which one's left handed and which one's right handed and all of that, but that's not gonna be as beneficial to understanding the aspects of these artificial sweeteners unless you're planning on going into a job and making them.
Jam:So Right. Right. Right.
Melissa:You actually have a really thorough Understanding of this topic, it's we didn't simplify it down significantly.
Jam:Dang. That's great.
Melissa:I try not to, actually, usually for your for this show. I do wanna say before we move into the next portion of the show that sometimes some of those enantiomers, Sometimes the different handed sugar is found in nature, the one that our body doesn't break down, but it's pretty rare.
Jam:Most
Melissa:of the time, those have been synthetically formulated. But Okay. You can synthetically formulate things that are safe too. So don't Don't let that worry you too much. Well and I should qualify.
Melissa:Sometimes you can find these opposite handed sweeteners in nature, but it's pretty rare. Most of them that we interact with are artificial
Jam:Uh-huh.
Melissa:And they allow the sweetness with no calories. They pass through our bodies without being digested and contributing to our calorie intake, but they do have other effects that we're just not aware of right now that I'm sure will come to light over time.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So that's artificial sweeteners.
Jam:Wow. Man, that's crazy.
Melissa:Yeah. Do you wanna say it back to me?
Jam:Yes. Okay. So kind
Melissa:of have done already, but this is just a nice
Jam:Wrap it up in a bow kinda deal.
Melissa:Wrap it up in
Jam:a bow. Yes. I can do that. So, Like we talked about in a previous episode about that medication that had a very famous and very extreme
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Different handedness of a molecule, Which ended up causing deaths and, deformities and a lot of not good stuff.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:Just like that, a lot of things have left handed to right handed versions of it.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:In this case, sugars Yep. And sweeteners. And so, The handedness can look the same in a, like, just kinda 2 d two dimensional kinda way where it looks like it's the same shape.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:But would have maybe a different way of interacting Right. And maybe a slightly different, like, arrangement of some of the molecules or whatever, but would look the same way. Mhmm. And so
Melissa:Would look the same way to the untrained eye.
Jam:Right. And so But it's different enough that, there's still a sweet taste in the case of sugars in other sweeteners. Mhmm. They show a sweet taste.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:But when the sweetener when the molecule gets down into our bodies and our body's trying to digest it
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:The sugars that our body is used to digesting look one way, like the right hand.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:And artificial ones look On purpose. Mhmm. The other way, the left handed way.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And so our bodies do not recognize them.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:And so they pass right on through
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:In disguise, basically.
Melissa:Yeah. That's it.
Jam:Is that it?
Melissa:Isn't that amazing that people are able to figure that out?
Jam:It really is. And I kinda wish there was, like that we could figure that kind of stuff out, and it'd be, like, no potential consequences. No potential side effects. Like, it'd be kinda cool if we could start figuring this about learning more about our world over time.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Making those kinda things, And then it just solved problems. It's
Melissa:like Right.
Jam:Sugar has the problems it solves. It has high calories blah blah. We found this little sneaky Cheat code hack kind of thing.
Melissa:Mhmm.
Jam:We change this substance up. Mhmm. Still tastes sweet. Does not have the effects that sugar has on your body. Boom.
Jam:Right. Everybody wins. Wouldn't it be awesome if it was just that simple and there was no question marks?
Melissa:Right. But just like with The trans fats and margarine, we just don't know everything. I think that's a good reminder to humans. So we just don't know everything. We don't know everything, and so We think that we've solved a problem, but you just have to be careful.
Melissa:And this is true for almost all of science. You you find the most Up to date information that gives the best answer that you have right now, but you have to be open to learning more later on.
Jam:And it kinda makes sense too because then you think like, Okay. If we did some sneaky science and figure something cool out, it if this wasn't occurring, like, abundantly in nature, You kinda have to ask, like, why? And if not, then is there some weird side effect of that? Yeah. You know what I mean?
Jam:It's like Mhmm. If there was some Perfect sugar that didn't cause any negative effects, but it still tasted really sweet and tasted great Mhmm. That exist existed out there. Then you I mean, if we could make that, you'd think it would have to exist somewhere already.
Melissa:Right. You
Jam:know what I mean?
Melissa:Yeah.
Jam:It's just like that little bit of a weird understanding that I think a lot of us have that, like, Nature works Yeah. In some way already. Yeah. And so messing with it can can cause those unintended Consequences that we don't always know soon enough?
Melissa:You mess with the nature, you're gonna get the horns. It's always true. You you mess with the bull. I I definitely think that that's true. And it's just important to learn, you know, when a new technology comes out or a new method of doing something comes out, my instinct is always to be careful and think through it rather than to jump right on it.
Melissa:So
Jam:Right.
Melissa:It reminds me of I listened to an interesting podcast about the Radium Girls who worked with Radium to use radium on watches, which is radioactive. Mhmm. And it was glowing Because it's radioactive, it's emitting energy constantly, but it can give you radium poisoning. And just It seemed like the new best, greatest technology, and it was actually really dangerous. So I think that, again, the important thing there is not to be afraid of chemistry, but to have a healthy respect and to make sure that we're taking appropriate precautions when we're working with something
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:That's newly discovered or that we don't know a ton about.
Jam:Mhmm. Word.
Melissa:On that note, Jim, Got anything exciting that happened to you this week? Anything that made you happy?
Jam:Yeah. So this week, my I so my wife was at a conference for work for a few days, and so she was out of town. And she got back, Actually, it's this morning, which was awesome. So I was a single dad to our 2 dogs.
Melissa:A single dad dog? Yeah. Wait. Dog dad.
Jam:You know, sometimes people say, like, oh, I was a bachelor this weekend because my wife's out of town or Right. Or whatever. I like saying, I was a single dad for the weekend or whatever. So she was gone, and now she's back. And that made me happy.
Melissa:I'm so glad. Yeah. That sounds but not like a nice reunion, a fun reunion. I'm also glad she's back because I like her company and presence at church. And
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:When I come over here to record podcasts, it's just more fun when she's around.
Jam:So Someone said to me the other day, Like, they're kinda asking. Someone who knows both of us was like, do you guys on the podcast ever say that you, like, know each other outside of The podcast and, like, in the same friend group and all that stuff. And I was, like, I think we kind of have, like, alluded to it clearly. Like, it's obvious that you're friends with him. Mhmm.
Jam:And that we talked about, like, the beach trip that you're supposed to go on Right. And didn't go on. So like that. But this person was like, yeah. You guys just seem to never really fully say it.
Jam:Yeah. Melissa and I are friends, and we're in the same friend group.
Melissa:That's true. We're friends. We not only run, this podcast together, but we also Work on the same, like, leadership group at church and have a dinner club that meets every Other week, basically. And
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:We're in a lot of things together.
Jam:Yeah. So it's not like it's not a of times when I talk about something like him being out of town or something that's been happening in my week or whatever, a lot of times, Melissa knows about it or knows the people or whatever. Think about it. You just might not say outright, or it might not make it very clear, which we could be could be confusing. So, yeah, that was that was my week.
Jam:What about you? What made you happy this past week?
Melissa:Well, mine's kind of a small thing, but I have been watching my friend's Baby Willow
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:While my friend is working just a few hours a week. And Willow is, I think about one and a half years old. Mhmm. And so she is just really cute and funny. She The other day, I was watching her, and we were swinging outside in one of those safe kid swings.
Melissa:You know? I'd push her way up high and Then let her go, and she would just giggle. And, you know, those little kid laughs. And I just think being with kids helps you remember that All the things you're stressed about, all the things you're worried about, they matter. They're important, but there's more.
Jam:Yeah. There's some simplicity there that we lose.
Melissa:Right.
Jam:Like, just the thrill of being swung on a swing. Like, that's that's some joy right there.
Melissa:Yeah. And she would sometimes I would push her. I wouldn't hold her up and let go. I would push, and then I would jump and strike a pose, and she thought that was hysterical.
Jam:And I
Melissa:was not even doing anything funny. I was just jumping or whatever. So just being around a baby laugh was really nice. Yeah. And getting to interact with someone who's just starting to be able to the world and communicate it.
Melissa:It was just a very good part of my week.
Jam:Dang. That's awesome. Mhmm. Very cool. Yeah.
Jam:I totally get that.
Melissa:Okay. Well, I've got 2 things for us to wrap up. 1, another thing that's making me happy. We've seen some new countries show up in our listeners.
Jam:Nice.
Melissa:Awesome. I'd like to say welcome. Welcome to Denmark. Denmark, I was so excited when I saw you because I came to visit you This year and I loved you. I loved Denmark.
Melissa:It was beautiful. I really enjoyed it. I went with my mom. It was great. So welcome, Denmark.
Melissa:Also, Portugal, you finished off that part of Europe,
Jam:so that's exciting. It was just like it's area that we didn't have. Yeah. Thank you, Portugal.
Melissa:Yeah. Thanks, Portugal. Welcome. And very exciting, El Salvador.
Jam:Yes.
Melissa:One of my roommates' Former roommates.
Jam:Mhmm.
Melissa:Was El Salvadorian.
Jam:Yeah.
Melissa:So
Jam:Also, very exciting is that unrelated like, I didn't realize that Whenever I selected this, but I have been drinking this whole podcast, a coffee that is from El Salvador that I roasted myself. Wow. Something like that.
Melissa:Well, thanks, El Salvador, for making good coffee.
Jam:Oh, yeah. And for listening.
Melissa:And for listening. And I'd like to wrap up with my references. So this week, I used a combination of prior knowledge and The organic chemistry 11th edition textbook by Salomons.
Jam:Melissa and I have a lot of ideas for topics of chemistry in everyday life, but wanna hear from you. So if you have questions or ideas, you can reach out to us Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook at chem for your life. That's kem, f o r, your life, to share your thoughts and ideas. And if you enjoy this podcast, you can subscribe on your favorite podcast app. If you really like it, you You can write a review on Apple Podcasts.
Jam:It helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people.
Melissa:This episode of Chemistry For Your Life was created by Melissa Colini and J. M. Robinson. Jim Robison is our producer, and we'd like to give a special thanks to a Kiewasong and a Colini who reviewed this episode.