Chemistry For Your Life

Birds… but chemistry.

What does compost have to do with eggs? How are birds basically doing chemistry experiments to make their colors? Why would a bird eat dirt… or rub ants all over itself?? This episode is a grab bag of wild, fascinating bird facts that connect back to chemistry you already know. No quiz, just vibes.

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00:00 Bird Chemistry Vibes

02:02 Compost Egg Incubators

02:58 Feather Colors Chemistry

06:20 Seeing Ultraviolet Light

08:11 Clay Eating Detox Trick

09:28 Hot Bodies Fast Reactions

14:23 Preening Oil Waterproofing

16:15 Rainy Day Birdwatching

16:44 Anting Bird Hygiene

19:17 Seabird Feather Sunscreen

20:14 More Bird Chemistry Ahead

20:41 Bird Phobia Banter

21:19 Documentary Media Swap

22:22 Mississippi Kite Swoops

28:19 Do Birds Recognize Faces

31:12 Photo IDs and Backyard Hawks

32:34 Chicken Show Family Lore

33:00 Wrap Up and Support

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

References from the Episode:

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Amanda Raymond


• Emily Morrison


• Kyle McCray


• Justine


• Emily Hardy


• Ash


• Vince W


• Julie S.


• Heather Ragusa


• Autoclave


• Dorien VD


• Scott Beyer


• Jessie Reder


• J0HNTR0Y


• Jeannette Napoleon


• Cullyn R


• Erica Bee


• Elizabeth P


• Rachel Reina


• Letila


• Katrina Barnum-Huckins


• Suzanne Phillips


• Venus Rebholz


• Jacob Taber


• Brian Kimball


• Kristina Gotfredsen


• Timothy Parker


• Steven Boyles


• Chris Skupien


• Chelsea B


• Avishai Barnoy


• Hunter Reardon

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

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#053 Rebroadcast

This week, Melissa and Jam revisit one of their fav episodes on the topic of mosquitos. What is DEET? What part does it play in repelling mosquitos? How do repellants repel mosquitos in the first place? Is it just straight witchcraft? Let's do it.

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

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References from this episode

1. Staph Retreat - Radiolab - WYNC


2. https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/rachel-carson-silent-spring.html


3. https://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/reregistration/fs_PC-080301_1-Apr-98.pdf


4. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-it-true-that-the-deet/


5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24892824/


6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11693870/


7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26827259/


8. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31167-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982219311674%3Fshowall%3Dtrue


9. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31167-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982219311674%3Fshowall%3Dtrue


10. https://cen.acs.org/biological-chemistry/biochemistry/does-DEET-fend-off-malaria/97/web/2019/10

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Amanda Raymond


• Emily Morrison


• Kyle McCray


• Justine


• Emily Hardy


• Ash


• Vince W


• Julie S.


• Heather Ragusa


• Autoclave


• Dorien VD


• Scott Beyer


• Jessie Reder


• J0HNTR0Y


• Jeannette Napoleon


• Cullyn R


• Erica Bee


• Elizabeth P


• Rachel Reina


• Letila


• Katrina Barnum-Huckins


• Suzanne Phillips


• Venus Rebholz


• Jacob Taber


• Brian Kimball


• Kristina Gotfredsen


• Timothy Parker


• Steven Boyles


• Chris Skupien


• Chelsea B


• Avishai Barnoy


• Hunter Reardon

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Birds fly all the time. We see it constantly. But how does it actually work? Is it just "Bernoulli’s" principle? Is the air pushing up? Are the wings pushing down? And what’s happening at the molecular level when a bird takes off? Let’s talk about feathers, airflow, collisions between air molecules, and why the way flight is usually explained might not actually be the whole story.

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Timestamps:

• 00:00 — The Question
  Have you ever actually wondered how birds fly? A kid’s question sparks the episode.


• 01:00 — “Isn’t this physics?”
  Why a chemistry podcast is talking about aerodynamics.


• 02:00 — A disclaimer about flight explanations
  Melissa explains why common explanations of bird flight can be misleading.


• 04:00 — The weird analogy that starts it all
  What does oobleck (cornstarch and water) have to do with bird wings?


• 06:00 — Air isn’t nothing
  Thinking about air as billions of tiny molecules interacting with wings.


• 09:00 — The classic explanation of lift
  Bernoulli’s principle and why it’s often used to explain flight.


• 13:00 — Why that explanation isn’t the whole story
  What’s missing from the “air moves faster over the top” idea.


• 18:00 — Collisions at the molecular level
  What air molecules are actually doing when a wing moves through them.


• 22:00 — Pushing air downward
  Why deflecting air matters for creating lift.


• 26:00 — Wing shape and angle
  How airfoil shape and angle of attack change the behavior of airflow.


• 30:00 — Flapping vs gliding
  Why bird flight isn’t the same as airplane flight.


• 34:00 — Turbulence and airflow patterns
  What’s happening behind the wing as the bird moves through the air.


• 37:00 — Bringing chemistry into the picture
  How thinking about molecular motion helps make sense of the physics.


• 39:00 — Final recap
  So… what actually keeps birds in the air?

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

References from the Episode:

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Amanda Raymond


• Emily Morrison


• Kyle McCray


• Justine


• Emily Hardy


• Ash


• Vince W


• Julie S.


• Heather Ragusa


• Autoclave


• Dorien VD


• Scott Beyer


• Jessie Reder


• J0HNTR0Y


• Jeannette Napoleon


• Cullyn R


• Erica Bee


• Elizabeth P


• Rachel Reina


• Letila


• Katrina Barnum-Huckins


• Suzanne Phillips


• Venus Rebholz


• Jacob Taber


• Brian Kimball


• Kristina Gotfredsen


• Timothy Parker


• Steven Boyles


• Chris Skupien


• Chelsea B


• Avishai Barnoy


• Hunter Reardon

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this bonus episode, we host a rematch of our game “Fun Fact or Fake Factoid” with Claire and Jam, using stricter rules: each claim must be entirely true or false as worded, and the winner earns a treat. We test statements about pregnancy-related brain changes, koala fingerprints, bird body temperature, whether every fig contains a dead wasp, how egg markings form, woodpecker tongues wrapping around their skulls, unique parrot pigments, bald eagles’ ability to take off from the ground, black bear maternal instinct, and whether red bird color is structural rather than pigment-based.

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

00:00 Rematch Setup

00:42 Rules and Stakes

02:46 Pregnancy Brain Changes

05:55 Koala Fingerprints

07:48 Bird Body Temperature Myth

11:26 Fig Wasp Debate

15:33 Egg Markings Explained

16:53 Egg Pigment Mystery

17:57 Woodpecker Tongue Wrap

19:13 Tie Breaker Rules

20:26 Parrot Pigment Class

21:18 Eagle Takeoff Myth

24:27 Bear Instinct Debate

25:19 Bird Color Science

29:54 Rematch And Submissions

31:21 Support And Credits

References from the Episode:

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Amanda Raymond


• Emily Morrison


• Kyle McCray


• Justine


• Emily Hardy


• Ash


• Vince W


• Julie S.


• Heather Ragusa


• Autoclave


• Dorien VD


• Scott Beyer


• Jessie Reder


• J0HNTR0Y


• Jeannette Napoleon


• Cullyn R


• Erica Bee


• Elizabeth P


• Rachel Reina


• Letila


• Katrina Barnum-Huckins


• Suzanne Phillips


• Venus Rebholz


• Jacob Taber


• Brian Kimball


• Kristina Gotfredsen


• Timothy Parker


• Steven Boyles


• Chris Skupien


• Chelsea B


• Avishai Barnoy


• Hunter Reardon

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

MRIs are loud. They’re huge. They’re magnetic. But what are they actually doing? This week, we bring Claire back to help us connect the dots between NMR (yes, organic chem flashbacks) and MRI. How does a technique built on tiny hydrogen protons turn into a 3D image of your brain? How can it tell the difference between tissue and fluid? Why can’t you bring metal anywhere near the machine?

We ask:

• What are your protons doing inside an MRI?

• How does “magnetic resonance” become an image?

• Why does oxygenated blood matter?

• And how did anyone figure this out in the first place?

If you’ve ever had an MRI, or just wondered how we can see inside the body without radiation or surgery, this episode pulls back the curtain.

Listen in and rethink what’s happening inside that giant magnet.

00:00 MRI Episode Kickoff

01:11 Meet Claire Again

02:27 PhD Candidate Explained

03:44 NMR Basics Begin

04:33 Protons And Magnets

06:46 RF Pulse And Signal

11:16 Hydrogen Everywhere

13:35 Reading NMR Peaks

16:02 Matrix And Practice

18:31 Jam Summarizes NMR

20:44 Why MRI Not NMR

22:45 Spin And Isotopes

29:02 MRI Uses Body Water

30:37 Tissue Contrast And T1

33:38 Resolution Limits

34:25 MRI Resolution Limits

35:34 From NMR to Images

36:50 K Space and Gradients

41:30 Voxels and 3D Views

44:05 Contrast and Clinical Uses

49:47 Research Possibilities

51:11 Functional MRI Explained

56:14 MRI Safety and Magnet Strength

58:00 Helium and Heavy Machines

01:02:43 Science Boundaries and Wrap Up

Support this podcast on Patreon

Buy Podcast Merch and Apparel

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

References from the Episode:

Thanks to our monthly supporters

• Amanda Raymond


• Emily Morrison


• Kyle McCray


• Justine


• Emily Hardy


• Ash


• Vince W


• Julie S.


• Heather Ragusa


• Autoclave


• Dorien VD


• Scott Beyer


• Jessie Reder


• J0HNTR0Y


• Jeannette Napoleon


• Cullyn R


• Erica Bee


• Elizabeth P


• Rachel Reina


• Letila


• Katrina Barnum-Huckins


• Suzanne Phillips


• Venus Rebholz


• Jacob Taber


• Brian Kimball


• Kristina Gotfredsen


• Timothy Parker


• Steven Boyles


• Chris Skupien


• Chelsea B


• Avishai Barnoy


• Hunter Reardon

Check out our website at chemforyourlife.com

Watch our episodes on YouTube

Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @ChemForYourLife

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.