Science
How do odor absorbers work?
In this episode, Melissa and Jam explore the fascinating world of odor absorbers, focusing on how products like Febreze work to eliminate unpleasant smells. They delve into the chemistry behind these ...
How do odor absorbers work?
Science •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hey y'all, for this month's rebroadcast, I'm gonna give you a sneak peek into what I'm
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gonna be teaching next time, Gemini Record.
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But I've chosen how to order absorbers work as a little sneak preview, let you wonder,
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what could that possibly be leading me into?
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Hmm, I don't really know, but I do know that that episode was very interesting.
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It's been a long time since we did that one.
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And definitely fascinating.
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So, yeah, it'll be very interesting to check out whether or not we have a follow-up,
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which sounds like we do.
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So, yeah, even more reason to check it out.
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Absolutely.
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So I hope you enjoy this month's rebrelease.
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Happy listening.
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Happy listening.
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Hey, I'm Melissa.
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I'm Jam.
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And I'm a chemist.
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And I'm not.
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And welcome to Chemistry for Your Life.
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The podcasts to understand the chemistry of your everyday life.
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Okay, Jam, are you ready for our topic today?
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I think so.
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Let me check.
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Yeah, I'm ready.
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So, we're gonna be talking about how odor absorbers work.
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Okay, interesting.
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The ones you put in your shoes are actually like the ones you spray in for breeze.
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Oh, okay, gotcha.
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Gotcha.
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So this is a specific type of odor absorbers.
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I want to do the kind like you put in your shoes at some point.
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But this one I think works differently.
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In terms of like usage in my life, I've definitely used for breeze
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100,000 times more than I've used the shoe ones.
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I'll tell you that much.
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Well, interestingly, this episode was inspired because I have the ones that you put in your shoes
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for my ice skates.
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Oh, nice.
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And I was talking to my friend Amber and I was saying, I wonder how these work.
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And then I decided to dive into it.
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But I found this other one about for breeze much quicker and easier.
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And I was very excited by it.
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So I switched gears.
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So.
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Nice.
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And the other reason I was excited by it is because a long time ago,
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I was listening to an audiobook, which I think was about habits.
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And they talked about how originally for breeze was a super effective odor eliminator with
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no replacement smell.
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It was just the odor eliminator.
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And they added in the artificial smells because of something about the habits that people had.
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And the original product didn't sell very well at all.
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Once they added in the artificial smells, it flew off the shelf.
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Weird.
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And that blew my mind because to that point, I had always thought that for breeze
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was just covering up smells.
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But actually, it's not.
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And from that moment on, I wanted to know what the chemistry was.
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And that's how I got started down this path.
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Okay.
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That's interesting.
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I wish I could kind of get a hold of the old one,
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like the just eliminator one to not have a replacement smell.
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Not, I mean, I get what people want when there were places it was a smell.
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But just for the curiosity, I'd love to see how something like that works
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and test it on stuff to see where it'd be like, okay, there was a smell.
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And now there's not.
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You know, I did go to the breeze website to see if I could find that.
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And it seems like they now have one with no
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artificial scents.
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And I want to try it.
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Nice.
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It might be that they had to use the other ones to get popular.
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And now they're bringing back the original because they can.
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Yeah, now to the ahead of their time a little bit, because people now might be like way into that.
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And then in the 90s or whenever that was,
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people were not.
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They're like, I'm sorry, I want things to smell good.
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Not just not bad.
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Thank you.
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Exactly.
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I have a distinct memory of the breeze like getting big in the 90s.
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Like very distinct memory.
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I don't know why that stuck with me.
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I was not worried about cleaning house whenever I was a kiddo.
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But and the smells of things.
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In fact, I was contributing to the opposite most of the time.
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But I have distinct memory of the
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for free course was coming out of nowhere to so many commercials out of nowhere.
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Well, I really don't like the smell of
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for breeze replacement smells.
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So I would be so into this.
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Okay, so let's go all the way back to when we learned about smell,
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which I think we talked about that in the episode about why things smell bad.
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So we talked about how we have old factory receptors.
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And we called it the old factory.
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Oh, yeah, the good old factory.
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So we have molecules that are able to vaporize.
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And those molecules, the vaporized molecules,
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the ones that turn into gaseous molecules,
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come up and hit our nose and hit our odor receptors.
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And that's how we smell things.
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And the odor receptors send a signal to your brain.
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Got it. Right.
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So there are kind of two classes of odor eliminators.
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Okay.
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One, truly chemically alters the odor.
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And the other is what I call cover up smell.
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So the cover up smell essentially just puts so much of another
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odor in the air that it overwhelms your odor receptors.
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So you can't smell the bad smell anymore.
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The other kind actually chemically alters it.
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Nice. Okay.
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This is a thing I've definitely wondered about.
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So a cover up would be a gacandal
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or just a good smelling spray with none of the actual absorbers in it.
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Right.
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The other kind, the odor absorbers, in this case,
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in the case of a breeze and a lot of other sprays,
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there's what's known as cyclodextrin.
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Okay.
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And cyclodextrin is a sugar-like compound, but it makes a ring
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with a hole in the middle.
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Kind of like a donut.
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Or the shape is really the exact shape is if you take an ice cream cone and you cut off
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the pointy part at the bottom.
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So you just have a ring that is larger at the top and smaller at the bottom.
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It's open all the way down.
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And much like soap, the inside of the ring has intermolecular forces that bond with
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certain types of organic compounds, a kind with no polarity.
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It's a nonpolar bonding.
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So odors can go and sit in that ring.
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The intermolecular forces will hold them in place and then they will not vaporize into the air.
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Okay.
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So they have chemically altered the ability for these molecules to go into the air.
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They're held in place there and the odor is quite literally absorbed into the ring.
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Interesting.
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So the inside is nonpolar.
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Right.
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Okay.
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And the outside is polar.
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I think the outside is polar, although I most of the resources I read talked about the hole
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on the inside being nonpolar, also called hydrophobic.
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Right.
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We're right.
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Got it.
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So here's the thing about this.
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This type of chemistry is actually very, very common.
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And I can't believe we haven't talked about it yet at this point.
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Uh-huh.
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This is what's known as host guest chemistry.
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So the cyclodextrin is the host and the odor molecules come and sit inside
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and they are the guests.
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Got it.
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That is used all over the place.
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In fact, I even took a class on this type of chemistry is called super molecular chemistry.
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So that's big molecules that will host other things, not always.
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Sometimes polymers are classed in with super molecular, but there's a whole section about host guest
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chemistry and super molecular chemistry.
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Interesting.
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When I was younger, I did research designing a host molecule that would capture arsenic.
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They use these to collect ions.
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There are certain types of molecules that will specifically bond with different sized ions.
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The cavity will be bigger or smaller to go with different ions.
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It's used for all kinds of stuff.
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They can use it in medicines.
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It's awesome.
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Wow.
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That's crazy, especially because I think for most of us hearing the phrase like host guest chemistry,
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with these most of concern to us whenever we're hosting a party and we want to make sure we have
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a really good vibe with our guests.
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Were you just holding onto that whole time?
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Yeah, I was just like, that's so funny because you could just write that in his paper and
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hand it to somebody.
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In the first way, they would interpret it would be about like social chemistry.
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You know what I mean?
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Yeah.
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Because it's the hosting guest.
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Well, in my mind, the first place I would go to would be this,
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host guest chemistry.
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That's so funny.
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I'd be like a test to see if somebody is an artist not a chemist with one phrase.
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Exactly.
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Sometimes you will do that same thing with unionized versus unionized.
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How do you read that?
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Which almost works.
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But I don't know that I ever talk about things being unionized.
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You know?
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Yeah.
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But I do talk about host guest chemistry.
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So this is a better version of that joke.
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But nobody would get it except for chemists and people who listen to this podcast.
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Yeah.
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So in this case, this host guest chemistry is responsible for eliminating odors by quite literally
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having a cavity or a hole that perfectly fits in nonpolar odor molecules.
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And this exact same molecule cyclodextrin is used not only for odor molecules.
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But for any nonpolar compound.
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So they're using it right now, testing using it in a polymer to make a filtration system where
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you can capture nonpolar organic molecules that are hanging out and contaminating water.
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Wow.
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Isn't that cool?
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So I envision a polymer with these just embedded in it and you can run it through water
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and it'll capture and hold in place all those nonpolar molecules that shouldn't be in your water.
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Yeah.
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Interesting.
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Like oil spills or something.
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Yeah, because water's polar and then it should be like so perfectly selecting the right things
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and leaving behind the things that don't matter.
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Interesting.
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Right.
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And in my textbook that I had from the class, they talk about cyclodextrin in a lot of different
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places, but sometimes to hold things in place, they'll have a surface.
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When they were talking about a gold surface that had cyclodextrin rings all on top of it.
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And then they could use that as an anchor point to hold any kind of molecule with a nonpolar
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tail that could fit in there.
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So the nonpolar tail would come and fit in and then now you've basically created a surface that
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has whatever kind of molecule you want sitting on top or a surface that can capture molecules.
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It's really cool.
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Interesting.
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That's so weird, do you?
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That's just kind of crazy.
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I know.
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It's really interesting.
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I almost would imagine it like a surface covered with tires or something.
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And then there's things that fit just perfectly in the tire so then you can hold
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giant balls on top of the tires or something else that you want to sit in so you can just cover
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a layer of a surface in something else or to capture something or whatever, which I think is
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really cool.
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Yeah, dang, weird dude.
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That's so crazy.
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It kind of feels like a little bit like not chemistry for a second,
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probably because it feels like almost like tiny physics or something.
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I don't know what else you call it, but like because we're talking about like these little
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things that fit inside these things and it's like just kind of weird because it feels because
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there's these shapes we're talking about and things that fit in it.
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It feels a little bit not as much chemistry as some of the other topics do.
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It's like, yes.
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Kind of easy to imagine too.
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Yes, so easy to imagine, so natural and instinctive.
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Yeah.
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You're like, okay, I understand things that fit in other things and stick there.
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What you said is important.
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It's not just about there's the shape and size like you talked about.
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So you have to have a cavity or a hole that will fit the molecule,
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but also then it has to be the right kind of molecule that would interact because water could
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go in and out of this and it would not want to bind to it.
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It would be afraid of those surfaces.
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It's hydrophobic.
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So water could move in and out and it would be fine, but something that was nonpolar would
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move in and be held or if something was nonpolar and giant, it might not be able to get into that
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cavity.
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And so then it would not be captured either.
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So it has to, you have to look at both of those things when you're looking at
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host guest chemistry.
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Is do I have the right type of intermolecular forces, the return of intermolecular forces?
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And do I have the right size and shape cavity?
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We have to look at both of those things.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I think this type of chemistry is a lot easier to imagine because they use a lot of
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phrases we understand.
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Like we know about cavities.
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We've seen cavities.
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We know about holes and things.
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Another type of host guest interaction is a tweezer so it has two long arms and can just come
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and hold it.
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A different kind of host.
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So it's things that we've seen and it's based off of real life things that we use a lot.
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It's much easier to grasp than it is to grasp the basics of an atom or the way electrons move.
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We don't have as many examples of those in real life but we do have examples of
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putting something into something else.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Exactly.
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Hey, Melissa.
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Hey, Jim.
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You know how we're both bad at drinking water and the amount that we should be drinking?
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Yeah, absolutely.
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But I've wanted to work on that.
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I've also thought about the things you talked about in the podcast about how many things are
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in our tap water.
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Yeah, definitely.
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PFAS and different things that we really kind of want to filter out.
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We've talked about how water filters work but I've never, I've not made any moves to change
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anything about this in my life.
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Well, I've got just the thing for you.
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like we've talked about before.
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They're specifically designed to combat chemicals like PFAS in water.
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Wow.
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That's perfect.
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It's great.
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And you could even use this ultra-peer water for your coffee.
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And I know you use special water.
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Nice.
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So Mason and I have one of these, the countertop version because we're renting so
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But we still wanted to have a water purifier.
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We used to use those old plastic pictures and oftentimes I would fill it up and then go to
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It only took a few minutes on Saturday morning.
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The instructions were really clear and it has this nice, classy glass picture
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Interesting.
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So that's it.
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And it may seem kind of simple that, okay, all that happens is a breeze traps these,
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the cyclodexer and infabrease traps these odor molecules.
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But that's simple to you because you've been listening to chemistry this whole lat
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past year and a half.
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So you know what intermolecular forces are.
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So we're not talking about- we don't have to talk about those.
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You know about polarity, you know all that stuff.
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So that is kind of your foundations have built up about chemistry to where this topic
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seems really simple.
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Yeah, yeah.
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It really does.
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But it's also kind of cool because I think thinking about how could something actually
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not just cover up an odor but eliminate it in a way, I think I thought,
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maybe that'd be so hard.
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You'd have to, hasn't it kind of go in to all these molecules and like change what they are,
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break them apart.
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But in this case, it's like no, we'll like, envelop it and keep it from.
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It still exists inside of this thing.
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But whenever it enters our nose, we are receptors or whatever aren't
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engaging with the actual odor molecule so we don't smell it anymore.
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And good.
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I was going to say I'm not sure if it even gets to our odors,
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I think it might make it to where it can't vaporize so it can't even get to our nose.
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Oh, there we go.
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Yeah, so it can't even, yeah, so it can't be in the air in the same way and be like a tiny
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vapor that we can smell.
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But just that idea that it's doing it that way is kind of cool and sneaky, I guess.
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It kind of feels like it'd be way harder to have something that goes in and kind of like
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busts up all of these odor molecules or chemically altars them at the very like
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breaking apart the atoms or something like that, that level.
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But instead of just like covering it up and like holding it seems like a really sneaky
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way to do that and way more like way easier to wrap my head around.
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It's like, oh my gosh, that's so perfect that that kind of like,
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would you say cyclo dextrin?
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Yep, cyclo dextrin.
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That even exists already is like so perfect.
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This one was like, hey, wait a second.
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Why don't we get these guys over here to do that that already just exist in the world?
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I hope is so exciting, so clever.
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I love chemistry.
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So let me sum that up sort of because I think one way to think about it would be that
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and this is probably intentional.
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The fact that cyclo is in the name of the molecule, cyclo dextrin.
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Like all these little tornadoes are out there and they only have eyes for
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the type of molecule that is also nonpolar like the inside of the cyclone, the inside of the
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tornado.
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And so obviously we can harness that specifically to try to get at odor molecules that we know
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are nonpolar also.
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But really they are just like any tornado is just trying to destroy whatever.
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And in this case, it'd be only nonpolar things.
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So it could be things that have an odor that we want to get rid of or things that don't
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or could be used to purposefully filter other things out about this stuff.
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But in general, it's just these little tornadoes that you can unleash onto some nonpolar
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group of molecules.
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And if they can fit in there, then you'll be good.
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For instance, like a tornado can't really do much damage like a mountain.
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It's just too big.
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Yeah, it's just too big.
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It's like kind of like mountains are like, okay.
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All right.
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So yeah, like there's no like no relation at all.
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But then all of us are like tornadoes are huge.
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That's a serious problem.
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And we're worried about it.
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It's so small.
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Yeah.
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The way I thought about it, that's a good visual image,
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especially the part about the mountain being too big.
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I kind of thought about it like convicts and they're trying to escape or something.
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And it just is a bunch of people grabbing them and holding them and they can't go.
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And they're only looking for convicts.
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They're not looking for anything else.
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And it's just some really big dudes that can grab the people and hold them in place kind of.
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Then they can't do any more damage.
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You're not able to escape and do bad things like make your nose smell bad anymore.
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They're trapped and held in place neutralized by someone who is bigger and stronger
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and looking for them specifically.
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You're right.
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That makes sense.
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Especially because like a tornado,
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it breaks down because a tornado destroys stuff or just like spin it around and it flings it.
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So that doesn't really work for our purposes here.
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Just the idea, the picture can remind because of the shape of the molecule of like
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the perforated.
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Yes, that is the perfect shape.
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It is very tornado-y.
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It holds it in there because of intermolecular forces.
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I wanted to make sure I said the HPs of it or whatever.
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Did it miss anything?
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What else?
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I don't think so.
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I think that's right.
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It has to be the right shape to hold something and it has to have the right kinds of intermolecular
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forces.
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Like I said before, we kind of skimmed over that stuff with intermolecular forces,
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but we talked in depth about this specific type of intermolecular forces
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on the very first episode on how does soap work.
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So you can go check that out and learn about intermolecular forces if you're a little bit like,
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wait, but how does it hold it in there?
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That's how.
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And then we had three other like this kind of series in a row later.
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There were different types of intermolecular forces in each episode, right?
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Yes.
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Geckos and whatnot.
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So that's it.
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That's how some odor eliminators work, simply by holding on to those odor molecules and not letting
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them run away.
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They're very cool.
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And then I can't get in the air to be in a vapor form to be smelled by us in the first place.
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Right. Exactly.
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And that same type of technology is used in other areas in research a lot already.
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And they're specifically looking at using that as a way to filter contaminated water sources with
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nonpolar compounds such as oil spills or other organic molecules that are nonpolar that are
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in water that shouldn't be.
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Hmm.
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Yes.
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You know, there could be like a lot of uses for that.
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Oh, 100%.
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There are a lot of uses for this already.
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So that's really cool and exciting that that same not only type of technology,
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but the exact molecule is one that I had learned about and heard about before.
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And I would be very surprised if host guest chemistry did not come back up again.
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I'm sure it will because it is so applicable and isn't so many places.
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You jump right into explaining, Jim, so I didn't have the opportunity to tease you
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with a little fun fact or opinion that I have about this.
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Okay.
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Do we still get it?
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Even though I didn't reach terms and conditions before I signed up.
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Yes, I definitely.
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You earned it.
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So, you know, it's about that, not about the fact that I didn't get to tease you.
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But one of the resources I used and I used these a lot is the ACS reaction videos.
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American Chemical Society has a series of videos about the reactions of chemistry in everyday life.
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And they pose the question,
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how do you think you can have odor absorbers that absorb odors that also have a smell in them?
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Uh-huh.
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Oh, huh.
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And I have a theory.
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But before I give my theory, I want you and everyone to stop and think and try to come up with
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your best guest. And then I'll tell you what my best guest is. And I didn't find any
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factual information about this anywhere. So this is just my best guest. But I want you guys to
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think about it. Use your thinking critically. What I know about chemistry skills to see what you can come up with.
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Okay. So I used my imagination brain and I have just one theory that came to mind that I
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sort of stuck on. And I think I could maybe try to go for the others if I tried. But here's what
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really came to mind that I thought seemed the most simple. If you could make the good smell
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that you're trying to replace the bad smell with, if you can make the good smell,
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molecule be polar. Yes, that was one of my theories too. Is if it's polar, it will not fit in.
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Yeah. It won't stay in. And it wouldn't be attracted or whatever like it wouldn't.
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Right. It could come in and pass out and it would be no problem just like other polar items would.
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Yeah. The other thought is that it might be too big.
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Oh, right. Or just make it, it could even be non-polar. But just be too large to fit in the cyclone.
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That was my theory. Yes. Is if it's too big, it couldn't fit and it wouldn't have a smell or
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if it's polar. I don't know. I've never done smell chemistry. I don't know how to
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molecularly engineer smell chemistry. I think there are smells that are molecules that have a smell.
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I guess I should say that are polar. So I would suspect that they either utilize that or they
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utilize the size or maybe a combination of both depending on what center going for. But that
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also could make it limiting because if it is a smell they want to have but it's hard to get
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in those two categories that could be a challenge. So that's why people and companies like
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Fabriz hire chemists to work on stuff like that. Can you imagine if like when you looked at the
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chemistry and you try to find either some like polar smell molecules that smell good or some
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smell molecules that are larger too large to be to fit into the cyclodectron. What if like
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the list is a kind of weird hodgepodge of what smells like like okay so we've got cinnamon.
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We've got hibiscus and mint. That's all that can make it work chemistry wise. It's just like
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yeah just like some random ones. Nobody wants their house to smell like that. Yeah it's like okay great
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we've got cinnamon for like that works well for like the fall and like Christmas time holiday time
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it's just like be funny to see what it'd be like if you had to be limited to only a few flavors
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and learning these like laws of nature that only allow you order a place with certain smells and
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it's like man okay however it likes me I guess this is where we're at yeah that's funny great well I'm
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glad that you you thought through that and came up with something that was really exciting and I
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thought it was fun on the video they posed that question and never answered it so I wanted us to
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spend some time thinking about it. I think that's great. I think they're planning to or did they
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just want to get people thinking. I think they just wanted to get people thinking and they didn't go
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as much into the host guest chemistry stuff so I think it might have been a little bit harder
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from that episode to come up with it but I thought it was a really fun thing to do. So that's
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cool I like that. Like a little chemistry riddle you know. Yeah. Solven mysteries. Is it time to talk
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about something happy that happened during our weeks? Yeah absolutely it's time do you have
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something happy you want to share? Yes I do a small thing so I as you and the listeners most of
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whom probably know I love coffee and I roast coffee just for myself and a few friends not like
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crazy legit but it is I'm a home coffee roaster and I have had a coffee for like several months now
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that I bought a lot of like 40 pounds of and just this past week got
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low enough on that coffee whereas time to start looking at different coffees again.
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Just like everything fruits you know investibles their seasons for coffee and for different parts
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of the world that season is different and so at any time you look and also just the fact that
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things have to ship from you know different countries to the US and stuff. At any time you look
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you never know what coffees might be available it's kind of a surprise. Sometimes it's a bad
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surprise because you're looking for something kind of specific and it's not going to be available
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but it's just always changing all the time so any of the places I look to buy coffee from
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there the coffees they have available are always going to be different varying from season to season
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and so I went through the process which is sometimes stressful but other time is really fun this time
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it was fun to look for what coffee I was going to order next for myself and the people who
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I roast for kind of some neighbors and friends and stuff and I got some I'm pretty excited about
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one that I've liked in the past that was available again that I got again. That's exciting. Yeah
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you're like oh I really love this but it was out of stock so it's now it's back. Yes now it's back
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and then I got a coffee that is a I got a coffee that's a little bit unusual it's from Columbia
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but it's what's called honey processed which is a little different than it's just not the normal way
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for Colombian coffees to be processed they leave some of the fruit on while it's drying in the sun
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and it has as normally a process you might see in parts of Africa but not necessarily in Colombia
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so that's pretty interesting and then the last one is a decaf coffee that's decafinated through
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a slightly different process than I normally buy and it's called mountain water processed and
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some pretty excited to see how those go I don't drink a lot of decaf but two people who I
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roast for do and so I'm just kind of interested to see how those turn out and how exciting you
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got some experiments kind of going you're trying new things test and stuff out. Yep so I'm
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pumped about that and I've had this coffee for this other one that I'm almost out of for like a
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long time such also just kind of cool to move on and drink with the other stuff so how about you
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what's your week been like what's the thing happy this happened? Well my week has been kind of
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crazy actually because this past weekend we had my mom's memorial and due to COVID and my sister
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lives out of town so there's hurricanes to be contended with where she lives which kind of impacted
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us you know because of all that it's been really hard to find a place where we can safely honor my mom
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and a time and so it finally all came together where we were able to honor her this past weekend
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and that was really sweet and special it was very hectic and overwhelming and a lot of things
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to prepare for but one thing I got to do that I had really wanted to do was sometimes people will
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make little garden cakes out of fondant vegetables yeah and I saw that maybe two years ago and I was
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like I have to make this for my mom's birthday and then she passed away before I got the chance to do
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it so that was what I wanted to do for her memorial with my family afterwards is have that cake that I
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had always planned to make for her sort of as an opportunity to make one more cake for my mom and so
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she grew and vegetables in her garden so I specifically picked vegetables that she grew and made
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about a fondant which was something new that I haven't done before and yeah it was really really fun
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and so we had that and some of my former students they're now friends of mine Kristen and James
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I'm gonna give them a shout out made us a full meal to eat after the memorial it was so nice because
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I had no plan I texted my family I've got a plan for breakfast I have a dessert afterwards and I
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have no plan for dinner so do not ask me what I'm doing because I don't have a plan yeah and they
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just took care of it they made us a delicious brisket mac and cheese is so nice so that's
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way cool that's sort of that's a tough meal to make to it's not like just like hey we threw a
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casserole together it's like that's some time and some energy oh yeah and they made cinnamon rolls
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for breakfast the next day it was really so thoughtful and exactly what we needed met a physical
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need that we had not had the capacity to think about and so it was just really sweet and really special
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so those are some highlights to something that was kind of bittersweet some silver linings and some
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cool things that came out of it so that's awesome yeah that's cool that's really cool thank
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you so that was my week is pretty pretty hectic pretty crazy kind of challenging at some points but
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also really nice to have some of those happier things I think because some time has passed you know
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it's easier to maybe spend some more time celebrating it in less time morning so it's kind of
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beautiful in that way yeah I think that's awesome all right well thanks so much for also jam was
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there at the memorial safely social distancing with the mask on so thanks for coming to that jam
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absolutely thanks for coming here today to learn about how otters work otters absorber is I guess work
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did thanks for teaching us very fast knitting topic and these topics like this are some of the
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coolest ones come from you guys so if you have ideas of chemistry and your everyday life
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think you think might have a chemistry explanation to some mystery that occurs please let us know
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also helps us to be able to share chemistry with even more people this episode of chemistry for
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your life was created by Melissa Kleene and jermaminson references for this episode can be found
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in our show notes or on our website jermaminson is our producer and we like to give a special
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thanks to a hefner and in no who reviewed this episode do you know that the human brain only uses
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carbs and ketones for fuel or that we have 27 bones in each wrist and hand i'm dr. steve selvin
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