Reactions

George and Andrew violently disagree on whether brining meat matters. George thinks brining is totally unnecessary; Andrew thinks George is a heathen. They resolve their dispute with the help of some chemistry, a blind tasting, and DC’s very own Roaming Rooster.

Sugar free gummies are delicious, low on calories, and… technically laxatives? Reactions producer Andrew dives into the science to figure out how he can make delicious sugar free gummies without the uncomfortable side effects.

Could the future of data storage be DNA? It’s the original format after all, storing the information needed to build every living thing. and it has a handful of qualities that would make it perfect to store all the digital information in our world. With recent advances in DNA sequencing and DNA printing, it’s technically possible.

If your coffee is too bitter, add a pinch of salt. If your salad isn’t sour enough, add a pinch of salt. If your beer is too bitter, add a pinch of salt. Salt has a seemingly magical ability to enhance good flavors and dampen bad ones. Come along on George’s epic journey into the wilds of salt science.

In 1997 there were 432 new patents for herbicides, by 2009 there were only 65. The development of broad spectrum glyphosate and “Roundup Ready crops” was a game changer that worked so well people basically stopped looking for new herbicides. That is until the weeds started fighting back.

Buckyballs, nanotubes, and graphene sheets have been the way of the future for *decades* but so far, the science just hasn’t lived up to the hype. Yet there are new carbon structures that pop up about once a year claiming to be the next big thing. So… how far are we actually from carbon structures revolutionizing the world and finally bringing us jetpacks?

Foodies know that coffee and chocolate go well together. But add garlic to the mix and you get a taste sensation that *absolutely* broke my brain. I dig into the science of flavor pairings, especially when it comes to the famous (infamous?) combo of wine and cheese.

Can a medicine cause a war? When chemists isolated a new compound from the bark of a South American tree, they had no idea they were changing world history, and cocktails, forever.

What happens to the space debris a little closer to earth, all the stuff that we humans have sent into space and just left there to orbit us? The unusual environment of space means it breaks down and degrades differently than it would down here on earth. But… how long does it take to break down? Does it all break down?

Blood from a lamb, into a human – this sounds like a horror movie, but it’s actually the first recorded blood transfusion… four hundred years ago. In this video we look at how far we’ve come, and the century-long quest for the Holy Grail of transfusion medicine: synthetic blood.

Have you ever wanted to make your own bourbon? Don’t! The process might be relatively simple- heat a fermented liquid and keep only the boiled alcohol – but it is dangerous and illegal without a license. This video discusses how to separate one type of liquid from a slurry of others through boiling points and the intermolecular forces that influence them.

Most people absolutely love their gas stoves and prefer them to electric. But these gas ranges are polluting our homes.

Are you a grade B maple syrup fan? Well, you can’t get it anymore. To understand why, we have to look at the science behind the whole process, from sap to syrup. On the way, we’ll cover hydrometers, reverse osmosis, boiling point elevation, and George’s dislike of Maillard reaction diagrams.

Sure, drinking toilet water *sounds* gross, but with the right cleaning methods we can turn the dirtiest water you can think of back into clean, safe, refreshing drinking water. In this video we’ll walk through how humans have cleaned water over centuries, and how we’ve managed to get so good at it that we can turn wastewater into a refreshing drink again!

How do you demolish a massive building – in the middle of a populated city – in a matter of seconds… safely? Counterintuitively, you do it with explosives. We explore how chemistry, engineering, and more than a little artistry come together to safely bring down massive structures.

Water is weird… really weird. We’re gonna dive into the controversial chemistry and heated debates around the science of what gives water it’s super unusual properties, and maybe bust a popular water myth along the way.

Anhydrous ammonia can cause headline-grabbing disasters, but it’s also responsible for 50% of the food on your table. It all boils down to nitrogen, and the process of turning the inert dinitrogen in our air into useful fertilizer. So what is this stuff, how is it used, and how is something so dangerous also so vital?

Is it worth it to put premium gas into your car? And what’s even the difference between the regular and premium gas? It all has to do with the octane rating, which we’ll explain with fire, ice-cream, and a bit of chemistry trivia.

Think hibernation is just a nap bears take during the wintertime? It’s way more complicated–and climate based. With climate change happening, how will hibernating animals be affected and will animals who don’t hibernate now begin to?

You learned what an electron is in school… or DID YOU? You probably learned that it’s a “negatively charged particle” but there’s *so* much more to these weird, wild little particles than that.