Inculcating Scientific Temperament

Your stomach will explode if you eat mentos and drink coke at the same time. Ever heard of this? Is that true? Let's find out!  You must have seen a very famous video on social media as a fun science experiment in which the moment mentos mint is dropped in a bottle containing coke, an explosion occurs. Why does that happen? Does that same reaction occur in your stomach too? Ever wondered about the chemistry behind this? Let’s unravel the concept behind this.  Mentos gyeser What are the constituents of coca-cola?  1. Water 2. Carbon dioxide  3. Sugar or sweetener  4. Caffeine  5. Caramel color  6. Phosphoric acid  7. Natural flavors  Coca-cola is nothing but carbonated water and a mix of several chemicals. Carbon dioxide gas is pumped into the soda and the bottle is sealed under high pressure. Once you open the soda bottle, the dissolved gas tries to escape (that is what makes you burp) and gives that pleasant sound (Ah! The fizz).  Firs...

Other than the iconic footprints of our astronauts, there is yet another thing they left on the lunar surface. Any guesses what it can be? Many of you must not have guessed it right. POOP. Yes, you heard me right. Astronauts who were a part of six Apollo missions have left 96 bags of poop, and other human waste (bags of urine, vomit, food waste) on the moon. And guess what? NASA is planning to go to the lunar surface in just a few years and get that shit back to earth.   First picture taken by Neil Armstrong during Apollo 11. Bag with human waste on the lunar surface Source: https://www.workingonthemoon.com/WOTM-JettisonBag.html Well, these space missions have a major issue of extra weight, which can risk the whole mission. So, if they have to pick moon rocks, soil and bring them back to Earth, they gotta discard futile things to reduce the weight inside the spacecraft. This is indeed an interesting experiment that will provide us insights into the microbial life on the moon. ...

Why do things appear darker when they are wet? You must have come across this numerous times in your life when you spill coffee on shirt, paint the wall, throw water on sand and so on. The very first thought that comes into mind, well maybe my clothing brand is not so good. I should try some other manufacturer, whose clothes do not appear darker when wet. If you are thinking the same, then allow me to guide you through the science behind this.  How do we perceive colors in the first place? White light comprises of seven colors Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, yellow, Orange, and Red- we must have read this acronym in school   VIBGYOR . When light falls on an object, some of it gets absorbed while some of it gets reflected. The reflected light is the color we see. In the image below, the white light (comprising VIBGYOR) is striking the surface. All the components of white light are being absorbed by the surface but green. Green is reflected to us and that is nothing but the color o...

Ever wondered, if our blood is red in color, then why our veins are blue? Is blood sometimes blue, sometimes red?  Moreover, we have heard of white blood cells also then why isn’t our blood white in color?   Too much confusion!! Isn’t it? What is blood? Blood is a fluid that flows throughout our body. It has three basic components: Red Blood cells (RBCs) : They carry oxygen from our lungs to rest of our body and takes carbon dioxide back to the lungs to be exhaled.  White blood cells (WBCs) : In simple language these are the weapons of our body for fighting against viruses and bacteria.  Platelets : They come together when we have some injury so that we don’t lose much of our blood. They help our body form clots to stop bleeding. Plasma is a liquid that holds these three together.  The answer to our first question lies in the amount of these cells in our blood. Since the ratio of WBCs to RBCs is very low, therefore, blood is not white in color. But that pa...

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry has created history by honouring an all-women team. The Nobel prize in Chemistry for 2020 is bagged by Jennifer A. Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier , who pioneered the revolutionary CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. This technology was first developed in the year 2012. CRISPR (short for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) works like a genetic cut-and-paste tool that allows researchers to permanently modify genes in living cells. One of the best parts of CRISPR is its ease-of-use and is affordable. What is genome?  Genome is a language which describes how tall you should be, what color of hair you should have, what color of eyes you should have. They act as instruction manual for synthesis of proteins. There is a particular gene sequence for everything, which determines our traits. How did researchers get to know about CRISPR-Cas9? Had someone dreamt about it?  No. A particular form of bacteria, with an immune sys...

Most of us have tried our hand at a new activity during the lockdown and cooking has been the most popular pastime. A lot of us has been turned into culinary enthusiasts and with social media at our fingertips, we have been busy searching for good recipes. Ever wondered why we are often told to fry the onions until it turns brown? Why do we have to waste our valuable time in waiting for onions to get brown? What kind of reaction is taking place inside it?  Browning of onions Let's delve deeper to learn about one of the world's most delicious chemical reactions . Chemical reactions affect many of the foods we consume everyday. Some of the reactions adversely affect the food and eventually turn them undesirable for consumption whilst others greatly enhance the desirability of the food. There are mainly two types of reactions which lead to the browning of food: Enzymatic and Non-enzymatic reactions.  Enzymatic reactions:  These reactions occur in freshly cut fruits and veg...